How are so many of you so good at Irish?

Micamaca

I'm just browsing here, feeling a little ashamed as so many of you can write whole paragraphs in Irish and I can bearly even read them, never mind write them.

How did you keep up your level of Irish...are you just out of school, did you go to schools where everything was taught through Irish or are you teaching Irish?

How do you do it, would love to get my chuid Gaeilge back but feel a little overwhelmed.

deise go deo

Dont be ashamed, you probably have better Irish than you think, Youd be suprised how fast it starts to come back once you put a little effort in.
If your intrested in improveing your Irish there are a few thing you can do to help.
You can get buntús cainte. its a book and cd that start off with the very basics and work from there.
You can watch tg4 and listen to RnaG more often.
And my personal favourite, join a conversation group.I'm in one in waterford. Its good because its a relaxed atmosphere where you can enjoy talking and learning with other people who are intrested in it too.

Anyway, you only get out of it what you put in,

Go n-eirí leat.:)

Micamaca

Thanks for the encouragement. I just want to be able to do better now...very impatient!

I will make a start with beo and tg4. Then I'll aim to find someone's ears to wound with my pidgeon Gaeilge.

But seriously, how do the rest of you know so much?

Krusader

Classes, books. writing/speaking as much as you can. Stick around and ask questions here as you're learningand people will be happy to help you out

Micamaca

I'll do that, cheers

Slowly but surely I guess.

LimeFruitGum

I did Hons Irish for points, but I couldn't have cared less about the actual subject. Peig and poetry -->YAWN.
I still got a B in the Leaving without really understanding what the Tuiseal Ginideach actually was. It was all about exam technique. :cool:

But a few years down the line, it turned out that I needed Irish for work :eek:, so I went back to Conradh na Gaeilge to do a refresher and then I got into the Dioplóma sa Ghaeilge course in NUIM, which I did part-time for two years. It is the equivalent of 1st year of an Irish language degree. Occasionally, I have to write emails in Irish or proofread someone else's Irish, so it has been great on that side of things.

So for me, it was primarily a career thing, but I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't had some interest either. I've always enjoyed learning languages and travelling. As someone else said, we have the knowledge in the back of our heads, it is just a case of using it.
Unfortunately, any time I've been to a Gaeltacht, cloisim Béarla.

Loads of people come up to me and ask me about learning Irish. Apart from the usual suggestion of TG 4, I would strongly recommend doing a course where they explain the grammar that was never covered in school and you have to speak in Irish the whole time. My classmates would always speak in Irish even outside of class and it was great.

Nuggles

LimeFruitGum wrote: »

I got into the Dioplóma sa Ghaeilge course in NUIM, which I did part-time for two years. It is the equivalent of 1st year of an Irish language degree.

I don't think so. The Diploma and the 1st year of the degree have nothing in common.

Gael

I learned most of my Irish by going to an all-Irish secondary school and then went on to study it in college. The full immersion method is the only effective way for most people.

Aard

Irish playschool for 2 years, Irish primary-school, Irish secondary-school. I'm interested in languages and linguistics, so that helps too.


I've always found that after a few months of not using Irish, I'd become very "average". Going back to school in September was always a reminder of how quickly I can forget vocabulary. A few months after the Leaving, I bumped into my old Irish-teacher, and couldn't even remember the word for Geography. It just goes to show: practise, practise, practise. A little often. Even 10 minutes reading "Teach na nGealt" every day would help enormously. Don't bother with looking up all the words you don't understand, just get the gist and after a while your brain will automatically make the connection for what the different words mean. Then once you've learnt to recognise the word, look it up. In my experience with langauges, looking it up the first time I see it, I'm likely to forget it after an hour.


As for how I keep my level up, I just read blogs and news-articles in Irish from time to time.