Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Gaelic: Complete Audio CD Program

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I got this tape and book set about 2 1/2 years ago in 1999. I started on my own with absolutely no one else to practice with. In the summer of 2001 I went to Scotland to attend a short 2 week course in Scottish Gaelic at Sabhal Mor Ostaig on the Isle of Skye. They had 8 levels, one per week. After I had my interview they put me straight into level 5! Mind you, I had NO ONE else to speak with. The tapes REALLY help with the pronunciation, which is the hardest thing about this language in my opinion, b/c words are not spelled how they sound to an native English speaker. If you read through every part of the chapter and treat it just like a textbook, and if you do all of the exercises in the book in the proper way, you will have no choice but to learn this language as best as it is possible without a live teacher. If you want to get back in touch with your Scottish roots, or you just love the celts and want to feel cool by speaking a beautiful and ancient language, then this book and tape set is for you.

First, I would like to make one point absolutely clear: this book DOES NOT teach you Irish(-Gaelic), it teaches Scottish-Gaelic. I am a speaker of Irish myself, and I've met at least tens of beginners who have wanted to learn the Gaelic language of Ireland (Gaeilge, in Irish), and confused it with the Gaelic language of Scotland (Gaidhlig, in Scottish Gaelic). So, if you want to learn Irish, I would recommend "Learning Irish" by Micheal O Siadhail instead. If, however, Scottish Gaelic is the language you want to learn, this book is indeed quite good, provided you buy the book as well as the tapes (Gaelic pronunciation can be very confusing for beginners). This book is based largely on standard Gaelic, and contains conversations, word-lists and grammar explanations. The structure is quite clear and straight-forward, and should not present any major problems to the dedicated learner.

I would, however, want to point out the fact that a new Gaelic course will be available in a few months, Colloquail Gaelic. From what I've seen of that book, it is the best book on Gaelic available, and if you don't need to learn Gaelic immediately, I would advise you to wait. As someone with experience from language-corses in 23 languages, I have to say that the books in the Teach Yourself series normally belong to the worst books. This book is not so bad as most other in the TY-series, but I would advice you to wait for the "Colloquial Gaelic".

This is one of the most useful Gaelic books I have used. Interesting lessons and activities are combined with cultural notes. The tapes are necessary for pronunciation. Like most books, it can only teach you to read and write. When used in conjunction with a conversation group or organized lessons, this book works very well.

To use along with "Gaelic : A Complete Course for Beginners," I recommend Morag MacNeill's "Everyday Gaelic" and "Dwelly's Gaelic/English dictionary." You'll soon be on your way with this wonderful language.

I am a student of foreign language grammars and have a good collection of old and new texts in several languages... I consider the Teach Yourself Gaelic book and tapes to be at the very top of my list for several reasons. First, the conversations are extremely well designed and recorded. All points of grammar are contextualized by examples and very cleverly imbedded in the conversations, which are lively, pertinent to general conversation needs, and do not bore one even after many repetitions. If one memorizes the conversations the most important features of Gaelic grammar will be learned more or less automatically without the drudgery of the intensive prescriptive explanations and fill-in-the-blank drills which are endemic in most gammars. Second, points of grammar are stripped of the dross and complexity which can turn off the beginning student. Grammar is presented logically, succinctly, and in a brain-friendly manner. Third, the vocabulary used is both comprehensive and useful for general conversation needs. I teach Gaelic... and I highly recommen this course.

This is the best general coursebook for Scottish Gaelic for beginners. While some of the material could have been better organized and presented, Teach Yourself Gaelic contains all the grammar you need for conversation and writing, and a good basic vocabulary. I highly recommend buying the package with the CDs rather than the book alone; it is essential to have exposure to the spoken language as Gaelic has a number of sounds which don't exist in English. I also highly recommend purchasing the Teach Yourself Gaelic Dictionary by Boyd Robertson and Iain MacDonald (ISBN 0071426671) together with the Teach Yourself Gaelic course -- this is the best two-way (Gaelic-English and English-Gaelic) dictionary available and is absolutely indispensable for every student of the language.

I bought this pack without high expectations but because it looked better than the alternatives.

Let me say at the outset that the book by itself is useless for teaching anybody Gaelic. I have yet to see any useful written material on Gaelic pronunciation, and this book does not even try. My guesses, even as an experienced linguist, were far off the mark. With the CD's however it is another matter - they are excellent, though the learning curve is steep at first and a few written tips of things to look out for would have been helpful.

Each unit contains (primarily) a dialogue, with key expressions collected at the end, a grammar section and a useful selection of exercises. All this material is professionally organized, and the level of the grammar explanations is probably about right for most learners - clear and thorough enough without any danger of overload. For the first half of the book there are also sections on Gaelic terms against their cultural background.

After working through about half of the book, I can say that I am pleased with the purchase, and feel that I am already getting the hang of this language far more quickly than I would have imagined. But don't forget the CD's.

I think this set has aquired some negativity it does not deserve. For one, it never claimed to be teaching Irish, it's a matter of proper terminology - if you want to learn Irish, buy a book that says IRISH. Nor does it claim to be an on-the-go trainer; of course it's book dependent.

I highly recommend this, it is the most thorough course available for beginners. The other course mentioned hereabouts, "Colloquial Gaelic", does NOT do as good a job teaching the language, focusing on phrases rather than giving one a full understanding of the functions of Gaelic grammar, a must in order to learn this complicated language.

TY's kit does an excellent job teaching the really useful elements of speech. We learn conversational ballast rather than the mostly-ubiquitous "this is a book" lines too often taught. Lessons are given in managable chunks, and the background sections make for interesting reading. The edition does stand in need of a little revision, being unchanged for over a decade, and a little more audio material would be nice, but as a beginner's kit, it does its job well.

I've owned this kit for a number of years, making a little more progress each time I turn to it. Gaelic is best learned this way, along with a dictionary to browse through, and of course listening to much good Gaelic music (I recommend Runrig and Capercaillie).

I have so far found this course to be a very useful aid to studying Scottish Gaelic (Gaidhlig). I have the newer revision with different cover art than the revision pictured here at [...], but the text are nearly identical between the revisions, if not absolutely the same. What's important for a beginner in learning to speak this language are good recordings of native speakers, and this book has two companion tapes to go with it. Be sure you buy them, they will save you lots of trouble with pronunciation - Gaidhlig spelling differs enough from English to confuse and discourage a new learner, but with the tapes, learning becomes not as confusing but teases one into learning more instead. When a learner has a [...] for a live radio news program broadcast in Gaidhlig at 1p.m. EST M-F. This book/tape set has helped me understand the broadcast well enough that I can pick up the gist of a conversation after only about a month's worth of good study time.

The tapes, accompanied by the book, have been useful in the reading and pronounciation of Scottish Gaelic. I do however, advise purchasing an English/Gaelic dictionary as well. One of the best sources I've found for the Gaelic language.

This set is a great introduction to Scots Gaelic, but the book really needs an English-Gaelic dictionary and phrase list to make it more useful for English speakers. The Gaelic Vocabulay at the end is good if one wishes to look up a Gaelic word to find its English meaning, but if one wants to quickly reference an English phrase with the Gaelic version, say, how to say "Good Morning" one cannot. (It's "Madainn Math", by the way) Because of this, I would recommend buying a separate English-Gaelic dictionary as an additional resource.