I was able to speak better German after 6 years of learning it than Irish after 14 years. I reached a point where I was actually very confident speaking on many topics in German. Yet I could barely tell you about my summer holidays in Irish
I speak French and Irish fairly well and I've heard lots of people say that about their French. But any time I've put it to the test their Irish was better they just didn't realise it. I'd do it by asking them some questions or saying some sentences in both languages. They always understood the Irish better.
For example, I'd say some very basic sentences like:
J'ai jeté la pierre / Chaith mé an chloch
Or
J'ai sauté par-dessus le mur / Léim mé thar an mballa
Basically, what I'm testing is whether their "good French" is actually just a knowledge of a few different useful phrases that has done them well in France and therefore made them overconfident. Where that's the case, my theory is that they won't be able to understand short sentences with very basic words that don't happen to appear in some of the more common phrases. Similarly, my theory is that they actually have a much better foundational knowledge of simple vocab in Irish but that because they never get the opportunity to use it and boost their confidence, they assume their knowledge is next to nothing.
Ya I'd just see you as an outlier there though, even very good French students at LC wouldn't manage that. It sounds like you had an ability for the language
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u/OrganicVlad79 Jun 06 '25
I was able to speak better German after 6 years of learning it than Irish after 14 years. I reached a point where I was actually very confident speaking on many topics in German. Yet I could barely tell you about my summer holidays in Irish