Greetings to all

tenneral · **Joined:** Sat 21 Jan 2012 11:06 pm **Posts:** 11

Hello everyone. My name is Bruce and I am in my 60s which must seem VERY old to be taking an interest in Irish. But from the age of 8 until I was 30, I was a fluent speaker of Scottish Gaelic, having moved to the Highlands with my family. I haven't had the opportunity to speak much of it after decades of working as a teacher in the south of England. But I thought a mental visit across the water to see how the Brother Language was spoken would be interesting. And I was right. I worked through the BBC Course - Giota Beag & G. B. Eile. Since then I've worked through the 'Spoken World Irish' course: see my review of it on Amazon. Now I'm working through Gaeilge Gan Stró, Beginners' Level. Plain sailing. It suggests that I spend 6 hours on each unit but it's far too easy-going and straightforward to hold me up that long! I'm really enjoying the language.

Breandán · **Posted:** Sun 22 Jan 2012 3:48 pm

Maith thú, a Bhrúis, agus fáilte romhat isteach anseo. (Good on you, Bruce, and welcome in here.)

I think Gaeilg Uladh has a lot in common with Gàidhlig although there are certainly plenty of differences too. The courses you have chosen, particularly "Giota Beag", and "G. B. Eile", have a strong Northern influence. Gaeilge Gan Stró is written by someone from Donegal too. So you've found a good point to link in.

Hope you enjoy your journey and spend some time with us.

(I always think with languages, you never actually forget them - the files are stored away in there somewhere (at the back of the cabinet perhaps?). It's just that the reference cards in the catalogue system are faded (and maybe one or two are missing) and it may take a while to track down the files manually. Once you find them, though it all comes flooding back into memory. This happens a lot with my infrequently used French, etc.)

PolO'Ceallaigh · **Joined:** Tue 03 Jan 2012 10:17 am **Posts:** 28

Bienvenido a bordo Bruce!!
I'm new here myself and delighted to have found such a handy resource
I was using the BBC language website as my base for Spanish last year, and funnily enough Gíota beag was unavailable in my region (bloody French and their copyright laws) maybe thats one of the reasons I've done a U-turn and am now 100% into the oul' Irish,
ádh mór ort (Good luck to you) :good:

tenneral · **Joined:** Sat 21 Jan 2012 11:06 pm **Posts:** 11

I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying Irish. The reflected [and often half-forgotten] vocabulary & grammar from Scottish Gaelic are coming back to speed me on in the course. Gaeilge gan Stró is a good starter although I guess that some might find the speed of delivery of some of the speakers not easy to follow the first time they hear it. And the avoidance of the Genitive makes for a rather limited sentence structure - not that I'm complaining. But I am happy to open 'Progress in Irish' to drill my brain with the rules of grammar that are almost as necessary as a wide vocabulary.
Gaeilge go brách!

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