On vacations when I went to places like Ireland and Denmark I always made it a point to go to out of the way places where tourists didn't go to eat or drink. I enjoy hearing them talk in their native speech or dialect even if I can't understand what they are saying. I love just listening to someone speaking from Scotland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and sometimes France but I don't enjoy listening to anyone from Asia, Germany, Mexico unless they are singing.
We have been to Ireland twice and try to stay away from the tourist areas and live like the locals. The first visit we were on a boat and spend a week or so traveling along the east coast of Ireland and got as far south as Waterford. Yes, the place where the crystal is made and we took a tour of the factory which was excellent. They let you hold crystal at the end of the tour, I assume and HOPE they were pieces they would not sell, because they handed my wife a life size US football made of crystal and she made out like she was going to throw it too me. I about had a heart attack at the thought of it breaking and having to pay for it.
Then, in the showroom, she got too near the 6 foot tall bear made of crystal, then the shelves....
Starting to get the sweats thinking about it again....
We did not have any problems with understanding people on that trip at all. Accents would be a bit different from place to place but not too much.
The Irish cuss. They cuss a lot. It just happens and is normal to them. They might filter when non locals around but they can start up cussing anyways. When we were on the trawler, we pulled into a port town at 10:00pm one night and tied up to the quay for the night. I did not know it then, but that stop was going to be interesting for a variety of reasons. Eventually we went to another town, way up a river and docked at a boat yard. The boat yard owners had a wooden trawler, that was converted to a private yacht, that had been built in 1943. The boat was over 70 years old. Turns out the boat was built in the port we had stopped at and the boat yard was a few hundred feet from where we had docked.
On our next trip to Ireland we were staying in Dublin in a house we rented. We traveled by tram and bus to that boat builder to have a talk with them. He as a bit hard to understand from time to time but not bad at all. After we had been talking for awhile, we were comfortable with each other and he said a cuss word as part of the conversation. So I threw one in when it was appropriate, and as we got more comfortable with each other, cuss words were getting used. My wife was kicking me as a result. But it is what it is.
They say they F Bomb frequently along with the word feck, which apparently means the same thing.
Before getting to Dublin we had spent over a week in north western Ireland. The people were so nice and their accents were a bit different but we had no problem understanding them. We also had a wonderful night in a pub with a couple from Northern Ireland who had different accents as well.
In Dublin we spent quite a bit of time walking around, visiting the tourist spots riding the tram and buses. We would hear different accents but we could always understand them. Until one day, there was a woman and three teen age girls in the seats in front of us. I could understand, for the most part, the mother but the kids had an accent that I really struggled with. I don't know if they were from a different place in Dublin or somewhere else in Ireland. I wanted to ask but did not.
I love listening to people talk other languages, even if I can't understand a word. I find it really interesting. Japanese, Mandarin, German, Spanish, and all of the different versions of English.
Later,
Dan
