Learning the Language

Teachers offering private lessons or workshops:

- Post here - with or without contact info -

  • Conversational Irish (Kevin Frederick, instructor)
       www.lccc.edu   and search: non-credit and irish
       Course Name:  LAN 670 50 Irish (Gaelic)

    Students will learn basic sentence structure, essentials of grammar, foundation vocabulary, and five commonly used verbs. You will acquire essential conversational phrases and the ability to read, write, and converse independently. Students will develop the fluency and the vocabulary to converse, read, and write in idiomatic Irish.

    Cost: $165 --- plus Materials fee: $5 payable to instructor.
    6:30-8:30pm, Wednesdays Feb 15 to May 23, 2012, No class Mar 14

    Lehigh Carbon Community College
    4525 Education Park Dr, Schnecksville, PA 18078
    phone: 610-799-2121 or 610-799-1141
  • Links to beginner Irish lessons (mainly in the Ulster dialect)
    website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/irish/blas/learners/
    Beginners' Blas - grammar lessons, surnames, placenames
    Geota beag! ("A wee bit") - 15 lessons in Irish language basics
    Geota beag eile! ("Another wee bit") - more advanced lessons in Irish
  • Transparent Language - Irish Blog (by Roislin)
    website: www.transparent.com/irish/
    Easy intermediate level Irish language study, with some info for beginners and a few more obscure terms for quite advanced learners. The "narrative" part is usually in English, sometimes with longer chunks in Irish. It's intended to be a couple minutes read a couple of times a week. For learning from scratch, the host service "Transparent Language" offers software and online resources.
  • Cloicin Dearg (Little Red Riding Hood - as translated by Roislin)
    website: www.aimsbooks.com/Results_Pages/search_results.asp?TextField=cloicin
    Ideal for learners, with a short glossary, very straightforward text, and inexpensive (list price $3.50)

Irish Language Classes - Conversation
both online and in person

website: http://www.meetup.com/gaelic-83/ - posted by Roislin 06/07/09

a chara,

I've started a new type of Irish lesson which might be of interest, especially for those of you who would like to supplement other classes or who would just like a fun and inexpensive introduction to the language "i miosúir bheaga," in short doses, that you can read online at your leisure. The web page is http://www.meetup.com/gaelic-83/ or you can find it within Meetup under "Foghlaim na Gaeilge"

The lessons I've posted on the group's files pages can be consulted any time. They will be the basis of the next in-person session.

Unlike most textbooks, which focus on life in Ireland, these lessons will have a lot of references to life in the Delaware Valley. They are partly designed to go along with group meetings in the local area, so we might putting our Gaeilge into practice at places like Siopa Stéigeacha Phádraig i bhFilideilfia Theas or i Margadh Cheann Chúrsa Reading. For those of you farther afield, especially in areas where you can't get to any sort of class at all, you might find this a lively, quick, and inexpensive way to work on Irish céim ar chéim, step by step.

The lessons are part of my Irish language group, Foghlaim na Gaeilge: Learn Irish through Children's Books at www.meetup.com. The dues are $5 a month, payable by PayPal, which gives you access to the lessons posted on the "Files" pages and the ability to communicate with other Irish speakers or learners. There is also a calendar of scheduled in-person Meetups, generally held in bookstore cafes or coffee houses -- they might be helpful to those of you in Philadelphia or its suburbs.

To the extent that some of you might be interested in covering certain topics in the lessons, please let me know and I'll plan on incorporating them in the future. How authors like Joyce, Yeats, and O'Casey used the Irish language? Music? Poetry? Cineálacha beorach? Irish for Traveling? Or if anyone's moved to Shamrock, Texas, or Dublin, Ohio, and wants to know how to deal with their state's Irish or Irish-ish place names, those can be added too.

Ultimately, one of the goals of the group is to have fun reading children's book in Irish, starting with basic picture books and continuing, I hope, up through the level of reading Harry Potter and/or Artemis Fowl in Irish.

But for now, the lessons are a little more down home, dealing with topics like where you live and how to pronounce Irish words that have so many silent letters (any takers on "drochfhadhb," marshampla?).

Anyway, I hope this is of interest, and if you decide to join, Fáilte ar bord! (Welcome on board!).

-- All the best, Róisín