Saturday 9 April 2011

Time for a short lesson in Irish Culture & Language :)

Sooooo, since I've been here for quite a while now I know pretty much everything about Ireland and thought, why not share it with the world? :P
First of all a few general things:
1.) I (very reluctantly) agree with Viki that there are no, I repeat, NO HANDSOME BOYS in Ireland! Absolutely NONE. What a shame :P This whole year seems like a waste haha No, seriously, it was quite frustrating finding out that I was to spend nine months without anything pretty to look at xD
That brings us to point 2.) The girls are not much better looking^^ First of all, most Irish girls are quite un-pretty as well and secondly, They. Dress. Unbelievably. Slutty. Not all of them but definitely the vast majority. One example: Deepest winter, -15° C, me even reluctant to go out at all, them: No tights, dresses that could barely be called shirts and heels too high to be able to even stand upright^^ There's no other word to describe that, I'm sorry ladies^^
3.) The Irish drink way too much. Okay, that's not a secret but it has made my life here quite difficult. Why? Well, with the majority of the Irish population tending to be drunk A LOT, everyone is REALLY strict about not letting you in ANYWHERE if you're not eighteen. They are obviously trying to keep the youngsters from drinking as long as they can, which is, in my opinion, not such a bad thing, IF it would actually work. But the thing is, with such strict rules and everyone enforcing it so adamantly, "drinking" has become some kind of really forbidden thing that everyone wants to do regardless. Or even BECAUSE it is forbidden. We all now, the forbidden things are a lot more tempting that the ones we could do without fear of any repercussions. And there always IS a way to get your hands on alcohol, if you really want to. So, ultimately, the whole "You're not eighteen, you don't have ID, get out of here"-act has kind of backfired. Terribly.

Now, the Irish language - meaning, the Irish English - is a funny thing :) Here are the words and phrases that are used about as frequently as the auxiliary verbs:

1) LIKE haha this word is being used ALL THE TIME. Even by me ;) If it fits into the sentence or not, it is not only used to compare things or to express approval but also if you just need something to make your sentence longer. I'll give you a short conversation to demonstrate the above statement:
A: Hey, what do you want to do today? Like you know, for your birthday.
B: Like I was thinking about like going to the Forum (quick note: the Forum is the only disco in Monaghan). Like I hear that it's really cool, but like I've never been there myself so like I don't know for sure.
A: Yeees, that's like a really good idea!
B: And afterwards we could like go get some chips! Like at the pizza shop or something.
A: Is it like still open at that time?
B: Sure. The forum ends at like three and I was at that shop once like at two in the morning. You know like on St. Patrick's Day.
Do I really need to continue? :P
2.) WEE ;) since it's the Irish synonym for "little" or "small" it's being used constantly. BUT since it also means to pee, it's kind of weird XD
3.) FAIR ENOUGH this expression means something similar to "very well then" and is used ALL THE TIME ;) Man, I'm going to miss hearing this xD
4.) HAPPY ENOUGH if you want to ask someone like "are you content with that" or "is that okay with you" you just say "happy enough?" ;)
5.) GOOD ENOUGH I know, the "enough"-phrases are quite a few ;) This one is simply used when you get asked somthing like: "How are you?" or "How was that party?" etc. - "Oh, it was good enough" ;)

For now, that's about it but I probably forgot quite a few. I'll upload a second part as soon as I think of something :D
Love youS all (btw another thing: the Irish use an additional s to the second person plural: instead of "how are you?" you use "how are yous?" if it's directed at a group of people. How awesome is that? xD I think that's actually my favourite <3
Besitos
Resa

2 comments:

  1. What an ugly and frustrating experience you are undergoing day by day! How will you gon on when you are back like in Austria in your English lessons? Will it like be good enough for your poor teacher?
    i think she will wee, be amused.

    It was a like interesting news for your grandfahther. So fair enough, your grandpa



    It was a fair enough

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  2. ahaha, witzige Leute, die Iren^^ Ich würd gern einmal irischen Dialekt hören ;) Kannst ma mim Handy einen DIalog mit "like" aufzeichnen??
    miss u!
    Marie

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