when people ask me "how did you learn Irish?"
I always say "at school"
that's how I started
but I continued after school
Hello and welcome back to Irish in my heart
and if you're new here Hello and welcome
I'm excited about today's topic because
people often ask me this question,
how did you learn Irish?
did you speak Irish at home?
questions like that
I will be speaking in Irish in this video
but don't worry
English subtitles are available
and Irish subtitles are available for my patrons
the link for Patreon is in the description
if you are interested
most of you probably know
but I learned Irish at school
I started learning Irish at school
at primary school
if you don't live in Ireland
you might not know that Irish is compulsory at school
children learn Irish
from the age that they start primary school
until they leave secondary school
in ireland, there are 2 schools
primary school and secondary school
I myself was 4 years old when i started primary school
and I left when I was 12 years old
and then I went to secondary school
until I was 17
I was a little too young when I started primary school
I should have started primary school a year later
but I'm still alive
so I started learning Irish at primary school
when I was four years old
and when people ask me "how did you learn Irish?"
i always say "at school"
that's how i started but i continued after school
so i want to tell you a little about my journey
i want to tell you a little about how i learned Irish at school
it's a bit vague when I say at school
well what does that mean?
let's go
there are 8 years at primary school in Ireland
junior infants
senior infants
and then 1st class, 2nd class, 3rd class, 4th class, 5th class + 6th
that's the last year at school
6th class
I should say I attended school through the English language
I didn't attend an Irish school
there are Irish schools all over the country
but I didn't attend an Irish school myself
I learned the other subjects through the medium of English
so in the first few years at school, we learned very basic things
colors
numbers
simple things like 'apple'
lunch, a lunch box
there were labels all over the place
a whiteboard, a classroom
sports hall
the principal's office
labels all over the place
and as a child you see those things every day at school
and you know the information does be going in
simple but very useful vocabulary
I remember when a teacher or the principal came into the classroom
we would stand up and
say "you are welcome"
teacher or principal
we would say something else but I don't remember
when the teacher used to call the roll
we would say "here"
"here" "here"
and I remember when I started secondary school
people said "here"
in the class still
because they were used to primary school
even a few years after we left primary school
people would say "here" in 3rd year of secondary school
and people used to laugh about that
but when I think about it
I don't like that because you know "anseo"
is better than "here"
"here" is boring
a few focail has a great t-shirt
which has "anseo" written on it
I will put the link in the description
and of course we would say the famous saying
"may I go to....
fill in the blanks
you know
do i have permission to go to the toilet?
I feel that we were surrounded by Irish at primary school
and as the years progressed, we started to learn songs
in Irish
we used to read stories, many stories
a lot of fill in the blanks
true or false
we read stories and then it was true or false after
we used to have a spelling test every week
i think the tests started in 2nd class
i remember the book we had 'correct spelling'
i love that book
I think the book is available in siopa leabhar
so i will put a link in the description
but I think that's a great idea
for learners still
adult learners
spelling test
I read something on curriculum, curriculum online
primary language curriculum or
I think it was very true
that's it for primary school
then moving on to secondary school
when I started secondary school, I didn't know the present tense
at primary school, we only learned past tense
and we learned 'I am eating'
'she's doing'
'he's singing' things like that
but we didn't learn 'I play'
'I do'
I remember that children at other schools learned that
but we didn't learn that
anyway, the first three years of secondary school
that is the junior certificate
you are preparing for the junior certificate
and then you have the option of doing transition year
'idirbhliain' that is 'transition year'
in English
in that year students have the opportunity
to do work experience
go on trips
students don't have homework
they do different subjects
it's crazy
I didn't do transition year
I wanted to leave school
in the first year we would do a reading comprehension
we wrote stories
short stories
like an accident that happened to me
the story is not true but
you write an article about an accident
that's the reason why the expression "suddenly" is known by every student in Ireland
suddenly
the house exploded
suddenly
I fell off the ladder
suddenly I was
hit by a car
when you read "suddenly"
you knew that the shit was going to hit the fan
in the second year you had a choice to do ordinary level or to do higher level
at higher level students have 2 papers
in the junior certificate, there is listening comprehension
reading comprehension
prose
poetry
writing
and a letter
but unfortunately
there is no oral exam
it's a big pity
and it doesn't make sense
in the leaving cert
test because they have to do an oral exam for the first time
the first time ever
I forgot to say that the exam papers are available online
here is the link
and of course Irish in the leaving cert
was much more difficult
much more challenging I would like to say
we had the same things
I had to study 5 poems
5 stories
1 play
the play I studied was
and I love that play
it's great, very very sad but great
and I studied 'Cáca Milis'
the best film
I remember when the teacher put that film on in the classroom
we were terrified
we didn't have a clue
she just turned the movie on, she didn't say anything
and you know after a while we were thinking, we started thinking
this is a little strange
by the end of the film
it shocked us
we weren't expecting that
if you haven't seen 'Cáca Milis' I'll put the link in the description
you have to look at 'Cáca Milis'
and as I said in the leaving cert we had an oral exam
and I think the oral exam was worth 40%
and in the oral exam I had to read a poem out loud
of course
and I had to
describe a series of pictures
and then I had to chat with the examiner
I don't like to say "I had to"
like "I had to"
I had to say those things, I had no choice
I didn't but
I had the opportunity to read a poem out loud
I had the opportunity to describe a picture series
in 2016
I did the leaving cert
I was very happy with my grade in Irish
people ask me
"you learned Irish at school"
but how did you learn Irish so well?
I loved Irish at school
but then what did I do?
well I went to college in Derry
and studied media production
'Media Production'
creative media production
a course through the medium of English
and I wasn't studying Irish at that time
then I was a tutor for a few years
3 years I think
well the student did transition year so we had a break
but 3 years in total
but apart from that, I wasn't doing many things related to the Irish language
and then in 2019, I started YouTube