IRELAND III

The Irish English occasionally feels like a totally new and different language to me. I did understand them quite well despite their different Irish dialects. Of course, as in every country, there are dialects that are harder to understand than others. For me, the most difficult parts were not only all the new phrases but also the way of criticising someone. One of my first experiences about the quirks of the Irish language was on a tourist trip through Ireland. Our bus driver used the phrase ‘What’s the craic?’. While everyone on the tourist bus was confused about what this means, the bus driver explained that it is not a phrase used to ask for cocaine but to ask for any news, or how someone is holding up. I quickly learned that the Irish tend to say a lot of phrases that one cannot take literal. When asking ‘What’s the story?’ they do not want to know your whole life story but it is just another way of asking what is going on. Even though this might sound very simple, at first I was confused what the person wanted to know from me. Another example of their expressions was ‘cool beans’. This didn’t mean commenting the temperature of the beans but rather showing agreement to something. After getting used to their new phrases, I started using them in my everyday language as well. It is something that is internalized very quickly as these are expressions that one hears quite often. Another aspect of the Irish language is that Irish people tend to beat around the bush and do not say what they really mean, which is part of their culture. Irish people are very polite so they tend to express their view in a more subtle way. The first time I realised this was while working with my fellow students for a group presentation. All four group members did not express any need for improvement. After mentioning a few details that could be changed, everyone immediately agreed and added that they were thinking the same thing. Of course, this experience could be explained with them being content about the presentation itself. When asked about my observation, I learned that this was a common Irish habit. We even looked my question up on the internet and came across charts explaining the various levels of directness in different countries. Ireland is one of the countries where directness is not of upmost importance whereas in Germany one will directly say what the person means. This discovery helped me a lot in my communication with Irish people as from that point on I was aware that they might not mention their opinion or criticism directly. I developed a few different strategies to overcome these differences in communication. One strategy was to rephrase a question to see if one will state the same idea or opinion. Another strategy was to ask if I understood them correctly or if they meant something completely different. Additionally I tended to ask directly whether their statement is reflecting their real opinion or if they do not like to criticise something. Of course, even with these strategies one could not be 100 percent certain that one understood that person’s opinion correctly but it helps to overcome the communication barrier in many situations and to avoid misunderstandings. Furthermore I tried to adjust to the Irish language, or more specific, to their way of stating their opinion indirectly that means that I stated my opinions in a less direct way. To sum it all up, my experience here in Galway definitely helped me in becoming a more proficient speaker with using more local expressions and adapting to the local speaking habit.

 Mara Burger