Thanks for letting everyone know about this, Breandán!

As you know, I am one of the people around here who is trying to learn Munster Irish and I've got no interest at all in learning "standard". I do very much appreciate the heads-up on this!

why did you feel the need to expand on the answer you already gave? I think im not going to bother with this forum any more, just in general theres way too much discussion of late about dialect this, standard that. thats all im saying so ciao.

Don't abandon ship just yet. I agree with you that there has been too much of this around here recently. It frustrates me too, but ILF has a lot more good than bad.

There are many members with differing views - even the moderators come with very different views - we are not even all Irish people! However, we all share one major thing in common - a love of Irish and an interest in sharing that passion.
It is important that you share your views with us. Hang around for another while and you'll see that the glass is more than half full!

Saoirse

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Here we go again


If Eoin's first language is acquired Irish. Then technically/linguistically he is a native Irish speaker.
But that doesn't mean he speaks the traditional Irish of Munster.

Anyways fair play to him for teaching Irish and making a living out of it.
Bitesize sounds like a very good project. I'm sure in time he will expand it.

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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He doesn't claim to speak the traditional dialect of Munster. His pronunciation is Munster-oriented.

There are definitely plans in the works for expansion. At one time we had male and female speakers in the convo lessons, but when we decided to add the "normal speed" bits, it wasn't feasible at that time to hire another speaker, so we re-did them for all male voices.

Redwolf

Lighten up, Cliathach! Everybody has the right to their opinion, so I think it's perfectly alright for anyone to expand on one of their answers. There are lots of posts on this forum that I disagree with, and I'm very sure that not everyone agrees with everything that I've ever said – I think disagreement is pretty much inevitable in any forum as diverse as this one is. Don't worry about it, it's not a big deal.

Uh oh, not sure if I should dip in here

It is the aim of Bitesize Irish Gaelic to make it possible to learn Irish in small, easy, bitesize lessons.

(Breandán, I asked for your feedback when it launched, and sent you a complimentary review account, if I remember. But I didn't hear back from you. All feedback is always welcome, including your feedback on this thread.)

In my experience, the confusion of dialects is a blocking issue to potential learners.

People actually avoid starting to learn Irish because it has dialects. I kid you not. I've spoken to such people. And I don't blame them for being overwhelmed.

Wouldn't it be better to get such people over the starting line, actually starting to learn some useful Irish?

We take a stand: unless you're aiming to learn the Irish of a certain village, parish or region, then start learning Irish now. Specialise in a dialect later, especially if you don't know where to start. It's like many life skills, not even limited to just languag learning. This approach will literally mean more people worldwide will take up learning Irish.

We also heavily push learners to use the free resources of TG4 and RnaG. Those are amazing resources for people to hear the Irish spoken in different regions.

Oh no it's not.


This endless discussion about dialects bores me to tears though.

Wow, I couldn't disagree more. I started out trying to learn Munster Irish about 6 years ago, and I've pretty much had to move heaven and earth trying to find resources. Almost everything out there (including Bite Size Irish), is for people who want to learn "standard", and that makes it very hard for learners like myself.

Yes, Bite Size Irish gets people who want to learn "standard" Irish over the starting line, and that's great. But it also serves to marginalize people like me who are trying to learn Gaeltacht Irish.

This is not a very good approach, I think, for people who want to learn Irish as it is spoken in the Gaeltacht. I certainly wouldn't want to spend years learning "standard" Irish and then have to re-learn everything. I think this also marginalizes native Gaeltacht speakers themselves, because their way of talking is not deemed worthy of being taught. The attitude that a native dialect is something that you can pick up later on if you want to, makes it seem like Gaeltacht Irish is somehow less important and merely an optional sort of afterthought – that's how it comes across to me, anyway.

Actually, the non-availability of resources for native Gaeltacht Irish was very discouraging and almost made me decide not to bother learning Irish in the first place.

heh, heh
Sorry to bore you to tears with this post, but for some reason, I thought it might be good to let Eoin know my perspective on this.

Realistically speaking, starting out learning standard Irish is not much of a hindrance to learning a dialect down the road, if that's what you want to do. Most people start out learning a mixture of dialects, and generally speaking, it's not something a brand new learner needs to worry about. Much of early learning is getting your head around the basic grammar, and will stand you in good stead if you later decide to specialize in a particular dialect. It's not like they're different languages...though if we continue to insist that only pure dialect is "real" Irish, they will eventually become so.

The secret to getting materials produced in your chosen dialect is to find speakers of that dialect and encourage them to produce learning materials...that's the bottom line. There's nothing Bitesize, or Oideas Gael, or any other such program, is doing that would hinder that in any way...nor would we want to. If you want it, you need to make your voice heard among those who can teach it. I'm sure there are programs that specialize in Munster Irish...it might be worth putting a bug in their ear about developing materials for home study.

That said, like Eoin, I've encountered a lot of beginners who are intimidated by the often hyper-emphasis on dialect, to the point where they're afraid to try learning the language at all. I've also met Irish parents who were so frustrated by their children being taught one thing one year and another thing the next that they were relieved when they moved to the States and the kids didn't have to study Irish anymore. Neither of those situations does the language any good.

There's a place for pure dialect, but there's also a place for standardized forms.

Redwolf