Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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236 of 239 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Irish Course Available, February 18, 2000
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!)
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86 of 88 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredibly intense learning program, July 23, 2004
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.
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75 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Comparison Of Two Language Textbooks, May 2, 2002
By A Customer
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.
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