No Béarla II is available for viewing on TG4's Web TV right now and In the Name of the Fada is on RTE's site. I recommend them both (although I liked the first No Béarla series better than this one...so far). Funnily enough, I started looking more seriously into learning Irish because I'm thinking about working harder on all my known languages. I started listening to Coffee Break Spanish, which is a great language learning podcast by Radio Lingua Network. Well, they came out with a One Minute Irish podcast. And that made me get a little more serious about the very longstanding desire I've had to learn Irish. So I bought two CD courses (and mistakenly bought a book WITHOUT the language tapes...have to figure out how to sell that). I find One Minute Irish much easier to learn than the Teach Yourself Irish Conversation course. The problem with the latter is that they IMMEDIATELY expose you to the different dialects of Irish and I think it's way too soon. A beginner has enough trouble learning to say "Dia duit!" without having to learn the way it's said in Ulster, Munster, Leinster, etc. OTOH, one of the advantages of that course is that they tell you what the phrases literally mean instead of simply their rough English translation. It's good to know how the Irish put such phrases together because it helps you break down what each word means and it also shows you how different Irish syntax and conceptions are.
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Re: No Béarla & In the Name of the Fada
Tue, April 8, 2008 - 1:31 PMThanks for the post, I loved the first No Bearla, look forward to more, and as for 'in the name of the fada' well wow - I need to see that, I assume it is nothing like 'In the name of the Father'?
I just picked up Rosetta Stone's Irish course, very pleased with it thus far. I was excited to find out that Rosetta Stone finally has an Irish program. I wasn't very impressed with the Teach Yourself series. Have you tried BYKI, before you know it? (www.byki.com) Pretty good flash card like application for many languages and such type exercises. -
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Re: No Béarla & In the Name of the Fada
Tue, April 8, 2008 - 1:34 PMI've tried the BYKI system and found it useless, but I'm a grammar freak who prefers paper to computers. I am sure that many will find it very useful.
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Re: No Béarla & In the Name of the Fada
Sat, June 7, 2008 - 11:35 PM> I assume it is nothing like 'In the name of the Father'?
Right. It's just a play on words.
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Re: No Béarla & In the Name of the Fada
Mon, April 14, 2008 - 4:01 PMRTE is great at exposing your ear to various voices and dialects - it will only serve to sharpen your ears and learn better.
the book Buntus Cainte ( i skipped the fada) www.amazon.com/Buntus-Cai.../1857910656 is great at building your conversation skills up. But better it exposes you again to various voices male and female with variances in dialect. Your ears will sharpen up and it gets easier. It comes with a CD and you can convert it and learn it on the go, I am taking classes that started from a traditional Irish Music group. We use this book and the direct knowledge of the teacher. We do nursery rhymes and disect old traditional songs and sing them. I bet we sound a tad drunk, though dry as toast. ;)
Originally I could only pick up fragment words on RTE, now I can get phrases and some common sentences. I am just looking to compile a list of objects and nouns with pronunciation and translation to print from spreadsheets onto business cards and tape up all over the house. So I can start focusing more on verbs and grammar.
As time allows anyway.