Learning

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  • #36716
    cargin14
    Participant

    Any ideas on how to keep up good daily habits if you are struggling for a daily study buddy? Just feel one class a week makes for slow progress

    #45164
    Héilics Órbhuí
    Participant

    You should at least listen to and read a little bit every day. Once a weak definitely is not enough for good brain entrainment. You should be listening actively and not just letting the words stream by. I recommend watching a video with subtitles but trying not to look at them or turning them off if you have the ability to do so.

    – If you hear something you didn’t understand, listen to it again until you can get it. If you can’t get it after a few tries, move on.
    – Write down words you didn’t know and look them up. Listen again knowing the words now. Think actively about the meanings of the words you’ve just learned as you experience them in context, not just a list of vocabulary.
    – Try to shadow (repeat directly afterwards as it’s being spoken) what you hear.

    Doing this for half an hour a day (or more if you want – it’s easy to lose track of time when you’re doing this) is not that time consuming and is far better than anything once a week. Also, in your everyday life, challenge yourself to say things in your head in Irish that you hear in the real world or things you say yourself. If it occurs to you you don’t know how to say what you want, try to remember it for later and look it up. Add it to your list of things to learn and repeat it again at least a couple times a day to yourself to get it into your memory.

    “Spaced repetition” is the magic concept here. Your brain remembers things best that happen often, but you need time in between for it to go into longterm memory. Repeating the word for “house” 100 times in a row isn’t as powerful as repeating it twice, then hearing 100 other words, and then the word for “house” again. Hopefully that makes sense.

    #45219
    cargin14
    Participant

    very helpful, thanks Héilics Órbhuí. the ‘spaced repetition’ concept is very interesting. amazing how the brain works!

    #45299
    An Poc ar Bun
    Participant

    I can certainly speak to the efficacy of thinking in your target language in your head. When I started learning Italian at age 15, I struggled with the material, but immediately began using it just by myself between my own ears. I have spent very little time in Italy and only use it here and there, mostly with just one person. But today I am fluent in Italian, and thinking in it helped a lot.

    On another note, I’m looking for a human conversation partner in Irish. What level are you working at? I’m half-way through Cuid a Dó (Part 2) of the Tús Maith course, if that you’re familiar with it. I notice myself regressing, and I need to pick up the pace.

    #45310
    cargin14
    Participant

    Im not on any official course and although i have the fainne airgead I would say that advanced beginner would be suitable. Understand it when you mention regressing – our weekly classes are a winter programme and Ive noticed how things can slip when youre not practicing every week

    #45332
    An Poc ar Bun
    Participant

    If you’d be up for a Skype practice session every so often (I’m thinking 2-3 times per week), it might do both of us a lot of good.

    #45334
    Rogha Bhríde
    Participant

    A Chomhalta, a chara,

    As an ex-lecturer of translation (German-English) and English language, one of the most important things I can think of for a language learner is to listen carefully and regularly. Babies lie in their cots for more than a year listening to every word they hear, and then they decide one day that they are going to start copying what they’ve been listening to. Take a few new sounds and listen to them often and regularly and try to copy them. Exaggerate at the beginning. I remember when I was learning German, I got a phonetics tape (of the sounds of the language) and I would walk around Dublin practising certain sounds that are not in Irish (my mother tongue) or in English (which I learnt when I went to school in the Gaeltacht (arfety arf) when I was 5). An example of this is the glottal (throaty) “R” in the word “Rot” (red). On the phonetics tape was a tongue twister with loads of “Rs”, and I would walk around with headphones on repeating the tongue twisters again and again.

    As a singer and musician, one of the most important things I can think of for a learner of music/song is the same thing. To listen carefully. Often.

    BUT one amazing thing about listening is that you can ALSO do it TO EFFECT without effort. Without actually listening carefully. One tip is to make a time everyday to listen to whatever you want to listen to – at breakfast time, in the car going to work, on the subway, at lunch time (just put on the headphones) and let it work on your brain without your working too hard. (Positive brain washing is what I like to call this). You can read more about this on a blog by my alter ego “Aisling Ní Acamé”. http://aislingniacame.blogspot.ie/2009/06/roisin-charadear-roisin-ingle.html The post is available in Irish and in English.

    I have a new Irish language music radio programme and I’m about to start blogging about it. I’ve been listening over to some of the programmes in order to organise my thoughts for the blog, and I realise there are a lot of phrases which are repeated, and which you could even guess the meaning of – even if you had never learnt a word of the language. What is a dj likely to say before playing a piece? And afterwards? And at the beginning of a programme? And at the end? It could be fun to listen and guess.

    On May 8th I played a request for a special friend of mine from Saratoga Springs, NY, and I translated it on my Rogha Bhríde facebook page yesterday. So you could start there. [Excerpt from “Rogha Bhríde” 8th May 2014, fast forward (at the bottom of the mixcloud page) to 39:28]. Listen first in Irish and see if you recognise any words. Say hurray for every word you recognise. Afterwords read the English translation and see how much you recognised. If that was fun, do it more often. I will post translations into English as they are requested. My blog will be bilingual or maybe in more languages (I speak German and French too).

    There is an excellent thread here somewhere (I’ll find the link and post it) where one of the Daltaí forum members has transcribed a story that is available in beautiful Donegal Irish on Youtube, and s/he has asked other forum members to fill in the gaps in his/her understanding of it. I LOVE this!!! An EXCELLENT idea. Right up my alley.

    I hope this helps and send me a message if you have any questions.

    Beir bua agus beannacht,
    Bríd

    #45335
    Rogha Bhríde
    Participant

    Brilliant advice from/comhairle iontach ó Héilics Órbhuí! That name is familiar. An tusa a bhí ag déanamh tras-scríobh ar na scéalta Gaeilge ó Youtube/Was it you who did those transcriptions of the Irish stories from Youtube?????

    #45336
    Rogha Bhríde
    Participant

    cargin14!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How funny! I was calling you “Comhalta” which is “member” (of Daltaí forums)

    Big 🙂

    🙂 mór!!!

    #45337
    Héilics Órbhuí
    Participant

    Brilliant advice from/comhairle iontach ó Héilics Órbhuí! That name is familiar. An tusa a bhí ag déanamh tras-scríobh ar na scéalta Gaeilge ó Youtube/Was it you who did those transcriptions of the Irish stories from Youtube?????

    An fear ceannann céanna 😉

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