anybody here learning Irish? Considering learning Irish? I desktop publish some materials that would hopefully make it much easier. This is not a commercial message…I wouldn’t be charging if you’re serious about learning…
I have one of those teach-yourslef courses, but it is incredibly difficult to get through, plus their pronounciation key doesn’t help me one bit. I tried to get a professor who lived in Dublin for a while and speaks fluent Irish here at UC Santa Cruz to teach me, but he already had too much on his hands. I’d love it if you could help, as I really love slow airs and knowing Irish helps tremendously in their playing. thanks in advance.
Slan,
Mike
All the teach yourself stuff I have seen expects you to be a linguist already. Nothing written for the public. If you’re looking for a teacher, here’s an organization that might help: http://www.daltai.com/classes.htm
djm
Cool, thanks djm, that looks quite helpful. there are several teachers a short way from my hometown. 
hey…neat…i’m involved with Daltaí…the immersion weekends rock…
if you would like me to send you what I have, please send me your mailing addy on a pm and I’ll shoot them right out to you…I’ve written a great pronunciation key as well…
Sounds interesting!
j.i.
Try a book & tape series called “Now You’re Talking”.
It was produced about 7-8 years ago, when the language was making a bit of a comeback. They ran the entire series on RTE weekly, so you could sit at home and get the lessons off the television. After that, they published the book & tapes. It may be on CD now, though I’m not sure.
I hate pronouncing it all wrong 
so I’m interested Antaine, I’ll pm you 
Cheers
MAW
Hello all, I’ve been lurking for a while, but here’s my first post.
I’ve been learning Irish for a bit and have had great success with Learning Irish by Mícháel Ó Siadhail. Also, you can listen to Irish radio at www.rte.ie/rnag or read news at www.beo.ie. If any of you are interested in learning, make sure you choose a book or whatever that teaches a dialect, not Standard Irish (which is a standard spelling, not speaking). The Irish in Learning Irish is from Cois Fhairrge in Conamara.
-Harrison
Yeah, I have the book by Micheal O’Saidhail, but that’s great that you’ve been having success with it. As for me it’s as djm put, it expects you to have a backround as a linuist, and I find that kinda difficult for learning such a hard language as Irish.
-Mike
You need to be a linguist and a grammarian. Both subjects leave me cold. The teach yourself books are written for the ease of the presenter, not for the ease of the learner. This type of teaching tends to get my hackles up. I’ve paid my money only to find the authors couldn’t give a s**t whether their works are usable or not. 
djm
I agree.
I’ve even tried the Michel Thomas and Georgi Lozanov courses which are supposed to teach by an alternative and accelerated method and I haven’t had much success with those either.
I think you either have to do it when your very small, when your brains wired for language learing or go and live amongst people speaking the language… anything else is bloomin’ hard work!
j.i.
I suspect that, like some other fields of endevour, you really need to get in front of a qualified teacher who can repeat things to your speed, answer your questions, and listen to you and provide corrections as you learn. I haven’t found an Irish teacher near me yet. Classes are offered when all of one person is available to teach, and cease abruptly when that person moves on.
djm
I have that one as well - it’s pretty good, and I disagree with the ‘you have to be a linguist first’ concept. The idea is that you have to take the lessons slowly, bits at a time, and master them… a language like Irish without the usual Latin roots that other Romance languages have means that you can’t learn it overnight.
I studied Irish for several years though I am very out of practice at this point. I really liked the book Irish for the People. Helps tackle the grammar bit. If anyone is really interested in learning your best bet is going over and doing one of the immersive language course somewhere in Ireland. I did the Oideas Gael a few times and reallt benefitted from it.
Irish is easy. Well, at least compared to Navajo. Though the two share the word for “people”, coincidence? I think not.
-Patrick
Came in on the same mothership, perhaps?
djm
Learning Irish is great…just not for learning Irish…i find it a wonderful grammar handbook, but the order of lessons is not the best for the uninitiated…
Yeah, Learning Irish does have a lot of grammar terms most people are unfamiliar with. But other than that, I also disagree with the “Learning Irish is for linguists” bit. This is a course more intense than most, but it also teaches you a lot more than others. Someone just can’t have one resource when learning a language. Learn grammar of English first, so you know what the terms mean. Other than that, Learning Irish does a pretty good job of teaching the language, it just takes work (like most things do) . Also, New Irish Grammar by the Christian Brothers is a pretty good book for Irish grammar. Briathra na Gaeilge is a good book for conjugations of verbs. Use index cards to learn vocab, read online news, listen to the radio, just put yourself in situations where you have exposure to the language.
Yes, I guess the internet’s making it easier than it ever was. Just need more time…
j.i.
I agree, I guess I had gotten myself alll wroked up and expected Irish to be a similar learning experience as when I learned French. I was dead wrong. With french I had a reference point since so many words and grammar rules are similar to English. I’ll definitely take these new points into serious consideration when I embark on attempting to learn Irish again. Thanks all.
-Mike