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Friday, 2 June 2023
Gail Flanagan and Dr Florence Le Baron Earle, both based in the School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics, have recently had articles published as part of RTE's Brainstorm series, published on the broadcaster's website.
Gail Flanagan, a current PhD researcher within MLAL, published an article in February 2023 discussing politeness within Irish society and the propensity among Irish people for indirectness and avoidance of expressing their honest opinion. Gail presents a number of reasons for the pervasiveness of polite speech among Irish people, including a tendency to talk around a subject rather than facing it head-on, and the 'silence of the Irish', with people preferring to avoid any personal attention.
Dr Le Baron Earle, meanwhile, published an article in March 2023 about her experience of culture shock after first arriving to Ireland. While on a first date, the person she was with said he would 'give her a ring' to set up another meeting. While she took this literally as a diamond ring, he had really only meant that he would call or 'ring' her on the telephone! This article was written based on this and some of the other intercultural experiences featured as part of the Culture Shocked! exhibition currently on display at the Bourne Vincent Gallery, Foundation Building, UL until Friday 30th June.
You can read both of these articles at the below links:
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/0322/1364404-culture-shock-ireland-language/