How did you say that?

I'd like to at least pretend that I know some fundamental rules about Irish pronunciation, thanks to some books I've read with Irish character names and some dabbling into learning a bit of the language on my own. For example, "bh" is usually pronounced like a "v" sound and you can pretty much pretend "gh" isn't part of a word because it's not said at all. However, since arriving in this country I've realized that such petty rules are of little use to me. Now, I know no one expects me to go along reading all the Irish street signs around. Heck, there are Irish people who can't even speak the Irish language.

But when it comes to someone's name, it's a different story. You can't laugh it off. You'll have to repeat it eventually.

Thanks to my uncle, I had a contact over here in Galway- a man named Padraig O'Ceidigh- whom I called up when I arrived because he said he would meet with Beth and I and help us out any way he could. I thought I was safe. Well, with the first name anyways. There weren't any weird consonant combos that I knew I should be wary of. Padraig. Like the Irish version of Patrick. Easy enough. So I left a message "Hey 'Pad-rig' this is Carly Sullivan blah blah blah" thinking I was golden. When he returned my call, I soon realized my mistake when he introduced himself and the word that came out of his mouth was nothing like the word that had come out of mine. The "dr" had completely disappeared from the middle. Don't ask me where they went off to. And if you'd asked me to repeat the correct pronunciation, I couldn't have done it. It came and went too quickly.

So crap. Embarrassing. And now I was at a complete loss as to what to call him when I met him. How could I introduce him? What if I needed to get his attention? "Umm...Oiy there! Sir! Mr...Oh crap I don't know how to say that either." It was quite the dilemma.

Thankfully I avoided using Padraig's name during our first few encounters. I decided I'd get it right at some point (maybe). But then he introduced Beth and I to his son, and a swift slur of unintelligible introduction was conducted once again. I got that his son's name started with a hard "c". Maybe there was an "r" in there? An "l"? Aw shit. Who knows? He was really nice, too, and our age, so he offered to show us around sometime and gave me his number. "So...how do you spell your name?" I asked, trying to pass off the fact that I couldn't even say it let alone spell it. "Why don't you just call me Charlie," he answered. "It's easier." As much as I appreciated the gesture, I couldn't help but feel a bit like a dumb American who can't handle foreign languages. Besides, I wanted to know his real name eventually, and how could I ask now? I felt like I'd lost my chance.

Last night, Beth and I went out with someone we met at the hostel. Christy is an American studying at the university here and she invited us to karaoke night at the campus bar (yes, a campus bar!). After watching semi-drunk students sing Backstreet Boys and Queen, we went to a couple other nearby pubs. Our final stop was at an Irish pub- as in an Irish-speaking pub. It was small, there was a band playing trad music, and the bar tender was a local Irish boy named Diarmid (that's pronounced deer-mid). Thankfully, that was a name I knew, but he graciously spelled it out for Beth and I remembered how wonderfully laid back the Irish are. Diarmid's friend came in, mosied behind the bar as though he belonged there, and introduced himself as "Paw-rick". "Wait! How do you spell that?" I quickly asked. "P-A-D-R-A-I-C," he told me. I was ecstatic. I thanked him profusely and told him of my earlier confusion with Padraig's name. Both him and Diarmid consented that the Irish language was a bunch of crap and made no sense. I felt much better.

Tonight, I received a forwarded reply to an email my uncle sent to Padraig thanking him for helping me settle into Galway. In this email, Padraig said that he'd given me the numbers of himself, his wife, his daughter, and his son...CATHAL. I immediately looked up the pronunciation online. "Ca-hal". Once again, a disappearing letters act. And I thought French was bad.