Intercultural Assignment
I went to the Irish Festival downtown for this intercultural assignment. I spent well over an hour at this festival because it was actually very enjoyable. From what I’ve been told Irish people are not heavily religious. Me being a Christian, I didn’t know how different this experience was going to be or if I would feel uncomfortable or out of the loop. I wanted to avoid those negative feelings so I did some research to be prepared for this experience.
Walking through the festival I heard loud laughter, clicking of glasses, and footsteps on all the stages. All the people at the gathering were very friendly. Some were drunk and happy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard such strong accents before. Irish slang is very different from what you hear in Indiana. Some of the words I heard from having casual conversations were fluthered – drunk, fella – male, gas – fun, mot – girlfriend, and many other words that I could not keep up with!
The purpose of Irish festivals is for them to celebrate their generations of culture. “All ethnic communities have their “old-country” traditions that have been passed along for generations. And the Irish know how to celebrate their traditions with passion. Just within a few minutes of stepping foot into the Irish Festival, all the research I did about Irish heritage reached all my expectations. Drinking is no joke in the Irish community.” (Frankfort) “In 2011 (the most recent year for which data is available), the average Irish person aged 15+ drank over 11.6 liters of pure alcohol.” I did notice that there seemed to be a lot of underage drinking. Not that I think workers didn’t ID the teens, but a lot of families had pitchers of beer and poured a cup for every member of the family; 21 or not. I expected to see a lot of drinking because that’s the stereotype of the Irish, and the stereotype seems to be true!
I heard music coming from every direction. All the songs were very energetic, but I didn’t hear one song that had words. There were
Walking through the festival I heard loud laughter, clicking of glasses, and footsteps on all the stages. All the people at the gathering were very friendly. Some were drunk and happy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard such strong accents before. Irish slang is very different from what you hear in Indiana. Some of the words I heard from having casual conversations were fluthered – drunk, fella – male, gas – fun, mot – girlfriend, and many other words that I could not keep up with!
The purpose of Irish festivals is for them to celebrate their generations of culture. “All ethnic communities have their “old-country” traditions that have been passed along for generations. And the Irish know how to celebrate their traditions with passion. Just within a few minutes of stepping foot into the Irish Festival, all the research I did about Irish heritage reached all my expectations. Drinking is no joke in the Irish community.” (Frankfort) “In 2011 (the most recent year for which data is available), the average Irish person aged 15+ drank over 11.6 liters of pure alcohol.” I did notice that there seemed to be a lot of underage drinking. Not that I think workers didn’t ID the teens, but a lot of families had pitchers of beer and poured a cup for every member of the family; 21 or not. I expected to see a lot of drinking because that’s the stereotype of the Irish, and the stereotype seems to be true!
I heard music coming from every direction. All the songs were very energetic, but I didn’t hear one song that had words. There were
References: Frankfort. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.herkimertelegram.com/news/x1073622309/Irish-Festival-once-again-to-celebrate-generations-of-culture Mosbergen, D. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/religion-least-important-ireland- survey_n_2567990.html (n.d.). Retrieved from http://alcoholireland.ie/facts/how-much-do-we-drink/ Peter Royston. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_dance