Of the language products/aides being sold on this site does anyone have any positive experiences with them? or can you recommend what you think really works or not?

I've tried Buntus Cainte and Enough Irish To Get By and found both useless. I dont want to waste anymore money on these kind of products here if the rest on here are just as useless. However, if someone has found "GREAT" success with other language products sold on here I"d be willing to try a different one. Go raibh maith agaibh.
Niall

Turas Teanga

http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1972

I recommend this.

The book won't learn for you...

Turas Teanga is fine but not aimed at beginners.

In what way did you find them "useless" exactly?

BC is generally well thought of, but a common complaint is that it's too much conversation and not enough grammar. Conversely, people complain that some of the others are too much grammar and no conversation! Depends on your learning style, I guess. Anyway, if that's your problem with it, you might try supplementing it either with just a grammar book, or a different teaching course that's heavy on the grammar (e.g. Progress in Irish.)

I'm not asking the book to learn for me but I need an aide that's well thought out that can lead to greater conversational skills wiht an understanding of the structue also. I dind't like Buntus or the INterling product as there didn't seem to be much structure or rules of grammar explained in how the language works. It seemed to assume you knew some of these already. Also, I had no idea what dialect they were using. There was no explanation of that on there and some of the words sounded funny or different than what I remember from school Irish.

I'm currenlty using Progress in IRish and find that to be a great little book and I recommend that to anyone. however, if you had no previous experience with Irish then you wouldn't have any idea how the words were pronounced. Progress is a great supplement for anyone in my opinion.

But I was mainly asking about this site... as in the other products on here if anyone has had success with them?

And then input on Turas... Im not a complet beginner and can only string a few basic sentences together. so would Turas work for someone like that?
go raibh maith agaibh go leir
Niall

http://www.gaeilge.org/AIA1/
http://www.gaeilge.org/AIA2/

Dear Unregistered,
Check out these links and work your way through the exercises. It's easy; it's basic; and it's free.

thanks Pádraig

"ome of the words sounded funny or different than what I remember from school Irish. "

So Gaeltacht Irish is funny then?

no Bearn. that's not what i meant. I dont mind them sounding different but I DO want to know WHY they sounded different. I didn't get an explanation of that... I had no idea what dialect they were using or whether it was standard, or they were mixing it up or what. If they explain these things on these language programs it would go such a long way. In fact I'd love to be able to know how to speak and use the gaeltacht Irish if that is the best way to be able to converse. Maybe a person is just as well learning starndard/school Irish and still be albe to converse with someone from the Gaeltacht areas? I dont know. do tell...

But, even if I knew the dialect(s) they were using those products didn't seem like good ways to learn the language. Again, I dont want to waste a bunch more money on products that I'll find out after the fact that maybe lots of other people could have warned me about. you know what i mean?

but again, back to my original question. Of the other products on this site being sold to help us learn the language which ones are/were effective and why? OR do you konw of products off this site that are just way ahead of the others and why?
niall

Well, it is obvious they are from the West of Ireland by how they speak, and their style. They would be from Galway, I'd imagine, the man is anyway.

As regards learning to speak, there is no standard spoken dialect, so one has to, by default, learn to speak in dialect as regards pronunciation, idiom and style. The cáighdeán lays out a lexicon, orthography, spelling norms, grammar and other usage guidelines, but there is more to language than that, and it was the other parts were never specified, hence the always present need to supplement from the Gaeltacht.

School Irish has never developed into a full blown language, and so is not as expressive as native Irish, so should not be taken seriously, except as one would do hornets if one has an allergy to them

As regards money, language products are only useful when you really need them, or are ready for them. There probably is no real good product to get you started, so you will just have to endure the pain of the initial stages of learning. Abigail says to learn to read first -it gives you confidence.

It also sounds like you want to know if there is a magic ingredient that can be replicated in some courses and not others. In addition, you refer to products 'off this site'. I am only aware of a few products available here.

Learning Irish by Mícheál Ó Siadhail will give you all the grammar you could hope for. However, there are some areas that are not fully explained and you'll find important details buried in small text as a footnote. It's Cois Fhairrage and that puts some people off but there are very few other texts that are as complete with respect to grammar, etc.

If you're looking for the "perfect" text, good luck. It simply doesn't exist.

okay, thanks again for the input. so just basically learn standard grammar etc (like our school irish) but suplement with Gaeltach Irish. sounds like a plan.

and no im not trying to get a magic book or perfect text... but I am, rightly so, tryin got get the best one available. I dont think that's too much to ask for. And seeing as a lot of you on here would know a whole lot more about this stuff than me I thought I'd get your more informed opinions on it :D


okay, so im trying to narrow down the best text of the following bunch. and James has given some input on Learning Irish. but i'll take more input from others.

here's the 3 courses that seem to come highly recommended but then others have reservations about them. what would you suggest? (my background is school Irish - and i wasn't very good at it lol)

1 - Learning IRish (nativet speakers)
2 - Teach yourself Irish (native speakers I think?)
3 - Turas Teanga (but from what I gleam it has standard speakers)

of those 3 which one do you think is the Best (and why?) as a teaching tool?
thanks again.
niall

" im not trying to get a magic book or perfect text... but I am, rightly so, tryin got get the best one available"

We all would like such a thing as a perfect text!

I have all three of the above and would say the original TYI is best to start with; LI is, well...some find it impenetrable. I intent to go at it again, since I never got to the end yet. I intent to take a week after my current work contract finished to do it. That should give you an indication of it's baroqueness. A kind of grammatical and phonological summary of a sub-dialect of a sub-dialect (Connacht ->Conemara ->Cois Fhairrige) packaged as teach-yourself language book. One of the odder titles on any shelf

As for Turas Teanga, I think it depends on one's learning style. I find the explanations are not as comprehensive as one would like (a rundown of the content of the native dialogues, for example), but if you get the book to go with it, it might be of help

One's mans'n meat is another man's poison.Some love certain books, others don't. Since you have some Irish, Buntus seems to be too basic for you. Speaking Irish, available on this site, may be right for you since it includes a DVD of speakers, as well as the print version of their comhra. Get a good basic dictionary(Focloir Poca e.g) . Also check with www.litriocht.com to see what else is available.Good luck

okay, thanks again Bearn agus Bookworm.

i might start wiht TYI and see how that goes then try the Speaking IRish DVD later on. With TYI it sounds like I can listen to the CD as I'm driving to and from from work each day (almost 2 hrs) I think that will be a good start for me. great input. Go raibh maith agaibh aris,
niall