Hi!
I'm a girl on 14, that wonna learn Irish. i have used "Talk Now" but as I saw someone else said, so little for so much money! I wonder what I should start with. Learning Irish or Teach Yourself Irish?

Love Linnéa

Hi Linnéa!

I've written some rather long posts about the choice between Learning Irish and Teach Yourself Irish on this message-board. If you can't find them I'll try to look them up myself. In short:

DEFINITELY Learning Irish. I'm struggling to find one single thing that would be better in Teach Yourself Irish... Okay, there is one. TYI introduces the greetings from the beginning. In Irish we great each other with:

Dia duit (to one person) / Dia daoibh (to many)

The reply is
Dia is Muire duit / Dia is Muire daoibh

Right, now there is nothing you could win by not buying Learning Irish ;-)

Seriously, I cannot stress how much better that book is.

BTW, Linnéa is a very typical Swedish name. Any connections?

Hi Jonas!

I will look after Learning Irish then.

And yeah, I'm from Sweden so it is a connection there. Where are you from?

Linnéa

Hej igen!

Jag är från Finland, född och uppvuxen i Jakobstad i Österbotten. Mitt emot Umeå ungefär, och i Österbotten talar ca 80-90% svenska som modersmål. Numera bor jag i Helsingfors där jag studerar, och jag har också bott på Irland i irisktalande områden. Jag började lära mig iriska då jag var 18 år just med hjälp av Learning Irish och efter att ha gått igenom hela kursen (tog ca ett halvår) åkte jag till Irland några månader och upptäckte att jag faktiskt kunde klara mig helt och hållet på iriska ;-)

Det är klart, också efter att du är klar med Learning Irish är det nödvändigt att verkligen få möjlighet att prata iriska för att kunna lära sig det rent praktiskt. Den första månaden gick lite trögt men efterhand blev det bara enklare. Idag talar jag endast iriska med mina vänner i västra Irland och jag håller också kontakt med dem via e-mail på iriska varje vecka. Kort sagt, idag talar jag så gott som flytande iriska och så långt tror jag nog inte jag skulle ha kommit om jag inte haft hjälp av Learning Irish.

Bästa stället att köpa boken på är sannolikt http://www.litriocht.com , det är mycket billigare än i Sverige/Finland och dessutom stöder du då en organisation som arbetar på att förstärka iriskan.

Om du har fler frågor eller undrar över något hjälper jag gärna till.

Slán go fóill / Hälsningar,
Jonas

Hej Jonas!
takk så mycket!I understand everything you say, but I'm not that good at writing swedish. cause I was born in sweden, but moved from sweden to New Zealand when I was 4. But I moved back again when I was 13 ( now I'm 14) so I aren't that good. sorry.

I looked on the website and it's great. It's much cheaper and you can get a lot of other interesting stuff there to. Have you ever bought something there? If you have do you have something to recomend?

Linnéa

A Linnéa,

Níl mé Sualannach ar chor as bith, ach...

I've bought several books from litriocht.com, and it is a good company to do business with.

If you're REALLY serious about learning Irish --and you shouldn't mess with _Learning Irish_ if you're not, because it's hard work -- you will also want the best dictionaries:

Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla le Niall O Dónaill, and
English Irish Dictionary le Tomás de Bhaldraithe

If you're looking for books to read in Irish,
_An Phluais Ama_ le Claire Dagger is a fast-moving fantasy (The Cave of Time) about some teenagers saving the world. It's not very long, and is easy to read. There's a sequel which I haven't read yet (Filleann an Deamhan).

Ádh mór ort!

--Al Evans

Aontaím le Jonas. I agree with Jonas, Linnéa. "Learning Irish" is the best, but some people find it daunting and confusing. If you learn what is in the book, you will be well equipped to go to the Gaeltacht and converse with the locals. Go n-éirí an t-ádh leat! -- Tomás

Hi.
I'm also a 14 year old that wonna learn irish.
I think I will do like you guys said and buy Learning Irish.

Andreas

Ádh mór ort leis an foghlaim, a Andrias. Mas rud é go bhfuil deacrachtaí agat, scriobh chugainn anseo.

Good luck with the learning Andreas. If you find that you are having difficulties, write to us here.

Slan go fóill,

Oliver

Thank you Oliver.

Jonas, is it a lot of people from scandinavia that is learning irish. I'm from norway my self. And I saw that you where from Finland and Linnéa from Sweden.

Andreas

Andreas, I would say that there is an increasing interest in Irish here in Finland. When I started to learn back in 1997 (not that long ago...) it was almost impossible to find any material on Irish. Neither libraries nor bookstores carried any courses in Irish. These days you can find them everywhere and that would indicate there is a growing demand for them. Still, I know very few people in Scandinavia who speak fluent Irish. The most famous ones include professor Anders Ahlqvist from Finland and professor Bo Holmström from Sweden. Anders Ahlqvist is professor in Old Irish at Galway University and a really nice man, I've met him a couple of times. Then there are some like myself who have learned the language more or less fluently, but we aren't that many.

Norway has produced some of the finest experts on Celtic languages, Carl Marstrander, Carl Borgström, Magne Oftedal and Alf Sommerfelt. No other nation except Ireland can show so many leading experts (well, if Wales and Scotland and England are combined they do have quite a lot). Still, they were active during the period between 1910-1950. In their time there was even a journal of Celtic languages published in Norway. So Norway has by far the greatest tradition in this area while Finland and Sweden have been the leading Scandinavian countries within the field of Celtic languages for the lst 30 years. As I said, I know people in both Finland and Sweden who speak fluent Irish but I've never met any Irish speaker from Norway or Denmark.

A Andreas, a chara,

It may be no harm to say that the greatest Irish novel, 'Cré na Cille' by Máirtín Ó Cadhain, has been translated into both Norwegian and Danish. You can check it out here on the bottom of page 5, in Eng. & Irish:

http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/NLI_News_Winter_2001.pdf

http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/ctsl/MOC.html

Should the day dawn sometime that you're about to launch into the original, you shall find the translation of great benefit, tá mé cinnte - I'm sure. Go n-éirí an Ghaeilg leat - Good luck with the Irish, but take it easy and enjoy it.

Tá daoine go leor faoi chomaoin agat, a Jonas, as ucht do chuid freagraí anseo. Is spéis liom go mór i gcónaí iad. GRMMA.

Go raibh míle maith agat, a chara. Cuireann sé gliondar ar mo chroí é sin a chloisint uaitse, tá meas ana-mhór agam ar do chuid eolais.

An bhfuil Cré na Cille léite agat?
Níl sé léite agam féin, caithfead é sin a admháil; bhíos á lorg nuair a bhíos i nGaillimh ach theip orm é a fháil. Tá an leabhar "Cois Caoláire" agam, áfach.

Cré na C?
Sea a Jonas, léas sna seachtóidí é agus bhreacas nótaí go díograiseach go leataobh agus mé ina bhun. Bhí mé ag gabháil de le coicís nuair a thosnaigh R.na Gaeltachta ar an tsraith a rinneadar air a chraoladh. Thosnaigh mé ag coimeád mo léamh ar an leabhar, mórán ar aon bhord leis an tsraith raidió. Le himirt an leabhair agus an raidió orm, thréigeas, ar ana-thapaigh, canúint Uladh ar feadh achair 15 bl. nó breis.

Thugas aghaidh ar Thaibhdhearc na Gaillimhe arú anuraidh le blaiseadh den leagan dráma a rinneadh air, mar gur bhraitheas go mba rud stairiúil amach is amach an deis sin. Caithfead a rá nár loiceadh ar an lucht féachana an oíche sin. Ba cheann d'oícheanta ba shaíochtúla 'mo shaoil í. Má thagann an deis thart amach anseo agus tú in Éirinn, mholfainn duit a thiomáint ann más fada gearr an t-achair uait é.

..., ana-thapaigh, ...

Mo dhearmhad.