64 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good for learning by listening, June 28, 2002
By A Customer
First, I have to confess that I belong to those who prefer to
learn a language by reading it - not just by listening. But if
you want to learn by listening this is indeed the course for you.
It is comprehensive and easy to use and you will be able to
communicate in Irish after fulfilling it.
As someone who has lived in Ireland and speak rather fluent Irish I would like to point out that the other reviewers are absolutely right when they say that this course teaches Munster Irish. It is one of the three major Irish dialects and as good a choice as any other dialect. Considering the fact that there already exits courses in the other dialects I'd say it's a wise choice to use Munster Irish. Besides, most famous Irish writers came from Munster and wrote in Munster Irish.
Since Brad has had some comments about Munster Irish I'd like to correct them. Munster Irish is NOT a minor dialect, it is still a living language which is widely taught both in schools and in courses for adults and foreigners. What Brad terms "Connaught Irish" (sic!) is a number of different dialects. A course could very well be based upon one of these dialect (The excellent course "Learning Irish" is just that) but they are neither more nor less correct or appropriate. I've lived in Ireland, both in areas where Munster Irish and Cois Fhairrge Irish (=what Brad calls "Connaught Irish") are spoken and I can promise that there are no problems with mutual comprehension, nor would the Irish speakers in these two areas understand Brad's comments about Munster.
All three major Irish dialect (Munster, Connacht and Ulster) are equal, and there are courses in all of them. Pimsleur is a conversational course in Munster Irish and it does a pretty good job of giving the beginner a basic foundation of Irish.
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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
These tapes are fantastic, January 1, 2000
I just finished listening to and learning the 8 lessons in the Pimsleur Irish Basic Course. It is fantastic. Like all the Pimsleur programs, they take plenty of time to help you with pronunciation. (You'll need it with Irish.)Yet, they still move along quickly, teaching you more and more each lesson. The only downer was when I reached the end of Tape 8 and realized there was no more. I ENCOURAGE ANYONE WHO LIKES THIS COURSE TO WRITE SIMON & SCHUSTER AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO PRODUCE A FULL 30-LESSON COMPREHENSIVE IRISH COURSE. Irish is a fascinating language, and this is, without a doubt, the best way to tackle learning it.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
At least it forces you to try speaking aloud!, May 8, 2006
The pros and cons of these tapes have been sufficiently enumerated by the reviewers who've posted here. What I want to add is that the "First Course" version (a green cover, no Celtic Cross, more rectangular, whereas the Quick & Simple version is in a square white box) has not 4 CDs but 5. This 5th, called a User's Manual, explains how Dr. Paul Pimsleur developed his method of language learning and then introduces the rationale and set-up that the lessons will follow. Why mention this? On the 4CD newer version, it seems that no orientation is given. I happened to find the "Short Course" version, and having heard the 5th disc first, it greatly eased my expectations when I cued up the first lesson. Naturally, when you're beginning to study a language where for an English learner, Irish orthography differs so much from the spoken sounds, further jitters caused by not knowing why the Pimsleur method eschews texts only worsen one's readiness to learn Irish by imitation and example, as done here.
I leave the Munster dialect debate aside; I think that having speakers in all three major regional dialects would have been preferable, to condition one's ear to how Irish is spoken in the media. Now that you can get RnG feeds at your computer, hearing "real" Irish in its native setting is possible anywhere. The use of these tapes, I suppose, is to make you wrap your tongue and clear your throat around strenuous attempts to keep trying to speak out loud a bit of Irish. Granted, by the end of 8 hours you'll be able to hold a rudimentary conversation, but if you know that the course only aims at this limited ability, perhaps you'll better be able to judge if it's the kind of learning aid that works for you. These tapes are in many public libraries too, by the way. For eight hours of drill, they're cheaper than any tutor and for learners like me who get too nervous to speak well when put on the spot in live settings, these tapes offer a more encouraging environment to learn in.
I agree with many users: not having the text in front of me was far more a disadvantage than a help, since I learn best by "seeing" in my mind's eye the spelling of the words that I am speaking. Not being able to do this with Pimsleur does put stress on the learner, but if used in conjunction with other tapes and books, it does force you to try to enunciate, however imperfectly, some approximation of spoken Irish. I kept figuring out after being found wrong by the "answer" on the tape that only belatedly could I match the phrase said to the my delayed realization of how the phrase would be written. You have to repeat lessons, therefore, to get the value out of these tapes. That User's Guide 5th disc tells you that competency is when you're getting around 80% of the answers right, and I know that nearly no honest learner just starting out is likely to score this all the way through eight hours--especially given the dialectal distinctions between the two voices heard and articulation hurdles you must jump.
True, however drastically the words as written differ from those spoken in Irish, not having a sense of how "ca bhfuil" is said vs. spelled will not help any learner wishing to set a solid foundation in Irish. Thus, I would take on these tapes only after having a basic foundation in at least having read in book form the phrases generally employed at this level of conversation. Their one advantage: any tapes goading you to say something out loud make you less of a passive learner overconfident that simply looking at dialogues in a primer will push you to fluency.
I do wish that the makers would make a series by Pimsleur with advanced levels of Irish for conversation; this type of speaking practice beyond the few phrases taught here is a sorely needed product that outside Ireland itself is still often far from readily available on CD for higher-level but still beginning learners.
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