Best program for reviving my Irish?

FutureTeashock

I'm in the process of dusting off my Irish language capabilities and wish to turbo charge the process.


I have the nuts and bolts obviously, it's simply a matter of resurrecting it.


A Pimsleur style program would be ideal because I'm only really interested in speaking the language.



Go raibh math agat.:o

Daonnach

I'm not that familiar with language programs, so I apologise that I can't contribute with a worthy suggestion. But I'm interested in ways to turbo-charge a Gaeilge revival.
If you come across any good programs or material, do tell

machaseh

I am from the Netherlands but I have a masters degree in linguistics so I was kind of interested in learning some irish. I bought the Buntus Cainte books and used memrise to practice for a while.

For me I lost my motivation because I just dont hear anybody speaking Irish ever at all here in Dublin. I did hear some people speak Irish when I went to the Aran Islands but that's about it.

If there were subsidized language programs so I could learn irish for only a small fee I'd definitely do it. However currently the tuition programs are as dear as for any other language so I just can't justify it. It's also not a language I can practice with anybody I know. I know only one girl (from Donegal) who is a native speaker and a couple people who learned proper Irish but of course they also had their high school education here.

FutureTeashock

machaseh wrote: »

I am from the Netherlands but I have a masters degree in linguistics so I was kind of interested in learning some irish. I bought the Buntus Cainte books and used memrise to practice for a while.

For me I lost my motivation because I just dont hear anybody speaking Irish ever at all here in Dublin. I did hear some people speak Irish when I went to the Aran Islands but that's about it.

If there were subsidized language programs so I could learn irish for only a small fee I'd definitely do it. However currently the tuition programs are as dear as for any other language so I just can't justify it. It's also not a language I can practice with anybody I know. I know only one girl (from Donegal) who is a native speaker and a couple people who learned proper Irish but of course they also had their high school education here.

Thanks for your reply. I want to learn Irish so I can access state services and deal with the police in Irish, so it's purely for practical purposes.:o



It really is pathetic that Irish people spend 10 years learning a language yet can't speak it on even a basic level. But I guess the average IQ in Ireland is only 93...


Since there doesn't appear to be any Pimsleur style courses, I think I'll just learn 5 new Irish words a day and go from there.

freida

Buntas cainte is on memrise now. And irish is on duolingo too. You can test out of the lower levels and move on to the more challenging areas

Gaoth Laidir

If you can afford €190 you can do a 10-week conversational course with Conradh na Gaeilge. My friend is Polish and started it this term. Says it's very good.

There are several courses for all levels, from absolute beginners to advanced.

https://cnag.ie/en/courses/location/courses-in-dublin.html

gormdubhgorm

FutureTeashock wrote: »

I'm in the process of dusting off my Irish language capabilities and wish to turbo charge the process.


I have the nuts and bolts obviously, it's simply a matter of resurrecting it.


A Pimsleur style program would be ideal because I'm only really interested in speaking the language.



Go raibh math agat.:o

I did a top up course years ago.
However, like you I prefer just trying to learn to speak it better.
I found in the last few years I have learnt way more by going to ciorcal comhra's and pop up gaeltachts.
That way you remember the conversions and the context of the words.
Then when you hear the 'new' word again on TG4 or RnaG your brain goes 'oh I know that word.' xyz said that one'
Bringing a pen and paper might be an idea so you can jot down something.

And https://www.tearma.ie/ and focloir.ie are handy for looking up words.

You would find ciorcal comhra's and pop up gaeltacht's mentioned on meetup.com
https://www.meetup.com/Irish-Language-Meetup-Ciorcal-Comhra/

That particular one above is suitable for all levels (from no Irish to fluent) and it attracts all sorts of different nationalities from all continents believe it or not. Some of them have great Irish it would put Irish people to shame.

And there are always ones on in local areas libraries/gaa clubs (cioircal comhra's) and pop up gaeltachts normally happen in pubs every now and again. You would find a lot of them on social media

https://www.facebook.com/popupgaeltacht/

Also if you watch TG4 on the internet you can change the subtitles to Irish instead of English. I find it a much better way to learn the words. If you want you can put them back to English or even leave the subtitles off to test yourself if you re-watch it.

FutureTeashock

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

If you can afford €190 you can do a 10-week conversational course with Conradh na Gaeilge. My friend is Polish and started it this term. Says it's very good.

There are several courses for all levels, from absolute beginners to advanced.

https://cnag.ie/en/courses/location/courses-in-dublin.html

190 smackers! :eek: That aint happening. I'll look into the recommended materials and see how it goes.



The problem is, I don't think you can learn a language well from a book, there needs to be an audio component.

Roversfan1

The Michel Thomas Irish method was released last week.