The way Irish is taught could kill the language

In this country we're taught Irish not to be able to speak it, but to be able to pass a test. The language isn't taught properly like a language should be. If you ask me any question about grammar or ask me to conjugate a verb into an aimsir láithreach, I won't be able to do it. I'm in Transition Year. It's absolutely absurd that I'm MEMORISING answers to tsraith pictiúirí instead of being able to look at the sheet and decipher it and put into my own words an answer that I've come up with myself. I'm more fluent in Spanish now in the 4 years I've studied it in school than I likely ever will be in Irish because of how it's taught in schools.

I think from 1st to 3rd year, Irish should be taught the way that we teach other languages like Spanish, French, German, etc. We should be taught how to construct sentences with proper grammar so we can string together our own sentences and we should be taught vocab as you would another language.

TY to 6th year is when you can start with your literature and your novels and whatnot because by then, students will ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY'RE READING! I can't stress how unbelievably backwards it is that we're told to read a paragraph when we don't know what we're actually reading. I can read Japanese, that doesn't mean I understand the words coming out of my mouth. Same goes for Irish.

Instead of having to learn literal pages upon pages of paragraphs to remember for an exam, students should be equipped with the grammatical know-how to construct their own thoughts and opinions on exams rather than writing down answers we haven't made ourselves and don't understand.

Students formulating their own answers rather than having to rely on memory would breed creativity and allow us to express ourselves and what we really think about a piece of literature of film. We shouldn't have to rely on memory to regurgitate this copy and paste garbage given to us to learn for an exam. We should have to come up with answers on the spot.

Think of students with conditions or disabilities that affect their memory and retention of infortmation. How are they meant to remember all the answers perscribed to them by their teachers? If they knew how the language worked, they could construct their own answers.

It is genuinely the most baffling thing in the world to me that the Department of Education hasn't come up with a simple solution to a problem that has been going on for decades. And they wonder why the number of native speakers is declining! It's because they make students hate their native language!

All Irish students should be fluent or at least proficient in English AND Irish by the time they graduate secondary school. Listing GAA players' names as Gaeilge to protect Ireland's beautiful language and culture is not enough and never will be enough unless the people with the power to address the problem at it's core make an effort to come up with solutions.

Anyway, I've to be up early for school tomorrow. Thank you so much for reading this. I know it's extremely long so I appreciate you sticking around til the end and reading the whole thing. I'd love to see any thoughts, opinions, criticisms, feedback, the whole shebang.

Go raibh míle maith agat agus buíochas le Dia!