Customer Reviews

Learning Irish, New Edition: Text (Yale Language)

5 star:		(15)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Three years ago I decided to learn Irish, and in the next two years I bought three different courses. The first two were simply useless, (that's the obvious reason for my buying new courses) you could learn some phrases, but not construct sentences yourself.

Learning Irish, on the other hand, is an excellent book, which gives you a thorough vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. It consists of 36 lessons, all containing vocabularies, grammar instructions, texts and excercises. The cassets which accompany the course are recorded by native speakers, and gives you the exact pronouciation of the Irish spoken in Connemara and the Aran Islands.

Learning Irish is a very demanding course, but when you have completed it, you will be able to communicate confidently in Irish. (This is the only Irish language course of which I would say so). The different topics in the lessons make sure that you will be able to cope with all kinds of situation in Irish, and will take you far deeper into the Irish Culture than just a basic knowledge.

I went to live in Ireland for two months after completing this course, and I spent a good part of that time in na Gaeltachtaí, the Irish-speaking areas, and I didn't have to use English even once. My nextdoor neighbour was a native Irish-speaker, and the Irish he spoke is exactly the same as is used in this course.

If you are really serious about learning Irish, this course is for you.

(P.S. Do NOT buy only the casettes, they are only intended to help with your pronounciation!)

If your intention is to learn the language and not just how to throw out "help-me-I-need-directions" phrases, this is the way to go. Make sure you get the set with the tapes. Irish pronunciation is absolutely unconscionable. Fathomless, I tell you! Why on earth put all those letters in the middle or end of the word if you just already know you're not going to bother pronouncing them?? I digress. This book has one downfall. It teaches a little bit parts to whole. One lesson will tell you the vocabulary word "say" as in "they say." Many lessons later you learn "say" as in "I say." Rather than learning conjugation, you learn the word. HOWEVER, you do eventually learn conjugation (oh, dear, do you ever!), and you kinda hafta know some already conjugated words to make sentences more interesting than "there is a dog." Irish grammar is freakish, even more so than the strange at-the-end-of-the-sentence-is-a-verb German. Sometimes to express an action you use the English "to be" (Ta). This book walks you through it all. I do every lesson, copy the vocab to cards, practice the cards all the time, and listen to the blasted cassettes every time I'm in the car. So, every now and then, I take my husband's car....Anyways, it's really quite intense. Do not enter into this lightly! This is a language in dire straits. You can become a speaker and help to keep it alive.

After researching Irish language courses at my local libraries and on-line, I selected two textbooks for my own study of this language. The two books are Teach Yourself Irish by Diarmuid O Se (1993 edition) and Learning Irish by Micheal O. Siadhail (1995 edition). Before reviewing each one, let me first warn those wishing to learn the rudiments of this language that you may find Irish grammar, spelling, and pronunciation hopelessly complex and illogical. (Fortunately, it uses the Roman alphabet.) Whichever book you chose, proceed in small steps. Read just a chapter a day to keep your frustration to a minimum. I recommend beginning with Teach Yourself Irish, which I found the more enjoyable of the two. Each of its 20 chapters opens with short dialogues, topical as well as interesting. Next comes a review of grammar clearly explained at a very basic level. All of the chapters conclude with exercises requiring the reader to answer in short phrases or sentences. There are also illustrations scattered throughout the book, thus breaking up the monotony of the text. Too many other language books, like Learning Irish, lack pictures to liven up the text for the beginner. On the audiotapes for Teach Yourself Irish the dialogues have been re-created by native speakers who demonstrate, as I understand it, the Munster dialect.
If you want a more thorough grounding in the language, read Learning Irish next. In its 36 chapters it will reinforce what you have learned in Teach Yourself Irish, explain the grammar in greater depth, and expand your vocabulary. Each chapter begins with a laundry list of words. It is followed by a presentation of grammar which I found quite dry and boring. (It will put you to sleep if you are not careful!) Next there is a paragraph or two to translate, drawing on the words in the vocabulary list. Finally, there are sets of exercises to test your skills, including one English-to-Irish exercise. As a do-it-yourself language student, I found myself too lazy to write out the answers for the exercises in both books. Instead, I would translate by sight, while taking quick peeks at the answer key provided at the back of each book. The audiotapes for Learning Irish offer a detailed treatment of what the author considers the more standardised pronunciation found in Ireland today.
A word about dictionaries: The selection of Irish dictionaries currently on the market is disappointing. I ended up buying the Pocket Oxford Irish Dictionary because I thought that it was the best one for beginners. I am still waiting for the big publishing houses, namely Cassell's, Collins, or the Oxford University Press, to put out an up-to-date, standard Irish-English/English-Irish dictionary with a phonetic pronunciation guide for each entry. This book would serve as an essential reference for the intermediate or advanced student.

Irish, the ancient language of Ireland, is still a living language and spoken as the native tongue on the western seabord of Ireland; it is a language extremely rich in culture and literature. Today a revival is taking place in Ireland, and more and more people outside the traditional Irish-speaking areas are once again learning the tongue of their ancestors. The same revival is also taking place abroad - many Irish speakers can be found outside Ireland.

My grandmother, who was a native speaker, emigrated from Co. Cork while still young, but she never forgot her language. I learned quite a bit from her, and have had a burning interested in Irish since then.

When it comes to learning Irish, there is no other book that could match this brilliant book by Ó Siadhail. Indeed, I doubt there is any language course in any other language that equals it. It starts of from the absolute beginnings and take the learner through 36 extensive lessons. After having completed these lessons the learner should be quite confident in speaking an Irish ranging far beyond just daily topics.

Every chapter consists of four parts: a vocabulary, thorough grammar explanations, a text and excersises. The structure is perfectly logic, always building on what the learner already knows. The course advances quite fast, but never makes any sudden leaps. Thus, the learner never feels that he suddenly finds himself in troubbles due to not understanding the words or the grammar. The language taught in the course is natural spoken Irish, so the learner will be perfectly accustomed to hearing natural and idiomatic Irish.

In fact, even for a fluent Irish speaker this course is a catch, since it is so extensive as to be considered one of the best descriptions of the Irish dialect of Conamara. Thus, even after completing the book, the learner can come bakc to it again and again.

I definitely recommend this wonderful book to everyone who wishes to learn this wonderful language

Mícheál Ó Siadhail's "Learning Irish" is, quite simply, the text book we all started with who are now entering the Irish-speaking life. It teaches a living dialect of the labguage, instead of maintaining the fiction of the existence of a standard language outside the pulpits of official scribes. It also jettisons boldly those features of the standard grammar which are not alive anymore in spoken Irish. This is, of course, a mixed blessing. On the one hand it makes the learners more friendly towards native spoken Irish - no more written-language pedants with a hideous accent trying to tell the natives how they should speak Irish. On the other hand, reading literature after this course may require some readjustments to the more complex morphology of the written language. However, the book duly highlights the most difficult and idiomatic features of Irish grammar, instead of leaving the learner with a developed "what's it in English" syndrome, as too many textbooks do, thus producing intermediate learners with a better-than-native grasp of the genitive, but with no idea at all of the distinction between the two verbs "to be". Ó Siadhail firmly tells us about the most idiomatic parts of Irish, equipping us very well to meet the reality of the Gaeltacht.

Many others have reviewed fairly the strengths and weaknesses of LI. I wanted to offer advice to beginners wondering if this is the best book for their needs. Yahoo groups are making their way through LI as one group focused on Connemara dialect-- for the Cois Fharraige version as spoken along the Co Galway coast is that which Ó Siadhail teaches; other Yahoo groups are learning Munster or Ulster Irish with different texts; another group takes the Standard "school" Irish via Mairead Ní Ghrada's primer "Progress in Irish." So, you have options that combine introductory textbooks with web- based discussion lists, often with sound files added by learners. This improves upon the dodgy semi-audible cassettes that some editions of LI come with and others do not. A CD version is rumored.

This book also came out in different printings; the latest 1992-era cover boasts of it being an improved edition, but little changes within beyond a somewhat clearer font and resetting of the layout (not enough if you ask me-- this book takes scrutiny and sharp eyes to make out crucial accents over many small-type letters; the italics are not easily discerned from a quick glance of many passages). LI contains errors; the answer key is not always correct, and explanations occasionally are lacking for idioms or vocabulary necessary for what a chapter may expect you to translate. This can be a far more frustrating book than an idealistic learner may expect.

I have taught grammar in English, but the linguistic explanations provided here at times bewilder me. It's not a well-organized progression of content for each lesson. Not until Ch. 12 do you learn the copula. Verbs begin to be taught in greater number later than you'd expect. The author may insert essential information into a tiny footnote or a blip of a phrase (often an exception to a rule he's explaining, or an idiom otherwise not to be found in the 30 chapters) within an otherwise unrelated paragraph. This book, the back cover tells us, is for the self-tutored learner or the intrigued linguist, but it may please the latter who's able to understand the convoluted and compressed paradigms and examples better than the clueless newbie.

I do like the little texts ending each chapter to translate from Irish-- these are my "reward" for finishing a chapter after the grueling work of making the English sentences in the other exercise into Irish. Despite answer keys, much will elude you as to what Ó Siadhail wants you to write and what you thought you must write given the past lesson. Also, that lesson may give you many words that you will not use until much later-- if at all. This hit-and-miss approach may reflect real-life uses of a language learned in the real world, but it does try a learner's patience.

Still, it's the only book teaching a dialect between north and south, and thus considered as the Connacht mean between Munster and Ulster extremes! Unlike most primers, it plunges you into a dialect with its own irrational peculiarities, and this immersion is necessary once you leave standard "school" Irish texts for learners behind. However, for absolute beginners, I would supplement this with a more concise, friendlier introduction such as Gabriel Rosenstock's "Beginner's Irish." This concise text is more "updated" than "Progress in Irish," but "PiI" features short chapters and the latter is easier to consult; Rosenstock combines an overview of the language with samples of how it works and has evolved alongside lessons.

If you're only curious for now about the language's context and what it's like past and present, "The Irish Language" by Darerca Ní Chartúir is recommended. Grammatical explanations much more detailed but also much clearer than those in LI can be found in a reference guide that anyone slogging through LI will soon need: Donna Wong's "A Learner's Guide to Irish". (I review Rosenstock, Ní Chartúir, and Wong on Amazon.) Nollaig Mac Congáil's "Irish Grammar Book" is a shorter reference while Éamonn Ó Dónaill's "Teach Yourself Irish Grammar" (unlike the dreaded revision of "Teach Yourself Irish"!) is another useful self-learning text combining explanations and exercises.

Date: Sunday, February 06, 2000

As someone who had started before on various other courses, I found LEARNING IRISH simply excellent. You get the feeling from the beginning that the author is building your confidence while introducing you step by step to the Irish language. The boxed-off tables in the initial lessons are particularly useful. The build up of the vocabulary and the gradual introduction of the two verbs 'to be' and the handling of the noun are all outstanding. The texts attached to each lesson give it a life and context which is most helpful.

This is a course with no gimmicks. It's demanding but it works. The cassettes which accompany the book are clear and natural and I found them very helpful. I recommend LEARNING IRISH heartily to anyone who wishes to learn the Irish Language.

This is a teeth-gnashing grown-up course for serious students only! It is not "friendly", like Pimsleur. You will learn grammar and structure until you're blue in the face. This text is incredibly dense and compact, and requires the reader to take initiative in knowing how best to work for him/herself. Someone who has trouble doing this will have an impossible time with this textbook.

I find the indexing system to be inadequate; it is difficult to find what you're looking for. I find the vocabulary overly extensive. (Do we really need to know how to say "sheepskin" in Irish?) In the glossary, you'll find "tomorrow" but not "today". But these are small trifles, easily overcome, once you get used to how this author thinks and presents material.

One absolutely MUST use the cassettes. (But surely, this is true of any language, no?) The (quasi-)IPA prononciation system is helpful, but only when you listen as well. By the way, for those who know IPA, O'Shiadhail's usage in this text is idiosyncratic, and will not be helpful without studying the examples.

This is a great course, not for the faint-of-heart, but for those who really want to learn Irish in a bad way. For those, there is no course better at present.

I have been studying Irish for the last 2 1/2 years from a top professor in the area here in the states. At first we used the "Teach Yourself Irish" book and tapes for an into, and then she made her own materials. This book I have found is a good resource for finding lists of grammar, conjugations, vocab etc. I highly reccomend that since it is such a difficult language to find a qualified teacher who you can work with face to face, since much of the pronunciation is difficult and varies from county to county. But, if that isn't available to you or you have moved on from a class and want to study more, this is a great resource to reflect on! It has more mechanics than the conversation driven Teach Yourself, and goes more in deapth than any other book or book/tape set I've seen. Also, if you're looking for additional resources, check out www.readireland.com
Good luck! lena gra geal mo chroi, slan!

This is an outstanding introduction to modern Irish for the novice. No prior knowledge of Irish or other Celtic languages is assumed. I found this book extremely accesible and it served as an interesting window onto an aspect of Irish culture of which most Americans are ignorant. The text is very straightforward and didactic. Of the introductions to the Irish language now available, I felt that this was the most useful to someone trying to learn on his/her own. I could see that in a classroom setting, using this book would greatly speed one's developing mastery of Irish. Highly recommended!