Another week here in Cork and it is hard to realize that we have already been here for a month. The time has flew because of all the incredible but tiring work we have accomplished. There was one thing my friends from Ireland told me before I left. They said that the Cork accents are the hardest, most difficult accent to understand in Ireland… and boy were they right. Their accent is so rapid and it sounds like every word is pushed together in a sentence so that it is creating one giant word. In class one day, the professor said a word and I had no idea what he said. So without being the American that can’t understand and disrupt class, I asked my buddy next to me what he said. My buddy then goes on to say it and I have no idea what he said. So then I finally blurt out in class, “a few words back, what was that word you said?” and everybody cries out laughing at me (even the professor).
So now a month in I have started to slowly but surely understand their accent. My favorite pronunciation though is thirty as “tirty”, it sounds funny when reading the score. One day during a break in class all sixteen of my classmates came up with a list of names, cities and words in Ireland that they could laugh at me with because I had no idea how to pronounce them. Surprisingly I didn’t do so bad with the cities, but the names of people I struggled. For example they gave me names like Aoife, Seonaid and Saoirse. My classmates got a hoot out of the mispronunciation of these names by me.
Now that I believe I’m starting to understand the Cork accent, I am trying to understand all their lingo. They have so many different phrases and words for certain items than us Americans. For example, my teammate was yelling to sub him out because he had a “stich”. Can you guess what that is? If you guessed cramp, ding ding ding you’ve got it. Other words such as “boot” can mean both sneaker and trunk of your car. Also everything is a sesh or session here. If someone is going to lift weights, it is a gym sesh, if someone is going to go out to have a drink, it is a drinking sesh, and if someone is going to shop, it is called a purchase sesh.
One aspect that I have finally figured out, I believe, is the bus system. I keep saying I believe I have figured it out because the next day after I think I have, it all changes. For example one day I was outside my apartment for 50 minutes on the sidewalk just casually waiting for a 5:20 bus that came at 6:10. Then returning from training one night I arrived at the bus stop in the city center at 10:05 so I was perfectly in time for the 10:10 but of course it couldn’t work that smoothly. I waited there till 11pm for the 10 minute late 10:50 bus. Once I was all settled on that bus, they made everyone get off that bus and wait for the 11:20 bus because the driver was just getting off duty. All these mishaps occurred though before my ground breaking news that there is a real time bus tracker app. The buseireann app has changed the game completely in a positive way. So far this app has told me when the bus will arrive in plus minus 3 minutes which is phenomenal. So hopefully it stays on this track and I can keep on time!
Thanks for reading again! Everyone have a great week and check back in next week!
