Recommended Irish Courses

brónaim cád??

I've just moved back to Ireland; I'm a primary teacher but trained in the UK so need to learn Irish as quickly as possible.

Could somebody recommend a course? Cost is a big factor as a lot of the Gaeltacht courses are extortionate.

thanks

magnus500

brónaim cád?? wrote: »

I've just moved back to Ireland; I'm a primary teacher but trained in the UK so need to learn Irish as quickly as possible.

Could somebody recommend a course? Cost is a big factor as a lot of the Gaeltacht courses are extortionate.

thanks

Have you looked at the OCG/SCG free resources from Marino? If you already have Irish from school you'd be able to start there. Also, Marino usually run a course for teachers in your/our position.

pandoraj09

Hiya...I was reading your other post about coming to work in Dublin...You really need help with your Irish. I could help you if you want. I'm a secondary Irish teacher and have worked with many young teachers looking to improve their Irish. One to one speaking practise and grammar is what will help you. PM me if you want help when you come to Dublin...

dory

One to One is the quickest way really. In a lot of the Irish courses you'll get people who are just out for the craic and so the class tends to move slowly. Make sure you go to the Gaeltacht organized by Marino if you're going to do the SCG. They give great tips and predictions (and it's them who set the tests so the predictions are accurate).

gaiscioch

brónaim cád?? wrote: »

I've just moved back to Ireland; I'm a primary teacher but trained in the UK so need to learn Irish as quickly as possible.

Could somebody recommend a course? Cost is a big factor as a lot of the Gaeltacht courses are extortionate.

thanks

In terms of paid courses, I found the Gaelchultúr courses quite good. I agree with Dory that a lot of courses can be a waste of money because the participants have different aims and, I would add, are not at the correct level. However, in the Advanced level I was in everybody was fairly serious and helpful to each other. I feel that the higher up you go, the more serious people you meet. I'm doing one of the online Ranganna courses at the moment and it is particularly beneficial. These all cost a bit (I paid €180 for the 10-week Gaelchultúr course, for example), but I found they were money well spent.

Without much money...

I definitely think working on the grammar yourself - there are some really top class books now like this and this - will give you much more confidence about your Irish. There are also loads of free grammar resources online that I find myself going to recurrently. Listening to RnaG whenever there is conversation on will help you more than you realise at the time. NUIM's Vifax can be very useful too as it has transcript, tv and radio versions of the same news. Download a free dictionary (diodict3 Gaeilge on Samsung apps is second to none) to your smart phone and consult it when you hear a word you don't understand.
I also learnt a huge amount from buying Irish language books with an accompanying cd, and to be honest it gave me a great confidence boost as I understood most of it without consulting a dictionary (likewise with radio listening after a while). I'd strongly recommend a book like this. These can all be done at minimum cost (I picked up 2nd hand books in Dublin quite cheaply). The people on the two Irish language fora on Boards.ie are also very useful, so you could always start exploiting them/us. Meetup.com can occasionally have some good Irish language meetups. I've often dropped into Club an Chonradh on Harcourt Street and it would be dead. I'd start talking to Seosamh, the barman, other people would come in and more Irish would come out of me than I thought I had. It would be the same for most/all of us.

Finally, on this page you will find a list of every ciorcail comhrá in Dublin this summer. The yellow section at the bottom is the list you need to print out and keep. They are free to go to, many being in a local library. You have nothing to lose by going to them.

brónaim cád??

gaiscioch, Wow thanks for all the information. I'll have a look at the books, as with the one-to-one or grinds it's not something that I could pursue at the minute but maybe when I'm working in a few weeks it's something I could do. Are those Gaelchultur and Ranganna courses online? I think I'd benefit more from a face-to-face class.