Culture Shock, So Far

Before I came to Ireland, I had the preconceived notion that all Irish accents were the same. This is untrue. I have begun to hear slight distinctions in the regional accents.

Southern and northern accents are about as different as southern and northern accents in the States. The best single example that comes to mind is the word 'through.' In the south, it sounds like 'true,' while in most of the north it sounds similar to 'three.' The Irish in the south are so devoted to the 't' sound of words with 'th' that 'loathed' is pronounced 'loaded.' Few words sound the same in both accents, but the tagalong phrases are the dead giveaways. Irish from the Republic rarely say 'mate' like Northern Irish but add 'so it is/was' to the ends of most everything.

My flatmate Paul is from Ballymena, and I can understand him roughly 60% of the time. Ballymena is only 45 minutes or an hour from Belfast, but people from the Belfast area are fairly easy to understand. Paul admits to getting lost in the Belfast accent. Another flatmate, David, from Offaly in the south, has trouble getting the gist of what Paul says sometimes. Each area has their particular lilt.

Another notion I had before I came here was that the older Irish would tend to avoid foreigners while the young would be more open and curious. This has proven to be nearly backwards. In general, the Irish tend to stick to themselves, but the older Irish have been more willing to engage this young, dumb American. I do my best disprove the American stereotype of being fat, lazy, and ignorant, and they are almost unfailingly willing to listen and give a friendly response. The elections almost always come up. The younger Irish have been friendly once approached, but in many cases my hand was the first to be offered. For those of you who know me well, you'd understand that this is a challenge.

The novelty of the international crowd has been gone for some time now. The idea of sitting in a kitchen filled mostly with strangers who hardly speak English and listening to electronic club music isn't terribly appealing. Watching the different nationalities over the course of the last month and a half has been a learning experience though. Each country sticks together, Americans included. However, when asked why I chose Ireland, I usually say "music, culture," etc. I asked an Italian the same question, and without hesitation he responded "to learn English." From the attitudes of the internationals, I have gathered that for the most part, the Americans are the only group willing to disperse into the culture and really learn about Ireland. It baffles me why someone would move all the way to Ireland and not want to interact with the Irish enough to learn anything more than English. Of course, they're probably just as confused by my fiddling and appreciation for old timers in tweed.

I've been spending quite a bit of time with my neighbor David. He isn't around on the weekends, but during the week we usually eat together at least once a day and sometimes three times a day. We both feel the boredom of student housing, and visit over tea on many an evening. He comes from a farming background also, so we've compared and contrasted Irish and American "cattle farming" a good deal, among other topics. There are many differences between agriculture in County Offaly and Montana, but many of the values translate. If I come back with any accent at all, it'll be be a southern accent and it'll be entirely David's fault.