Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Beginners Intro to Irish, August 29, 2001
Compared to most of the 'travel-focused' language courses available, Irish on Your Own is a welcome change. The lessons are clear, and build on one another very well; the examples in the book and on tape are presented in a normal, 'everyday' atmosphere. Many different speakers, and many examples of pronunciation on the tapes outweigh the lack of pronunciation guidelines in the book (while the english translation is always given, it's often hard to puzzle out just how bhfuil is pronounced 'will', for example.) It does make it harder to learn written Irish; however, this course is not meant to teach you anything beyond conversation, I do not think. New words are presented as part of normal conversations, and are introduced a few at a time, and they are presented at normal speaking speed. Many other taped courses leave the learner with a painfully slow understanding of the language, and they often cannot function in a natural conversation. This is not a problem with the examples on the tapes. The book does present some grammer, although it is very low-key. It also doesn't address spelling or other peculiarities of the langugage well. However, for a casual speaker, these are probably not necessary. If you are looking for an indepth, serious study of Irish, then O'Siadhail's 'Learning Irish' is a good, although more daunting, choice. Irish on You Own is in the Ulster dialect, but understanding the other two main dialects is not that difficult. The lessons do not point out the differences in most cases. I'd definitely recommend this. It was my first introduction to Irish, and I was comfortable with the language very quickly--enough to hold simple conversations with confidence in my pronunciation and ability to communicate. A wonderful choice!!
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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!, March 10, 2003
This is an excellent course, and the one that finally broke me through to a higher plane of fluency in Irish. It is refreshingly modern, lively, and easier to listen to than many other Irish courses I've tried.Don't be scared off by Irish spelling--it's actually very regular, once you get used to all the "h"s! It is very, very important to spend a good deal of time listening to (and speaking) the material for each lesson BEFORE reading and writing it. Fortunately, this course is put together in a way that makes this possible--the English translations are given on the tape right along with the Irish, so there's no need to have your nose in the book all the time. Listening and speaking the lesson FIRST will steer you around the eyes-glued-to-the-page pitfall that sabotages so many language learners. Learning without looking at the book might be unnerving at first, but it is well worth the effort. As your ears and brain do what they do best, your comprehension and conversational confidence will soar; learning by ear first is actually the most important step you can take towards becoming a strong reader and writer of Irish. Ádh mór--good luck, and many thanks to Éamonn and Deirbhile for this wonderful course!
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Irish Course - probably the best for beginners!, November 6, 2000
This is a great product! Very professionally done. As has been mentioned elsewhere, it is definitely the Ulster dialect of Irish, but that shouldn't scare off anyone. The book, and audio are very learner-friendly. It is a great book/audio combo to start out with in your adventure of learning Irish. I only wish that the video tapes that make up the originally aired TV program from which these audio tapes came were available for purchase. Short of that, this is best Irish course to begin studying Irish with that I have come across.
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