A friend in the USA sent me this cool video of school kids singing the cup song in the Irish Language (as gaeilge). It is definitely worth a look.
In Ireland it is compulsory to study Irish until you leave school at 18. Many children take additional classes during the Summer Holidays by travelling to Summer Camp in the Gaeltacht region (all Irish speaking region) of Ireland. This video of the cup song was filmed in one of the Gaeltachts.
While at the Gaeltacht, they stay in the homes of families who converse through Irish (Gaelgoirs) and they do classes during the day through Irish. The classes are a lot of fun and consist of singing, Irish dancing, acting, sport and quizzes - this is all done through the Irish language.
In the evening time the kids attend "Ceilidhs" (prounounced Kay-Lees) which are dances where set dancing is done. For many teenagers it is a rite of passage to meet their first boyfriend at a Ceilidh in the Gaeltacht!
Generally it is children from the age of about 13 to 16/17 yrs who go to these camps and it is very beneficial as they tend to come home with a fluency that you don't get from studying in the traditional classroom during the year (case in point being able to translate the cup song in to Irish!).
By the way the cup song is extremely popular at the moment here in Ireland, click here for another version by Irish school children which was performed on the Late Late Toy Show just before Christmas.
That video is so neat! The girl singing has a great voice. It must have been a lot of work to get everyone coordinated and playing the same thing. It sounds so pretty sung in the Irish Language!
ReplyDeleteWow, that sounds so educational!
ReplyDeleteI never knew! The camps sound like a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteI only got to go away to the Gaeltacht once, walked in the day we arrived and there stood my Irish teacher from school (not someone I was particularly fond of). Now if I'd had teachers like the guy who sang in the Lurgan vs Avicii video, it might have all been different. It's great that there's a wave of enthusiasm and new stuff happening with Irish at the moment. I enjoyed the Wake Me Up video so much I even went off and learnt the words, even making sure to look up what I wasn't sure of so that I wasn't just repeating stuff, but actually understood it. Love at the end of that Cup Song video when you can hear the teacher going "ceart go leor, ceart go leor". Interesting trivia, did you know the English word galore comes directly from the Irish go leor? I only found that out last year and yet it's so obvious!
ReplyDeleteNo Comment
ReplyDelete