Hello everyone

My name is Chris and I have taken it upon myself to get a relatively firm grasp on Irish. I have always loved learning new languages and can speak French and Chinese pretty well now, along with some studying of German and Japanese. I have preferred to study languages as far from English as possible to keep things interesting and I have to tell you, Gaeilge is definitely the hardest language I have ever undertaken. I appreciate any tips or pointers in learning, along with any programs or websites you can recommend.

I am currently using Pimsleurs mostly, which works with the Munster dialect.

Hi, Chris. Welcome to the Forum. Irish is certainly up there in complexity and exceptions to exceptions -though I don't think anything quite matches Japanese writing for weirdness. (I am a Japanese translator by profession.)

Anyway good luck with your studies and I hope we can help you whenever you get stuck.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

@Chris: I started in Irish about 2 years ago. I started with a little book series called "Tús Maith" that I really liked. It is mainly Irish with a Derry/Ulster twist, but it is a good little book/CD that has some Irish cultural stuff. I also would buy the "Focloir Scoile". You can get one for about 8 euros. It has a pronunciation guide that is real helpful. Then a MUST is to buy a thing called a Glance Card (runs about 4 euros). It is sort of a nutshell big one page "cheat sheet" that shows how the verbs and pronouns sort of work. Then someone on this forum can read that to you or I can send you a file. I can read it to you and send you a file of a little kid in Donegal saying it. Welcome to the Forum.

Glance Card:

http://www.dfwgaelicleague.com/files/GlanceCard.pdf

You'll find links to this and other useful resources in Nascanna Úsaideacha - Useful Links.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

欢迎新生参加！

Fáilte roimh an mhac léinn úr s’againne.

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Not a native speaker.

Always wait for at least three people to agree on a translation, especially if it’s for something permanent.

My translations are usually GU (Ulster Irish), unless CO (Standard Orthography) is requested.

I enjoyed Japanese because the pronunciations were so phonetic. Even Chinese to an extent. For both languages I definitely agree that its the writing and reading the characters that put them at another difficulty level all together. It's nice to see someone else who has grasped the English language, an East Asian, and Gaeilge. Now I know it is possible!

Thank you for all your tips! The hardest trouble I am having is being able to read and pronounce because it seems every region has their own spin on each word. Not to mention how non-phonetic most of it has seemed so far.

I've also been recommended this site, however navigation even seems to require a little bit of basic Gaeilge.
http://abairleat.lurgan.biz/moodle/regi ... Login.html



谢谢您. 我希望我很好学会爱尔兰语!

Irish spelling makes sense once you know the system and realise that the normal Latin rules don't apply. It is actually quite logical given the changes that occur. Dialect differences can be a pain but the dialects are fairly consistent within themselves.

我也会说中国话一点儿。我们学习爱尔兰语，加油！加油！

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

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Not a native speaker.

Always wait for at least three people to agree on a translation, especially if it’s for something permanent.

My translations are usually GU (Ulster Irish), unless CO (Standard Orthography) is requested.

谢谢，口口斯呢它


(I thought it was both: I speak Chinese a little versus I speak a little Chinese. )

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Haha—I just spent about a minute trying to figure out what those two first characters that seemed to be not displaying right and came up as just squares could be … and then it dawned on me what 口口斯呢它 was supposed to be. :lol:

(I suppose I ought really to be 椰子 )


That would logically make sense … but it doesn’t work.

I’m trying to think of any examples where 一点（儿） is used to modify a verb, but I can’t think of any. I don’t think it can. I don’t think you can do something a little in Chinese—if you say that you kind of do something, you’d use 有点（儿）+ verb (e.g., 我有点羡慕你 ‘I’m a bit envious of you’, i.e., ‘it’s a little bit that I envy you’ or something), but never 我羡慕你一点. That would mean something like ‘I envy this bit of yours’ or ‘if I envied you any more …’.

Besides, an adverb like that would precede the verb, not follow its object.

Edit: Wait, what was this thread about again?!?

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Not a native speaker.

Always wait for at least three people to agree on a translation, especially if it’s for something permanent.

My translations are usually GU (Ulster Irish), unless CO (Standard Orthography) is requested.