Irish

assorti

Dia dhuit,

Rafael is ainm dom.

I am from Poland and I would love to learn Irish but I am very surprised that there is very little courses available. I was thinking there would be loads but no. I really do not want to spend 250 euro for a 10 days course.

It is a shame that in Ireland Irish is quite forgotten and that government is not introducing some programs fro bringing it back. It would be nice if Ireland was totally bilingual.

Go raibh maith agat

Krusader

I agree with you, Rafael
The prices of some courses are less then inspiring
Gaelchúltur €240
Gael linn is over €300

People can't afford these prices in these times
The government have free/cheap English classes for immigrants, they should have Irish ones aswell for everyone

assorti

Like when I was in Barcelona government there has free classes of Catalan for everybody who wants it and free Spanish as well.

It should be introduced as well here. Country without a language is without identity.

Maybe in the future...

Micilin Muc

In my experience, people don't usually place any value on things that are free. If Irish classes were free, you'd have people dropping in and out of the class which is very distracting for the other students, and for the teacher who has to explain things again that were explained before.

On the other hand e300 is alot of money, be it well spent if utilised effectively (revising between classes and reading books and listening to radio shows).

Did you know the Government provide a tax break for people who undertake courses in foreign languages, but not for Irish language classes?

assorti

Well you have definitely a point with free classes. I am a teacher myself so I know it would be very distracting.

The thing is that I would pay e300 but what kills me is that I will never use it properly. There is no way I can speak it afterwords. TG4 and nowhere else.

Are you serious with the tax? That is disgrace.

Micilin Muc

Unfortunately it's not that easy to practice your Irish unless you seek out events and opportunities to use it. If you're based in Dublin, Club Sonas would be a great opportunity to use it.

I found out about that tax break on the Alliance Française brochure, as far as I know Conradh na Gaeilge are lobbying for that tax break to be extended to Irish language courses.

davedonie

Does anybody remember the series "now your talking"? I found it alright. Try google now your talking rafael. It should be available in DVD. I remember it being easy to follow.

Micilin Muc

Now You're Talking was succeeded by Turas Teanga. Same authors, same levels I think. Available from www.rte.ie

Anthony16

assorti wrote: »

Dia dhuit,

Rafael is ainm dom.

I am from Poland and I would love to learn Irish but I am very surprised that there is very little courses available. I was thinking there would be loads but no. I really do not want to spend 250 euro for a 10 days course.

It is a shame that in Ireland Irish is quite forgotten and that government is not introducing some programs fro bringing it back. It would be nice if Ireland was totally bilingual.

Go raibh maith agat

I got an a1 in irish in my leaving and i cant stand it!!!!Thankfully ill never have to do it again:)

Micilin Muc

Anthony16 wrote: »

I got an a1 in irish in my leaving and i cant stand it!!!!Thankfully ill never have to do it again:)

Cheers Anthony, Ireland is lucky to have you.

pog it

@ Rafael: I can definitely recommend 'Learning Irish' by Micheáil Ó Siadhail which is based on Conamara Irish. It is avail with cds and is c.40 euro- it should be worth every penny. And after that why not join in on some free conversation groups which are facilitated by a teacher. These are avail in libraries all over Dublin for example, in Galway at Conradh na Gaeilge, etc. There should be one near you that is free of charge.

Now I can't hunt it down at the mo at all, but there is also a free irish course on the BBC website which teaches the Donegal dialect of Irish. It has some really really helpful stuff in there, esp for beginner and intermediate level and I have learned loads from it.

And Rafael, above you have an example of the people that just love to hate Irish. It's a sad experience when you are Irish, proud of your heritage and trying to do what you can to make the experience of the next generation as good as possible and keep it alive. Where I work which I'd say is typical breakdown of people and ages, I would say that 25% of people do have some time for Irish but still wouldn't go to the trouble to learn it, and the others have expressed indifference and one in particular let me know how much a waste of time it is. It's sad when you find yourself listening to someone Irish going on about how Spanish is far more useful than Irish.. and the same person will prob speak Spanish as much he will Irish in his lifetime- i.e. not at all!

Sure what can you do, only do your own bit, when you have kids bring them up with Irish as much as you can, and show them how lucky we are to have the heritage that we have.

Thanks for taking an interest and come back and ask questions if you wonder about anything! I do all the time, and it is a really really big help and another element to the learning experience.

Ádh mór!

Anthony16

Micilin Muc wrote: »

Cheers Anthony, Ireland is lucky to have you.

All my friends hated irish for the leaving(there were about 12 of us) and its all down to those useless poems,stories and all that crap.All of them did irish since 1st year and yet ,at the end of 6th year few of them could string a basic sentence together,since so much emphasis was put on the poems and that.The system is a disaster and it drives people away from the subject

Micilin Muc

That's fine. I hated Maths in school. But I don't hop into a random thread in the maths forum on boards.ie and tell them I hate Maths. Irish is a school subject for some and a language for others, there's a difference.

Anthony16

Anthony16 wrote: »

All my friends hated irish for the leaving(there were about 12 of us)

Open question, did you or any of your friends get help with your Irish homework from your parants?

The reason I ask is, I am helping my kids with theirs and they seem to like Irish.

davedonie

I never got help with mine. I found Irish easy at the time so didnt need any. My cousin was gaeilscoil and sends her own kids there now aswell and I know she helps her kids if she can. Its amazing how much of it you forget when your not using it. As a rule of thumb, help is good

Anthony16

Micilin Muc wrote: »

That's fine. I hated Maths in school. But I don't hop into a random thread in the maths forum on boards.ie and tell them I hate Maths. Irish is a school subject for some and a language for others, there's a difference.

Well,if the subject was more interesting then more people would be inspired to try and speak the language.All the ordinary level class remember is learning off tons of "stair" and very little irish.

Anthony16

Deleted User wrote: »

Open question, did you or any of your friends get help with your Irish homework from your parants?

The reason I ask is, I am helping my kids with theirs and they seem to like Irish.

Not peronally but one of my best friends got help from his mom(shes an irish teacher) and it didnt change much.He dropped down to pass soon after(against her wishes).If the leaving cert irish course was changed,it would make a huge difference.I can tell this easily as i did my leaving last year

Rougies

I agree with Anthony16 about the Irish Leaving Cert course. I did honours Irish 10 years ago (got a C something) and I'm only now beginning to take an interest in the language again. The course left a sour taste in my mouth and put me off the language for years. It's too old fashioned, boring and the workload is very high (for honours anyway).
It's in dire need of an overhaul.

An gal gréine

Anthony16 wrote: »

Well,if the subject was more interesting then more people would be inspired to try and speak the language.All the ordinary level class remember is learning off tons of "stair" and very little irish.

The curriculum badly needs an overhaul with more emphasis on spoken Irish a must. If that were accomplished people would then use what they have in everyday situations. What's the point in requiring learners of a language to try to understand poetry ? Students like Anthony16 are being lost to the language because of this. Surely fluency is what should be aimed at first and having a fist at intricate poetry afterwards would'nt be such an ordeal !

Anthony16

An gal gréine wrote: »

The curriculum badly needs an overhaul with more emphasis on spoken Irish a must. If that were accomplished people would then use what they have in everyday situations. What's the point in requiring learners of a language to try to understand poetry ? Students like Anthony16 are being lost to the language because of this. Surely fluency is what should be aimed at first and having a fist at intricate poetry afterwards would'nt be such an ordeal !

True,the poetry,scealta and stair should all be scrapped.After 6 years of secondary education,a lot of ppl cant string some basic sentences together in irish.Its a travesty.The new curriculum being brought in wont help much as there is still an emphasis on the pros and the tapework has been gotten rid of which makes no sense at all.
Honestly,though everyday in that class was such torture for so many of us and as the saying goes "tir gan teanga,tir gan anam"

LimeFruitGum

assorti wrote: »

Dia dhuit,

Rafael is ainm dom.

I am from Poland and I would love to learn Irish but I am very surprised that there is very little courses available. I was thinking there would be loads but no. I really do not want to spend 250 euro for a 10 days course.

It is a shame that in Ireland Irish is quite forgotten and that government is not introducing some programs fro bringing it back. It would be nice if Ireland was totally bilingual.

Go raibh maith agat

Dia duit a Rafael

You can go to Irish language exchanges (for free ) in the Ilac library in Dublin. Quite a few other libraries in Dublin do them as well.

Conradh na Gaeilge teach Irish at beginner's level and it lasts a year. I think it would be around 300€ or thereabouts.

makl

its not as expensive in the conradh. 200 squid.

www.cnag.ie

https://cnag.ie/index.php?page=course&action=view&course_id=107 (beginners dublin)

assorti wrote: »

Dia dhuit,

Rafael is ainm dom.

I am from Poland and I would love to learn Irish but I am very surprised that there is very little courses available. I was thinking there would be loads but no. I really do not want to spend 250 euro for a 10 days course.

It is a shame that in Ireland Irish is quite forgotten and that government is not introducing some programs fro bringing it back. It would be nice if Ireland was totally bilingual.

Go raibh maith agat

conchubhar1

oral has been increased to 40% and aural is 10%.

that is 50% on useful language skills and 50% because it is a subject and a language that like others you study poetry, stories etc etc etc.