Language

Miscommunicating with my teachers and peers was one of my fears before arriving here.  I was afraid that I would not be able to understand their language/slang as well as their accents.  However, I have realized that communicating is a lot easier than I thought.  Sometimes their accents and how fast they talk make it hard to understand, but generally, the way they talk is not much different from us.  When used in a sentence, I can guess what some of their slang words mean and can relate them to the slang words we use back home.  For example, "what's the crack?" is equivalent to asking someone "what's up?".  Although the majority of the population speaks English, there are also some who still speak Gaelic. It is a very interesting but difficult language to learn. In Irish Experience, we have learned some phrases we can use in our everyday conversations, but I have not yet met anyone who speaks Gaelic, and I am sure I would not be able to pronounce anything correctly.  Overall, aside from the accents, I have not had any problem communicating with anyone.