Irish 101: Week 1

[ganimede]

I have wanted to do the Irish 101 course on FutureLearn for some time now. I keep putting it on my wishlist and every time it comes around, the timing has never been right. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email to say that it was starting again at the end of June. I had the time and a reasonable amount of brains so I thought I'd give it a go.

Comments

[meathiel]

Sounds super interesting. I've been wanting to learn Irish for ages but tbh the pronounciation etc has scared me off.
And what you wrote about it has augmented that feeling. Haha.
I guess I'll stick to Spanish for the time being.

[ganimede]

It's definitely interesting, and I do like learning all the background to the language and culture. I really feel that there needs to be a standard pronunciation though!

How are you finding Spanish?

[meathiel]

I'm getting somewhat annoyed with Duolingo, I have to admit. The lack of explanations doesn't make it easy ...

[ganimede]

I've had the same issue with Duolingo. It seems to randomly introduce grammar or some other important factor with no explanation. It just tells you that you've got something wrong, tells you what the right answer should be but doesn't tell you why that's so. I find it very confusing.

[motodraconis]

Gah! I tried to learn the ogham alphabet when I was a kid. It's fiendish!

[ganimede]

It's interesting from a historical language viewpoint but I don't think I could hope to learn it! I don't know if you'd find this website on the Ogham stones and language interesting.

[ragnarok_08]

That sounds very interesting :)

[ganimede]

Learning is fun! :)

[ghost_light]

That sounds like so much fun but it would be so hard for me!

[ganimede]

Are you not good with languages?

[ghost_light]

Not at all! And I have that wonderful brain connection between foreign languages and math

[ganimede]

Oh, I'm terrible with maths. I moved around too much as a child and just missed so much of it. I like words though :)

[ellinou]

I've been doing Irish on Duolingo for years and I still have no idea how eclipsis and lenition work XD

[ganimede]

Dia duit, a Ellie! Conas atá tú innui? ;)

I've found grammar to be a real struggle on Duolingo. It's good for vocab and learning specific phrases, but grammar just seems to be introduced randomly and with no real instruction on how it works. It makes it very confusing.

[ellinou]

You eventually get grammar by osmosis, after repeating the same levels many times. But it's true it's useless for practicing spontaneous talk, or mking sentences that aren't from the set lessons.

[ganimede]

Yeah, it teaches you how to say that one thing well.