Irish Translation Forum

HEY EVERYONE!!! my familly is irish(grandma/grandpa/all of my ancestors), but i'm growing up over here in America and don't know any irish/gaelic(neither do my parents). what is the easiest way to learn.i'm really interested, and know a few sayings, but i want to really learn.

Hey sockrdude... I find this forum is a great place to stick around. If you look through this site there are all types of lessons on grammer etc. Try finding a gaelic dictionary too. Programs like Teach Me Irish! are excellent. Try researching in your area to see if any lessons are available. Other then all those, just stick to it. It is a very hard language to learn... but it sure is worth it. Never get down... if your stuck, we're always here to help.

Good luck!

Well, my personal recommendation is that hatever else you do, keep coming back to the forum (here) and read, ask questions, share experiences . . . whatever. That being said, probably the most indispensable aid you will need will be a good English-Irish dictionary - it's probably worth the cost to get something better than just a little pocket dictionary. It also helps to use a book/tape/CD set; the ones we usually seem to recommend are "Teach Yourself Irish" and/or "TeachMe! Irish". If you search back through previous posts you can find what we have told others who ask this question - it does come up rather often.

Fáilte go dtí an domhan Gaelach agus ádh mór ort! (OK, so I'm a learner too . . . )

David

Yes. Get a good dictionary, a book on grammar, and check out some classes. Daltaí.com has some listings. Look under classes.

I just finished a book this morning called How to Learn any Language, by Barry Farber, one of those freaks that has learned about 18 languages. Although he doesn't address Irish directly, he's got some great ideas. He has a memory enhancing trick that is great for remembering vocabulary.

One thing that is very helpful for me is to just look around and take stock of the persons, places, things, and concepts that I need to know the words for. Then I look the up in the dictionary and memorize them. (It's great to know what gliomach is but I never order lobster.)

Check out the events section on www.daltai.com they sometimes have weekend events all over the country.

Then try the classes list on Daltai, it has teachers and classes listed all over the world.

http://irish.meetup.com is a good place to look to see if anyone local to you is studying Irish or atleast interested.

Adh mór ort.

i don't know about irish, but i've been in spain 1 yr, and have learnt most of my spanish from songs and chatting to the spanish kids- try to find someone who speaks gaelic to practice with coz they can tell u were U are going wrong, which books and tapes can't!

Good Luck

spanish senorita wrote:i don't know about irish, but i've been in spain 1 yr, and have learnt most of my spanish from songs and chatting to the spanish kids- try to find someone who speaks gaelic to practice with coz they can tell u were U are going wrong, which books and tapes can't!

Good Luck

That's a good way to learn, and one reason a lot of us hang out here. It's hard to find someone to speak Irish with unless one is lucky enough to live in or near a Gaeltacht (or can find a class nearby), but here we can at least work on our reading and writing skills.

I'm also a big fan of working from a structured method...either a book, or a structured book/audio or video course. I'm using "Teach Yourself Irish" in conjunction with "TeachMe," with hanging out here, and with listening to all the spoken and sung Irish I possibly can (RnaG, music CDs, etc.).

Redwolf

I hear Gael is a dying language and most people in ireland speak kind of a 'slang' of english, is this true?

adriannah77 wrote:I hear Gael is a dying language and most people in ireland speak kind of a 'slang' of english, is this true?

"Gael" isn't a language...do you mean "Irish Gaelic" ("Gaeilge")? If so, I wouldn't say it's a "dying language" (for one thing, it's taught in all the schools in Ireland), but it's only the day-to-day language for people in isolated parts of the country called "Gaeltachts." Most Irish people speak English as their day-to-day language (their own dialect, to be sure, but certainly not a "slang" form).

Redwolf