RSS
Home
Who is “Oih”? Living and Working in Ireland, Part I
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
We all have heard about the Irish….the Irish Breakfast, Guinness, Green Ireland, Irish humor….
In this series of articles I will talk about my experience while living and working in Ireland and how this little Ireland left quite en unforgettable impression on me.
I lived in a small town north of Dublin, very close to the airport. A famous town called Malahide. It has a unique charm, a good standing of living, and all services you need.
As they say, “Ireland is beautiful when it rains”…I have to agree, each view is a postcard itself, and even though a continuous cold breeze reminds you constantly that you are in the North of the Atlantic, you kind of forget about it after you see the people, visit the places, look at the ocean, and feel the Irish music inside you.
I hope that my anecdotes and stories will help you either remember your time in Ireland, or understand Ireland a little better before you get there.
I will tell you lots of things about my experience working and living in Ireland, the people, the food, places to visit, public services, settling in, and things to remember.
I’d like to start my series with just a brief anecdote. When I moved from the South of France to Ireland, my French doctor asked me…”so..you are leaving…to what country?” and I said, “to Ireland”…he said..”Lovely”…and I said…”well, I am going to miss the sun, there are 300 days of rain you know…”…and then, to my surprise, something I’ll never forget specially coming from a French person. He said, “you’ll miss the sun all right. But you’ll gain in people's quality”…Interesting, isn’t’ it?
So, let’s get started and talk about the first topic of my series: the lovely Irish accent.
My First encounter with the true Irish Accent…not the Hollywood Irish accent!!
The first thing I have to say about my first days in Ireland is definitely the difficulty I experienced understanding their accents. There are many different accents in the island and even in Dublin itself. North Dublin, South Dublin, City Center and the West…they all have different accents as well.
Sitting one day in the cafeteria with my Irish colleagues we detected about seven different accents in the table. There was also a visitor from Galway, West of Ireland, and the guy was telling us a story about his trip to Dublin and so forth. I could not understand a word he was saying…At the end of the story, I asked my Irish colleague, Jack, sitting next to me…”Jack, could you tell me what this guy was talking about because I could not understand his accent…” and then Jack said…”No worries...I could not understand either, he is from the West!”.
Another day, I was talking with one of the guys in the warehouse…and he kept talking about “Oih this” and “Oih that”…and as he kept talking I really thought he was talking about a guy called “Oih”… So, I finally asked…”Who is Oih?” and to my embarrassment he pointed the finger to himself and said…”Oih”…. so it turned out he was saying “I” all that time.
It really took me a while to understand all of the words they said during the meetings. My boss was from Northern Ireland and boy was that difficult.
Then of course, there were the accents from other famous regions like Kerry and Cork. In Cork….I got lost in the hills…as I was trying to find the right path…I bumped into two lovely ladies and asked for the way out…as friendly and kind as they were…well, I could not really understand but random words.
So…if you think the Irish accent you hear in the movies, or you hear from the U2 guys is what you will find in Ireland…well, prepare yourself for a big challenge. I do I have to say though, it is the most interesting and fascinating experience, just to be in such a small place and realize they all talk completely different. I simply loved it!!
I hope to see you in the next few days...as we discover some more anecdotes about Ireland...
In Part II I want to tell you about my experience buying fish in a cute little town called Howth.
Slán!
Related Articles:
Comments
