Irish on the radio

By Simon

There are a number of radio stations in Ireland and Northern Ireland that broadcast entirely or partly in Irish, and I listen to one of them, Raidió na Gaeltachta, reguarly. However I wasn’t aware until the other day that there’s a radio station in New York (Nua Eabhrac) that broadcasts a weekly radio show in Irish, according to this article.

The show, Mile Failte, is broadcast on WFUV-FM and has been running since 1989. It originally lasted just 10 minutes, but has grown to an hour and includes Irish music, language lessons, poetry and information about Irish culture and history. The same station also broadcasts an Irish music programme called Ceol na nGael.

There seems to be a quite a few Irish speakers in New York, and plenty of Irish language classes in New York City and State, according to this site. There’s some details of some of the Irish-speakers there on this site.

English villages in Taiwan

By Simon

The Taiwan government is planning to spend millions of dollars “improving Taiwan’s English-language environment”, which will include the setting up of two English-language villages, according to this report.

They will improve English language signage and aim to host more international concerts and exhibitions.

The idea of the English villages is to make it easier for the local residents to practise their English. The first village will probably be set up in Hsinchu Science and Technology Park, which has a large number of foreign staff. The villages will have English language signs, local businesses will be encouraged to provide English-language services, and will be given star ratings for the quality of those services.

Taiwan already has at least one English ‘village’ where children can be immersed in the language, according to this report.

Are there similar ‘villages’ in other countries?

Astudiaethau

By Simon

Yn ddiweddar dw i wedi bod yn brysur efo aseiniadau ar gyfer y prifysgol. Cyn diwedd y semestr hwn mae rhaid i mi ysgrifennu pedwar traethodau ac i baratoi dau gyflwyniad. Dw i’n wedi gwneud yr cyflwyniadau ac un o’r traethodau yn barod.

Staidéar

Le déanaí tá mé an-gnóthach le tascanna ar an ollscoil. Roimh deireadh an seimistear seo, tá orm ceathair aistí a scríobh agus dhá léiriú a ullmhú. Tá mé i ndiaidh na léiriú agus aiste amháin a dhéanamh cheana féin.

The importance of backups

By Simon

This blog seems to be working again now and I’ve managed to restore the data up to last November. Unfortunately that was the last time I made a backup of the blog, and due to the problems with my old server, it is not possible to recover the data since then. Oh well, lesson learned. I will try to make regular backups from now on.

The forum is also up again, though I haven’t managed to restore any of the old data, so we’ll just have to start anew. Sorry!

In other news, one of the university assignments I’ve been working on is a presentation on bimodal bilinguals – that is people with normal hearing who have deaf parents and grow up fluent in sign language and a spoken language such as English. Unlike other bilinguals who switch between their languages (code switch), bimodal bilinguals can speak and sign at the same time (code blend). Normally the signs and words mean the same thing, though occasionally one adds to the meaning of the other. When speaking, for example, some of the words may be accompanied by signs, and vice versa. It is also possible to use both languages simultaneously, a difficult undertaking known as SimCom (Simultaneous Communication) which is used in educational settings.

I find this topic fascinating as I’m learning British Sign Language as the moment. So when I give my presentation on this, I’ll be able to demonstrate a bit of code-blending.

This is me

By Simon

One of the seminars I went to this week was on innovation in London English. One interesting point noticed by the researchers was the range of quotatives being used. Quotatives are words and expressions used to introduce reported speech, including “I said” and “she went”.

The most common quotative among young Londoners is “be like”, as in “I was like”, “he was like”, etc. This expression is used with reported speech, and also with sounds and facial expressions indicating different moods and attitudes. There are apparently equivalents of it in many other languages.

A new quotative they found being used in London was “This is me” / “This was me”. I haven’t heard this being used anywhere, have you?

How do you introduce reported speech?