NEWSPAPER
Pick up one of two newspapers and have a dictionary handy:
Foinse which is free every Wednesday in the Irish Independent or Gael Scéal the new(ish) national Irish language newspaper which you can get from Easons or Kellehers on North Main St. What I like about Gael Scéal is that it is simply the news in Irish whereas the old Foinse used to concentrate on Gaeltacht issues which I have little or no interest in and thus motivation wasn’t as great.
Say you’re into rugby for example, Gael Scéal covers that and what I find handy about sports as gaeilge is that you can work your way through a story more easily because you can make a better stab at guessing words (line out, scrum, try etc).
I usually make notes in the margin and then go back over them a day later to see if I can remember them. You’ll never retain 100% of them but once your adding to your vocab it all helps.
TV/RADIO
Try to watch at least one TG4 programme per week and note down a few words as you watch. I also tune into RnaG but the presenters are often incomprehensible. There’s a woman on around midday with a northern accent and I swear I can barely pick out any word she’s saying!
Gael Taca’s radio show is on every Thursday at 4pm on Campus Radio. Munster accents and local news so its far easier to understand.
Newstalk have a great show on Friday evenings at 9pm called Splainc. Well worth listening into and very understandable.
CLASSES
Gael Taca are running classes for 85e for eight 90 minute classes. The last class just finished but there’ll be more starting after Christmas. Without classes its difficult to make serious progress and conversation with other people slightly above and below your level (nobody is ever going to be at the exact same level as you) really brings you on.
COMHRÁ
If you can find a reason to speak Irish outside of classes in your everyday life then that will really bring you on. I’ve met a few people at classes who have extraordinary vocabulary but can hardly string a sentence together. If you can speak Irish to others (or yourself – I’m not joking!) for even 30 minutes a week it’ll really bring you on. Ideally if you can convince a friend to start speaking Irish with you that’ll make it a lot easier because there’s far less inhibitions than talking to a relative stranger.
The beginning is tough because it’s hard not be self-conscious about making mistakes but the sooner you shrug your shoulders to that the quicker you’ll start improving. I was self-conscious in the beginning because of that old Irish guilt about not being able to speak your native language but you have to get a bit thick skinned or it’ll be hard to progress.
Despite the perceived bad rep 99% of Gaelgóirí are happy if you’re making the effort, the image of somebody looking down their nose at you because of some grammatical mistake is far from reality in my experience in Cork. I have only met one person in my travels that I found dismissive of people trying to learn and he was a tosser even when he spoke English!
There are a number of coircal comhrá’s around the city. One disadvantage is that most of them tend to meet during working days in libraries (I think the one in Wilton does start around 6pm). You’ll find a list of them on this site or on
www.gael-taca.com
There’s an Irish corner in the English Market every Wednesday at 3.30pm in the Farm Gate (where the piano is). There’s usually a good mix of young and old at it. Immersing yourself in the language and seeking out opportunities to speak it is the only way to make genuine progress.
One final tip I’d offer is not to get too bogged down about not knowing words or the grammar so for the sake of the flow of conversation use the English word if you don’t know the Irish one (just try to remember to look it up if it’s a commonly used word).
This is useful if you’re speaking with somebody who is a few levels above you otherwise it’s just frustrating for them.
All in all, if you’re motivated you’d be amazed at how quickly classes and comhrá can improve your Irish. If you simply go to classes and wait for the language to be installed into your brain by a teacher it’ll be very very slow.
