Improving My Gaeilge

general_x

I, like many Irish folks, have the basics of Irish, but I'd like to improve drastically. Can someone recommend a decent and interesting book to help me along the way? Too many Irish classes were spent with the head on the desk I'm afraid :rolleyes: Go raibh maith agat

hullaballoo

Your best bet is to go out and get some sort of one-to-one private tuition, but that's only if you're serious about it.

Depending on your level, you could buy either a Junior Cert course text book, or a Leaving Cert one. The LC one is called "Díograis Nua" and is quite legible. Work throught the contents of that with a dictionary, and you'll find that your Irish will drastically improve.

I can hear you saying, "that sounds like some amount of work!" and you would be right, unfortunately, that's what it takes to learn a language. There is no quick-fix for linguistic prowess, unless you're naturally talented.

Red Alert

If comhrá is what you're after and you're in college you should possibly check out the local Cumann Gaelach or similar.

A visit to the Irish Language centre in harcourt street might be a good idea - they could point you in the right direction.

GaryOR

I'd shy away from the leaving cert books and the like, you don't want to kill off any interest you might have to start learning again.

I'd recommend "Teach yourself Irish", it worked fairly well for me as I had forgotten everything a D in pass Irish gave me 6 years ago. It starts from basics, but not too basic.
It would be a good place to start. and it comes with audio.

After reading that I started "Turas Teanga", which was very good now in fairness. I've being learning (re-learning) a little over a year now and can read and understand conversation without any real difficulty.

Its not as hard to learn these days with so much Irish T.V./papers/radio and the like.
Courses are supposed to be a good idea, I havent given them a go, bit too shy I suppose!!

anywy best of luck

uch

Give Buntús Cainte a try very dated but still excellent, can't go wrong with €10 for a book and CD

Moonbeam

http://www.rte.ie/tv/turasteanga/ is pretty good