Basic Irish - Nancy Stenson

Jay Pentatonic

Hey,
The resources I'm mostly using for self teaching Irish are "Buntús cainte", "Christian bros new Irish grammar" & that grammar book by Nollaig Mac Congáil.

They've all been very helpful, but none of them really have any exercises or workbooks.

But Nancy Stenson's "Basic Irish" does. I've read some great reviews of it, but I was wondering if anyone else out there has used it? & if you could lend me some neutral feedback, before I spend more money.

GRMA

pog it

Heya.
I'd reckon you'd be well able to take on 'Learning Irish' by Micheal O' Siadhail by this stage.. it's for people who have some prior knowledge of Irish! I find it fantastic- it's a book you can dip into as well as follow it from chapter1 onwards. It has plenty of exercises in it and comes with cds. And as far as I know Nancy Stenson's workbook is an extension of these exercises and she bases her workbook on 'Learning Irish' lessons and content.

It would be around 35 euro I'd guess, but very well worth it.
Tis Conamara Irish.

Jay Pentatonic

Hey,
Thanks for the info, great help as usual!

I saw it in hughes & hughes today & had a flick through it, it's looks like great stuff!!!
I was about to buy it, but then I noticed it was the non-cd version, I asked if they had the one with cds in stock...they said no:rolleyes: so thanks for letting me know that as well, otherwise I would've been kicking myself in the teeth as soon as I copped on!!!!

pog it

ah no probs, and good stuff - I got the cassette tapes myself! Saw it 6 months ago with the cds then and was kicking myself!

Oh yea there is a fantastic grammar and workbook called 'Úrchúrsa Gaeilge' that you can get in college libraries (I got it in NUI,G) but I couldn't find it anywhere to actually buy it It's out of print amazingly.
So the version you get is a bit dated but I just photocopied the parts I wanted to practice, like verbs and prepositions, that kinda thing, and was a help.

Also ranganna.com have an online course , I think it's c.180 euro or a bit more b'fhéidir, I'm not doing it myself, but the chapter on adjectives is free to access and it has exercises for that part of grammar and it does give tips on some of the harder aspects of adjectives.

nbrome

I'm glad I listened to advice on here and got a companion book to go with "Learning Irish". I find the Nancy Stenson book wonderful. It's like coming home to a warm fire and welcoming friends.
The Learning Irish is wonderful too. Only thing is, I was keeping my head above water till chapter 7 when 3 more tenses of Ta' were added to the three presented in the previous chapter. Not that they are difficult, just that they need alot of practice. There should be a warning on that chapter.

Krusader

nbrome theres is a Google Group working through Learning Irish, we do a chapter a week,
we are currently on chapter 7, you're welcome to join. Theres bout 5/6 of us with different levels of Irish from all over the world and it keeps you motivated if anything
Here's the link
http://groups.google.com/group/learningirish?lnk=

nbrome

Thanks for that. I've just sent off an application.