My class is interesting. There are about 18 people in the class. Most of the people, maybe 10 or so, were in my class last year. I have the same teacher, too. Eithne is a lexicographer who is working on a massive project to identify every Irish word that has ever appeared in print. She is directing the project from a center in Donegal. The biggest part of the project is to digitize every book and manuscript that has ever been published. Each entry will have a paragraph from the original showing the word in context. Every spelling or varient form of the word will also be included to show how words have changed over the centuries.
Eithne has to do a lot of research as part of her job. Last night she gave a lecture on some of the more interesting material she has been working with. She showed slides of handwritten texts that children collected from the old people in their community in the mid-1930s. The school children of the country were given the task of collecting stories, songs, poetry, and games and this huge collection of material is maintained by the Folklore Commission. More than 100,000 children participated so there is material from every parish in Ireland but Eithne focused on the material from Donegal.
The class is well structured and for the most part everyone is at the same level of ability in Irish. Madelyn, the Swedish woman from my class last year, has really improved. Last year she struggled a little but this year she is able to hold her own in any conversation. Barton and Scott are back again but Scott left today to go back home to North Carolina. Barton is a Fulbright scholar, originally from Santa Rosa who has moved with his wife to Belfast. He is very funny. Some of the other people from last year have moved up a level to the translation class. They spend their time learning how to translate government documents into Irish. It seems awfully boring to me.
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