Dia daoibh, Seán is ainm dom. I was born into an Irish family in 1970s Manchester. My father, who was 54 when I arrived, was born in a slum adjacent to the Marshalsea in 1921. Sadly I know little of his early life, save for that he travelled in Belfast in 1943, joined the RAF and after the war was over he was married, and then divorced, before meeting my mother. There's much I would have liked to ask him had he lived long enough. I wonder if he knew Robert Emmet kept a depot in Marshalsea Lane where he was born; I wonder if he even knew who Robert Emmet was, or if he would have cared: afterall, like many before him he escaped the poverty of Ireland for a new life in a new country. I don't know what he thought of Ireland, or even if he thought of it at all: it's the ancestors who tend to idolise the place, belonging neither here nor there. For me, Ireland is inextricably linked to my father and for too many reasons I always found it too painful to think much about it. In the past couple of years I've wanted to learn more. Picking up the language just seemed to be the next step. I've spent the past four months on Duolingo. I completed the course about a month ago and I return to practice every day but I'm really not sure if I'm progressing at all. There are moments of lucidity, before the clouds roll in and I find myself checking, for the millionth time that day, what tógaimid means. I need to expand my reading and I'm certainly not ashamed of looking stupid, so I'm registering here in order to have somewhere to converse and practice and, frankly, look stupid.

Fáilte romhat, a Sheáin!


It would be nice if this were a place to converse and practice, but my experience here is that efforts to make it so don't get much traction. It's mainly a place to get questions answered (especially about tattoos). Not that that isn't incredibly valuable, but it's a bit disappointing for those of us who simply don't have many opportunities to make active use of Irish in our daily lives.

Dia dhaoibh. Aaron is ainm dom.

Sadly, that's about all I know in Irish. However, I literally just started learning it two days ago. I've had an interest in learning the language for the majority of my life but i didn't have the means or the time until recently. My fiancé (soon to be wife) and I are planning on taking our honeymoon in Ireland this upcoming October. This prompted me to fully dive in and start learning all I can, both about the language and the culture. Figured that learning these things, finally, would only enrich the experience.

That being said, I'm hoping to learn as much as I can through this forum, as far as reading and writing, before then and following the honeymoon. I'm lucky in that there is a group near me that meets weekly to practice speaking. So anyway, hope to hear from everyone here.

Slán

Tá fáilte romhat, a chara

Dia dhaoibh Danielle is ainm dom. Is Astálach me.

I am very new to learning Irish, so glad I found this forum....very hard to find other people to speak Irish to here in Oz.

I have been learning bits and pieces here and there from various and books but would love some recommendations on courses or resources that have given people the most success.

My kids and I dabble on the duo lingo app which is fun and definitely helps with recognising words and I have considered doing the bite size Irish course but not sure if that's the way i should go? Would love some suggestions.

Looking forward to chatting to you all.

Dia dhuit, a chara - do you know about these people ? There's quite a lot to look at on their website -
Cumann Gaeilge na hAstráile - www.gaeilgesanastrail.com/home-en.php

Go raibh maith agat Franc

I just discovered that site the other day and they even held an immersion/intensive summer school a few months ago only a couple of hours from where I live, I hope to get to it next year.

If you're interested, some time back we compiled a children's learning materials page. You might like to have a look at that.

Yes please that would be fantastic!

Actually I think it's a subject that's been touched on a couple of times or more here, if you look. One post was called - Amhráin agus Rannta do ghasúir. There's the Naíonraí website, Futa Fata, a book and CD called Gaschaint, various educational sites such as Gaelscoileanna, parents' and teachers' websites, the An Gúm online catalogue as well as those of other Irish educational publishers, Irish language online bookshops have sections for children etc (agus araile - or srl - for short) not forgetting the book and CD Rabhlaí Rabhlaí from the Corca Dhuibhne, of course.