Happy Paddy’s Day! (3 NEW Irish-Themed Videos for Language Learners)
Just kidding, we Irish don't actually ever say that - even on today, the day of our world-famous patron saint, St. Patrick!
Despite being associated with all things Irish, St. Patrick wasn't actually Irish by birth. Historians agree that he was born in Britain at some point in the 4th century A.D.
According to his own writings, St. Patrick was captured by Irish pirates at the age of sixteen and enslaved for six years. After this he escaped and returned back to his family in Britain, who presumably were surprised to see him again after all that time!
Eventually St. Patrick decided to return to Ireland as a missionary, and spent the better part of his life spreading Christianity across the Emerald Isle. While there's some evidence that he wasn't the first Christian to cross the Irish sea, he's generally regarded today as the founder of Christianity in Ireland.
Why is St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th?
Traditionally, St. Patrick is believed to have died on March 17th, although no-one is sure of the exact year.
That’s why nowadays, March 17th is better known as St. Patrick's day. In Ireland it's a public holiday marked by parades and celebrations all across the country, most notably in Dublin where the festivities go on for 5-days.
We Irish are not the only people who like to have fun on this day: St. Patrick's day parades are currently taking place all across the world, including in London, Boston, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, and even on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, which is one of only two places in the world outside Ireland that have St Patrick's Day as a public holiday (the other being the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador).
So, in keeping with today's Irish theme, I figure that this is a good opportunity to share some videos I've made lately about the Irish language and culture! Here they are:
New Video: 9 Reasons to Learn Irish: Lindsay & Benny collab!
This video is a collaboration with YouTuber Lindsay Williams, who's made a fantastic series of videos following the format '9 reasons to learn (language)'. (For a sample, see 9 Reasons to Learn Icelandic, 9 Reasons to Learn Croatian, and 9 Reasons to Learn Esperanto.) Fortunately, she hadn't made '9 Reasons to Learn Irish' yet, so I was able to make one with her!
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFTx2x6RxWA
New Video: How to Speak English Like the Irish
A very popular post I wrote in the early days of this blog was How to Speak English Like the Irish, where I outlined the basics of how we Irish folk put our own unique twist on the world's most widespread language. (See also the sequel, Advanced Hiberno English.)
But if you want to explain how a particular accent or dialect sounds, there's only so much you can convey in writing. This video should hopefully make things a bit clearer!
Video coming this weekend. Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to not miss it!
New Video: How to Pronounce Irish Names
A great thing about the Irish language is that the spelling is highly phonetic and consistent. The problem is that the spelling rules are very different from what you might be used to! For example, how do you pronounce Niamh and Siobhán, both fairly common Irish girls' names? Your first guess is probably wrong.
In this video I give the rules for how Irish phonetics work, in what I hope is an easy-to-follow way. Hopefully this will help you wrap your head around Irish names and spelling.
Video coming this weekend. Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to not miss it!
That's all for today.
Happy St. Patrick’s day!
If you enjoyed any of the above videos, be sure to leave a comment, and subscribe to the YouTube channel so you don't miss any new videos in future.
Is St. Patrick's day celebrated where you're from? How? Tell me your best St. Patrick's day stories in the comments.
The post Happy Paddy’s Day! (3 NEW Irish-Themed Videos for Language Learners) appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.
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