Irish HL Oral - Feeling Frustrated

chatterboxxx95

Hey Guys, am currently in leaving cert and as we all know the dreaded orals are drawing nearer:(:(
I'm looking for help with the oral as our teacher is constantly telling us a good mark in the oral is crucial to getting a high grade and yet failing to give us any help.She is the laziest woman I have ever encountered, all we do in class is have random discussions , which doesn't sound too bad except the fact I've learned nothing from this. She refuses to repeat anything she says or write it down and rolls her eyes and treats you like a fool if you even ask her to spell a word, and doesn't seem to realise that not all of us in the class will learn by listening alone.
My written irish is fairly decent but my oral irish is atrocious, my mind seems to literally go blank the second I open my mouth to speak. Our class asked our teacher could we keep an oral copy at the start of the year to which her response was : "I don't care how many copies you keep" and telling us she wouldn't check over them. I've been trying to prepare oral answers by taking the oral questions from the book (Fiuntas) but to be honest I don't think the questions included cover everything and they seem a bit outdated, but even with that I'm pretty sure my grammar is all wrong so there's no point learning off wrong answers.
Basically I'm all at a loss and don't know what to do to bring my oral up to the standard I need it at for the exam. If anyone has any advice or websites with notes or sample questions, or anything at all really, it would be gratefully appreciated
-Chatterbox

d1234

Hi there!
Sorry to hear that you are having problems with your teacher. On the plus side it's never too late to start and if you try 'cupla focail' every day it will make a difference!

Here are a few ideas for you to try:
- Try attending a local Irish club, such as Cumann na bhFiann. I understand that you won't go in discussing 'me fein agus mo chlann', but it will relax you and even over a few weeks, you may see a difference. Try to be in contact with as many people through Irish as you can, such as primary school teachers, call places in the west or Donegal (such as inquiring about a room in a b&b or hotel), Conradh na Gaeilge or even An Siopa Leabhar in Dublin.

- Secondly, keep going with the notes. There are some great revision resources online, such as http://www.isfeidirleat.ie/index.php/viewcategory/14-pdf.html Those are great notes and try to fill in as many of the gaps as you can and then learn them. Remember to use seanfhocal and nathanna to spice up the quality of your work.

- Why don't you and your friends set up a little lunch group or something whereby you could meet on a regular basis and have the chance to talk with each other? If you were serious enough, it could have a good outcome.

Remember, this is your oral exam. You should be in charge of it. Make sure you stick on the safe side, by mentioning the topics that you know. Some examples - if you are wearing a prefect badge, make sure you can talk about your duties, if you live on a farm, make sure you can talk about life in the countryside, duties etc or if you have an interest in news/politics, be able to discuss recent topics/crime/politics/UN....

Best of luck!