experiences with Learning Irish by Mícheál Ó Siadhail

stephanus

Is anyone using this book or has used it successfully?

I really like it despite its grammar heaviness but although I'm one third into it I am hardly able to SAY anything in Irish or to express even some of life's simpler things.

What are your impressions or experiences?

pog it

I am a huge fan of the book and cds but I think it would be a different experience for me as I did Irish all through school (I'm Irish) so I had a strong enough base knowledge of Irish and could already fumble my way through a few day to day sentences.

I find the dictionary at the back really useful as I am learning the Conamara dialect and I can quickly check spellings, pronunciation etc. of the common words. Also I've got to know the book inside out so I can find the topic I need quite quickly.

I've done all the lessons and so now it is more of a reference book for me.

The key I found to actually learning Irish was in the end, listening, reading, speaking, writing, and doing the lessons alongside all of that. If you are using the book on its own- or any book on its own- it's never going to be enough in my opinion.

Aard

Not being able to actually say much even after reading such a book is often my experiences with language courses at large. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater; "Learning Irish" is worth persevering with. I have heard hard core language enthusiasts compliment it highly.

stephanus

I have found, too, that it is a great book. But the course the student is taken is so unusual compared to other language courses.

The subjects are introduced very gently and only bit by bit. Which is perhaps the best way for an experienced language learner. That's why I have only just learned how to say "I am hungry" in Irish after eight months of studying it.

But I have noticed that I have no difficulties in plucking apart the structure of an Irish sentence.

Still, I am trying to do some reading alongside to improve my routine in dealing with the language and not even knowing the conjugation yet makes it hard to get the meaning of a statement when I have no idea of the verb forms. I am trying to help that by reading through the respective chapters and enhancing my passive knowledge of the language.

On the whole, I really like to use this book and have not become bored with it and even like to leaf through it for fun. And as I am approaching the middle of the book which is where the verb is treated I may even be able to write my threads in Irish one day ...

Another thing are the cds which are hard to listen to. I have listened to some of the texts maybe twenty times and still find it so hard to understand them even with the printed text before me. So I have gone over to have it on as a kind of background entertainment in the car.

Krusader

Are you using nancy stenson's workbook with it

stephanus

No, I don't. Is that recommendable? I think I read that name somewhere on this board but didn't look further into it.

Does it go well with Learning Irish? Can it be used indepently?

Krusader

It is workbook with exercises to accompany Learning Irish, here it is in .pdf

http://www.filefront.com/17289470/Stenson Workbook.rar

pog it

stephanus wrote: »

Still, I am trying to do some reading alongside to improve my routine in dealing with the language and not even knowing the conjugation yet makes it hard to get the meaning of a statement when I have no idea of the verb forms. I am trying to help that by reading through the respective chapters and enhancing my passive knowledge of the language.

On the whole, I really like to use this book and have not become bored with it and even like to leaf through it for fun. And as I am approaching the middle of the book which is where the verb is treated I may even be able to write my threads in Irish one day ...

Another thing are the cds which are hard to listen to. I have listened to some of the texts maybe twenty times and still find it so hard to understand them even with the printed text before me. So I have gone over to have it on as a kind of background entertainment in the car.

Heya. Just on the verb front, I know that a lot of the verbs are dealt with further on into the book but if you go to Lesson 7 all the tenses of Bí (irregular verb) are laid out and after that you could just go by the index, starting with the pages that deal with the present tense and then working your way on.

I do understand that the verbs can be confusing. I avoided them for near on a year and just lately tackled what I didn't like about the verbs.
From my experience I would say, just get stuck in and try not to put it off! I know it's not as much fun. And it's hard to completely master them. I keep using mé in the conditional tense when actually in the first person the verb stem and pronoun are one word like as in 'bheinn' ('I would be') and this is the format used the most frequently in Connemara as opposed to the rarer 'bheadh mé'. (I am learning Connemara dialect and so I'm trying to stay consistent). 'Bheadh mé' is perfectly fine obviously.

Oh yeah there is a decent book with cds out there called 'Colloquial Irish' which deals with Connemara Irish. I think you'd really like it! It comes at it by teaching popular conversation topics first, and grammar second. And the grammar isn't taught so indepthly. Whereas Ó Siadhail as we know is grammar-heavy. It was dear enough when I got it last year, 40 or so euro? It's for the beginner-intermediate but even intermediate-advanced would find a useful nugget or two. (But overall Ó Siadhail imo is unmatched)

stephanus

I'll have a look at that Stenson book as Learning Irish does not have so many exercises in it and I feel somewhat underexercised. My passive reception of Irish is quite good but I am hardly able to construc a sentence offhand without going into a philological discussion with myself although I do really practice a lot and with the due number of repetitions. Although I did surprise my colleages this morning saying in Irish that my colleague's pot plant had died.

stephanus

Cool! I did the first ceacht from Nancy Stenson's book and I must say! It is showing the first effects already. I could now greet you in the street with a loud and clear "Dia dhuit/dhaoibh" whereas before I would have looked on the ground and mumbled "hello".
That means my colleague who is dating an Irishman has to suffer even more from my celtic craze