http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WLHr1_EVtQ

Some good ideas here, for beginners or those who've been learning a while.

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賢いふくろぐま
Seans Eile - free software to help you practice your Irish
Scéala na Wombait - Muddle-headed Memes and Musings

His enthusiasm is infectious!

And he has some nice, very simple ideas. More videos like this, please!

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Ag lorg cómhra as Gaeilge? Bígí linn - http://www.foramnagaeilge.com

A few great suggestions there.

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One of bits that I was particularly impressed with was when he talked about the buddy system. When he said to choose someone with whom the language you're learning is the strongest language you have in common, I thought "great, that's NEVER gonna happen if you're learning Irish". But then he spoke about how it can also work if the language is your "secret language" , I realised that was entirely practical for us!

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賢いふくろぐま
Seans Eile - free software to help you practice your Irish
Scéala na Wombait - Muddle-headed Memes and Musings

A friend of mine from Dublin started out speaking Irish with his brother so that they could have 'secret conversations' around their parents. They have since grown up and the only language he speaks with his brother is Irish. Now my friend is raising his own family through Irish . Small seeds and all that.

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Go raibh míle maith a'd aríst, a mhwombait.


My best friend and I used to use French as our "secret language" too - until our parents banned us from using French in the house.


Sid's comments applied to Irish:

1. Don't be afraid to jump in, try it, make mistakes, and be corrected.
2. Don't base your Irish pronunciation on English.
3. Plenty of sticklers around here.
4. I have my "shower conversations" with my kids. Nothing like your own kids to help you find the gaps in your knowledge.
5. What mhwombat said. (I remember a homestay couple in Ireland telling us how they used Irish while travelling in Asia as the shopkeepers all knew several languages for the purposes of haggling with foreigners - Irish was their "secret language". )

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

The one thing I didn't quite agree with was his suggestion of using phonetics. For people who just want to learn how to pronounce what their tattoo says, I think they're useful. I've seen so many learners, though, become so dependent on phonetics that they never learned to actually read Irish that I'm pretty wary of them.

Redwolf

What you say is true, but I don't think Sid was actively advocating the use of phonics but rather using them as an example to try to show that you can't base the pronunciation of a new language on the spelling or pronunciation of any other language you may know (in his example, English). The exact phonemes are almost always slightly different between languages (or even between dialects within a language).

His main message seems to be "break away from what you already know and take a plunge into the new language".

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Nice to watch videos like that when you hit a low point in your study.

There are times youd be lying on the floor sobbing that youll never know the difference between
An mbeidh tú ábalta dul amach anocht and an bhfuil tú ábalta dul amach anocht.

I really liked the buddy system idea. Wasnt so keen on the ditch the foreign alphabet idea. maybe use the phonetics to learn a few key words that you can refer back to when trying to figure out how other words are pronounced ?

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Bíonn rudaí maithe mall

I have the same reservations...it really did sound to me like he was encouraging an over-dependence on phonetics (maybe that wasn't his intention, but if so, he didn't make it clear).

One thing I used to do with my classes was, after I'd walk them through the basic sounds of the letters, I'd have them practice reading English written using Irish phonics (something we used to do for fun back at the old forum).

I also told them that it was OK if they felt they needed to write down a phonetic rendering of an Irish word or phrase initially, but that they should practice looking at the word or phrase as it's actually written in Irish while saying it aloud.

Ultimately you really do have to learn to cope with the spelling conventions of the new language (and, of course, in some cases with an entirely different alphabet or writing system!), and relying too heavily on phonetic renderings based on your own language delays that.

Also, as we all know, Irish has sounds that doesn't exist in English (and vice versa). You're never going to learn to pronounce "gaoth" or "baile" correctly if you're relying on "phonetic" renderings such as "gwee" or "ball-yeh." We sometimes use them here to get people who are seeking tattoos or engravings somewhat into the ballpark pronunciation-wise (it's better than having them pronounce these words as "gath/guth" and "bale"!), but it's a different case with someone who's actually learning the language.

Redwolf