Friday, October 31, 2014
Always on the move!
As they work to improve the school wi-fi, the've managed to block Blogger for wahetever reason, so I'm typing this on my phone right now. I'll try to avoid any errors, but this might be a week to cut me some slack. I appreciate the comments you're required to post, and will answer any questions probably next week, when they stop coming in. Slow and steady is the name of the game as usual, so I'm making about the same progress I have been. I've got some key phrases down, but I'm far from learning a full language. In light of my medium of choice right now, this week's lesson is teilefón (tay-ley-fon), which means "telephone". Slainté!
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I love that you are devoting your 20% project time to something so personal to you! Lots of students have just chosen something random that they've always wanted to do but might not have had the time to complete. I really admire your dedication to learning something from your heritage, especially a language. That takes some serious time and effort. I'd love to hear what this language sounds like spoken because I know I'm butchering it trying to read it here.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck!
I glanced over your entry on the list the first time I saw it, but after you decided to leave one of your required comments on my blog (and slainte for that, friend!), I decided to swing back and check yours out. I'm glad I did! Your updates are bite-sized and fun, with just a little bit of knowledge shared at the end of each post to make your audience feel involved and slightly better about themselves without them (us, I suppose?) having to do any real work to earn it. I definitely share your confusion on some of the words vs. pronunciation that you've shown us so far (Ireland, go home, you're drunk and you know it). And hey, I may be required to post this comment, but that just means I'm being pushed into expressing genuine interest that otherwise I probably would have been too socially awkward to do anything with but keep to myself. I wish you luck on your project! Keep on keeping on!
ReplyDeleteEven as a Scotsman, I have to admit this is a really cool project. Irish Gaelic has a odd lilt to it which makes it really difficult to master but fun when you're listening to others speak it. Working through the language is probably a good way to go about it, mastering phrases and chunks of the language as you go. Best of luck (or rather, slainte)!
ReplyDelete(You may be interested in a YouTube channel called TG Lurgan. It's a program that encourages the learning of the Irish language by translating pop songs into Irish and creating music videos for them. Even if it doesn't help, it's pretty cool!)
It's a pity that immersion isn't really an option for this particular language, but you seem to be doing a spectacular job with it. Love that you actually show us some of what you are learning every day. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is actually really entertaining, and it looks like you're picking up a lot. I empathize with wanting to stray towards the Curses section, and I really love your lessons for the week. You should talk to Dr. Patrick about this if you haven't already--he'd be over the moon about it. I hope we get to hear you speaking in your presentation, because I've always been so fascinated by the sound of this language! Though the pronunciation bewilders me (really, how is "duit" pronounced that way?).
ReplyDeleteChet, this is such an interesting and unique thing to learn. I love learning languages, so I think this is great, and I really enjoy how you include specific phrases that you've been learning. It's also cool that the project is related to your heritage. It seems like you've been making progress since you've been learning something new every week. Good luck with the rest of the project and I look forward to your presentation.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read what your 20% Time project was going to be, I immediately thought, "Only Chet." Haha you've picked something totally unique and it's actually pretty impressive. Yea, learning a language is, without a doubt, going to be one of the more difficult 20% Time projects, and with all this school stuff going on like college apps, and you probably have some personal stuff going on too like everybody else, it's good to see that you've made improvement in the language. I'm glad that you see how unrealistic learning the full language is going to be and that you're aiming low with just key phrases and words and such. Keep up the good work, Chet. I can imagine that you're presentation in December will be quite humorous when you're up there speaking some in some crazy to us. Heck, you could probably speak in gibberish and say it was Gaelic and we totally wouldn't even know.
ReplyDeleteChet I love how funny your blog posts are. Good luck with your project, you really seem to be making some headway in this! Also you might wanna think about asking Dr. Patrick for help because I'm pretty sure this is like his area of expertise and he might even have a doctorate in it, who knows? Anyways, good luck!
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest: when I first read some of your blog posts, they were so short that I immediately attributed it to a lack of effort. But, as with your contributions in class, I am honestly amazed with the amount of insight you manage to put in a few lines. I am curious to what your final presentation will be, but if you can manage to pull off the wit you can muster in English in Gaelic, I would be very impressed.
ReplyDelete