My dear new friends!!

I really thank everyone for your extremely important help and first of all for your PASSION and competence, which made me strongly want to become as a part of the Irish-speaking community soon as possible. You made me feel at once at home in this forum and I admire all of you for your passion and involvement. Now I know much more than just 24 hours ago about the Irish language issue. Even if I don't know you yet, I feel a lot of friendship in this forum and this makes me feel really well.

After all your suggentions, this is what I think I'm going to do. As a linguist (or kind of it...)I'm interested in every aspect of the language. Something that really intrigues me is "language planning", that is the way human beings decide to rationally modify a language. The cration of a "standard", with all its positive and negative implications, is a part of language planning. So the standard Irish (forgive me, I didn't memorize its name yet...)is interesting to me from analytical point of view. So, here is my program: I'll start with a basis of Coigh... (sorry.. Coighdean?)by using "Buntus Cainte" and "Progress in Irish", and after that I'll move to "Learning Irish". What do you think?

Thank you again for your help, and feel free to let me know all your comments about my learning program.
Grazie
Francesco

Prego agus fáilte on behalf of all who helped you.
I think you'll be great and do fine. It seems like a good plan.
You might want to explore this site:http://www.tg4.ie/Webt/webt.htm
and Liam O Maonlai has some good CDs out. They were free with the newspaper not too long ago:
http://cgi.ebay.com/LEARN-IRISH-WITH-LIAM-O-MAONLAI-Irish-Independent_W0QQitemZ1 50124191341QQcmdZViewItem You can put them on an iPod and listen away.
Fáilte go dtí an Ghaeilge, a chara.

Wait. This one is better for O Maonlai: http://www.independent.ie/education/features/learn-irish-with-liam-o-maonlai-692 551.html

I'm glad you feel welcome here. We have a lot of fun and it is always nice to have new people around. Sometimes we get in arguments but we always either make up or it blows over so don't ever be afraid to contribute, even if some are being a bit rowdy. :)

Beir bua agus beannacht