Does anyone know if LI has Cds available as well as tapes? I don't own a cassette player anymore and they are so inconvenient conpared to CD's that I hesitate to spend the money on them. I already have found that TYI is not what I am looking for and LI seems to be the most recommended for those who actually want to learn to speak it as a language, not just to learn some clever phrases.

Gillian

Hi Gillian,

No, sorry, as far as I know Learning Irish only has tapes available. I agree that it certainly would be nice if they'd offer CDs too.

Regards,

Searlas

I agree completely, Gillian. The lack of CDs is a problem with Learning Irish, and I do indeed understand TYI is probably not what you're looking for.

I dislike language courses on cassettes. What I do is that I use my old player to tranfer the cassettes into mp3-files, much more convenient. However, if you don't have a cassette player at all that is of course not an option.

I have a question, Jonas. You said you transfer the cassettes into mp3-files. How do you do that because I have a tape player, but like you said, tapes can sometimes be inconvenient. When I listen to them, I have this horrible habit of rewinding them and having to have to find where I was again besides the fact that since the remote thing that goes with my CD player only works for CD's, I have to lay on the floor when listening to them so I can rewind and fast forward. You can imagine how attractive that is. Is it very hard to transfer them into mp3-files, as in, could even I do it?

Natalie, are you on a Mac or Windows? That will determine what software you use.

Hardware-wise, it's just a matter of getting a cable with mini-audio plugs at both ends. Plug one end into the headphone jack of your tape player; plug the other end into your sound card's input jack (or the audio input jack on a notebook computer).

Not only have I converted all my Irish language audio tapes to MP3's, I now listen to them on the way to work in my car on my iPod Mini. :-)

(Message edited by dearg on February 19, 2005)

"Hardware-wise, it's just a matter of getting a cable with mini-audio plugs at both ends. Plug one end into the headphone jack of your tape player; plug the other end into your sound card's input jack (or the audio input jack on a notebook computer)."
-Dearg

I will add for anyone not technically inclined, the input analogue signal will be be recorded into a .wav file, which then will need to be translated into .mp3 format. Freeware to do the reformatting is on the net. Unless you use direct to mp3, which is fair enough.

Also, not to put you off, some settings may have to be altered to get the PC to record (like volume of the input signal been set to zero on your mic/record/sound settings and needing to be clicked on etc). Well you know, the PC is not too user friendly. Or the Mac either.

Thank you very much. I'm definitely not technically inclined but I was just wondering since I didn't think that was possible. Anyway, thank you. I might be able to get someone more "computer-savvy" to help me out. :)

A Natalie,

Fáilte!

Natalie, I see that you already got your answer. In fact, I did just as you said you'll do - a good friend of mine told me exactly what program to install, what equipment to buy and how to configurate it. I'm definitely not good at computers either :-)

Well, friends are good for stuff like that! It always seems like you know someone who can help you!