http://coislife.ie/books/academic/learners2.htm

quote:

This Irish-language course is directed at learners whose first language is English and particularly those living abroad and others who have had no exposure to the Irish language in the Irish educational system. The explanations and teaching notes are all in English and the course is suitable for complete beginners right through to intermediate level. The references and examples cited guide learners through the maze of dictionaries, grammars, dialects and forms which they encounter in the course of their studies.

Go raibh maith agat!

Is leabhar maith é. Cheannaigh mé cóip nuair a bhí sé foilsithe.

Anybody know why this book, which the website says is out of print is so highly priced? Amazon has one new copy priced at $163.00 and several used copies beginning at $75.00.

A Phádraig,
That's the beauty of the free market at work. The book is scarce so some entrepreneurial types are trying to make a clean buck or two off of the book which retails for €25. They're private sellers who set their own price. It does seem to be pretty scarce right now, though. "Maith thú" to Mrs. Wong for opening up that resource to people learning!

Bhuel, I found it with the 25 Eur pricetag at Siopa Leabhar Cúpla Focal and ordered it. If Cionaodh 's Aonghus recommend it, I fugure it's worth the price.

It's worth it for the content, a Phádraig. However . . .

I think the layout designer might've been a novice -- the tiny black page numbers are set illegibly in dark magenta squares, the font choices were unfortunate, and the book cover is an odd affair (attached at the rear of the spiral-bound book and folded forward four times to form the back cover, spine and front cover).

Donna Wong sent questionnaires to Irish teachers around the world (myself included) in 2003 to ask what our students needed in a reference work. She's done a grand job pulling all of that together into this book. Despite the dodgy design by the publisher, this is a valuable reference book.

Cionaodh -- do you know how to reformat the .pdf to make it more printable? I sent it to the print shop and their first attempt resulted in a standard portrait print at 8.5 x 11, but every other page was missing. The second try resulted in a landscape job featuring two pages side, and flipped along the short edge, so it was useless for binding.

Years ago I tried printing out an Irish Reading Primer that Cionaodh had made available on the net. "Anseo 's Ansin," I believe. I wound up having to glue the blank sides of each 11x8.5 landscape sheet back to back, and the whole thing came out very lumpy because of the spottiness of the glue.
I look forward to someone explaining how to do what you ask, a Dhomniall.

The publisher created the PDF rather bizarrely, didn't they?



Ok, I've tweaked the PDF so that all of the odd pages are in one document and all of the even pages are in another. Try these, a Dhomhnaill, and see if they'll solve your problem:

http://www.gaeilge.org/WongEven.pdf
http://www.gaeilge.org/WongOdd.pdf

The dimensions are slightly taller & narrower than standard US "letter" size (8.25" x 11.68" versus 8.5" x 11"), but your print provider can probably reduce the output to fit.

If your printer is very clever, he/she ought to be able to run all of the even pages through with the first file, then feed the same pages back in upside down to print the odd pages on the reverse.

A Phádraig -- regarding the AIA documents, print the odd-numbered lessons first, then put the printed sheets back in your printer upside down and then print the even ones on the reverse.

If you're using an inkjet printer, this method may not work -- if that's the case, try outputting to a laser printer (the lessons are B&W, so you're not losing anything).

Caithfidh mé a rá go raibh mé ag déanamh staidéir ar Ghaeilge ar feadh 12 bliana agus ní féidir liom leabhar Mrs.(?) Wong a mholadh níos mó.

Míníonn sí beagnach gach cuid de ghramadach na teanga go gonta.


I have to say ive been studying Irish for about 12 years and I cant recommend Mrs. Wong's book more.

Practically all grammer questions are addressed in a very concise way.

Its sure to give you that wonderfull feeling when you understand a difficult aspect of Irish.

Níos airde a Mholtar, a Neddam, seachas níos mó!
(Níos mó = anymore)

quote:

(Níos mó = anymore)

That's a tricky one, isn't it? It's the kind of mistake I make. "I can't praise (recommend} the book any more (than the ultimate.)

Are you saying Neddam has written: "I can no longer recommend the book?"

Sin é!

Sin a cheap mé nuair a léigh me an méid a scríobh sé as Gaeilge, sular léigh mé an Bhéarla.

I'd avoid the double negative also:
Ní féidir liom moladh ard go leor a thabhirt don leabhar seo, maybe.

quote:

Are you saying Neddam has written: "I can no longer recommend the book?"

Haha well thats certainly not what I meant to say!

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Aonghus.

Ní féidir liom buíochas go leor a thabhairt duit!

Níl a bhuíochas ort!

Tá dris cosáin mar sin fairsing in aon teanga.