One of things that has come up a lot lately is how people will have a hard time understanding me when I get back to the US. This is because I’ve been talking like an Irish person for some time now and much of it is completely indecipherable to Americans.
The most important term to know in Ireland is the word “craic” (pronounced like ‘crack’). It basically means fun, but can be applied to a lot more situations. For example, the most common greeting in Galway is “Hiya, what’s the craic?” This really just means “Hey, what’s up?” In the evenings, you will hear kids saying to each other “Any craic?” to ask if they may be going out. Instead of saying that something was fun, Irish people will say that it was “great craic.” It can also be used to describe people. Someone who is exceptionally fun or easy-going might be told that are “the best craic ever.” It can also be used sarcastically. You might hear students on their way to the library say something like “I have to work on economics and all that craic.”
Irish people use a lot of adjectives that I would never imagine that I would use to describe anything, but alas, I have. The one that I noticed first was “grand.” Grand is used as a synonym for fine. So instead of saying “I’m fine,” people will say “I’m grand.” I noticed it first when I was trying to buy a cell phone and apologized to the guy working at the store for asking so many questions, to which he responded, “Oh, you’re grand.” What struck me about this was that it sends a message to people not from Ireland that something is better than it actually is, since we don’t drop the word “grand” for just anything. Another word that I’ve started using as an adjective is “class.” Class is probably the best adjective for anything. It trumps awesome and great and amazing and any other positive adjective you can think of. Someone would probably say, “That’s a class film.” When talking about a movie they like, or “He’s a class player.” when talking about someone who is good at rugby or another game. Or, if something really good happens and you tell someone about it, they might say, “That’s class.” Irish people also have a habit of saying "like" at the end of sentences so you might hear someone say "That's so class, like."
One of the funniest stories I have involving Irish slang is the one of how I learned about the word “deer.” The first day that I met my roommate, she was telling me about a place to eat on campus and said, “It can be deer, but it’s alright.” When I heard this I said, “I’m sorry, what?” “It can be deer,” she said, “but it’s not too bad.” “They use deer in the food?” I said. “No!” she said, “It’s just deer!” I told her that I didn’t know what she meant by that and she explained that deer simply meant expensive.
Learning Irish slang has probably been one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about being here. I’ve begun saying a lot of things naturally over time and don’t even notice them anymore. I think that this has made it a lot less awkward talking to Irish people for the first time and also allowed me to fit in better overall. I am interested to see the response I will get from other Americans if I say, “Where is the craic?” back in the US.
Irish slang is so class, like! #GWU #GWAbroad
