It's a lovely idea to read a psalm a day aloud.

Have you read this book: https://archive.org/stream/staraieatpie ... 8/mode/2up

It is Staraidheacht - a collection compiled in 1905 specifically of pieces for recitation in Irish from writers from all over Ireland. I see Douglas Hyde is in there, etc.

Just a reminder to everyone that our very own Braoin has recorded some excellent articles of this nature from editorials in Irish newspapers, etc.

The articles, recordings, translations and explanations are available in the Guth Bhraoin - Braoin's Voice section of the forum.

As an excercise of the kind suggested in this thread, you could cut and paste an article, print it and try reading it yourself before going on to study the meaning, pronunciation, etc., in further detail from Braoin's notes.

Similarly, you could use a story like Séadna for Munster Irish and then go on to study it with materials from Nótaí an Loin Dhuibh - An Lon Dubh's Notes and the Séadna study thread.

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WARNING: Intermediate speaker - await further opinions, corrections and adjustments before acting on my advice.
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect.
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), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

I chose the psalms because, as an Anglican chorister, I have chanted them many times in both English and Latin, so the meanings were kind of there intuitively even before I knew enough Irish to puzzle them out on my own. I also used the Nicene Creed and various set prayers, such as the Our Father and Hail Mary (Though those quickly became memorized...the prayers anyway. I haven't quite managed to memorize the Creed yet!)

I do the same thing now, only with books I happen to be reading (currently "Díbirt Dé" by Pádraig Standún, which is the first book I bought for my new Kindle!).

Redwolf

Excellent reminders about the great resources we have here on ILF!

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I forgot about this, sorry!


Some references:
http://www.academia.edu/2454421/In_Defe ... e_Learning
http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/april2002/leung/leung.pdf
Bamford, Julian and Richard Day. (2004) Extensive Reading Activities for Teaching Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hafiz, F.M and Tudor, I. (1989) ‘Extensive reading and the development of language skills.’ ELT Journal 43 (1) 4-13

I should say that it isn't like reading is some sort of silver bullet, it's just that it's a component people commonly ignore and seems to be the easiest way
to remember vocabulary and grammar. Leaving it out is comparable to not listening to the language. There is some debate as to whether it is better to read intensively (very focused understanding everything, all words and grammar, but moving slowly) or extensively (reading fluidly and mostly ignoring unknown words, writing them down as you go and checking them afterwards, mostly ignoring grammar). I don't think anybody is certain which is better currently.


Ó Bhéal an Bhab is moderately harder in my opinion. There are more obscure words and she is more frequently reciting traditional lore which tends to be in slightly more complex language. Where as a lot of Coiglímis an tine (pronounced Coiglímís) involves a lot of short funny stories and little adventures she had has a young girl, so the language is more everyday. I would say the Munster ladder of difficulty is something like:
Stair-Sheanchas Éireann.
Coiglímis an Tine.
Ó Bhéal an Bhab.
Mo Scéal Féin.
Maidhc Dainín's works of fiction (Idir Dhá Lios, Nuadha agus Breoghan ar Neamh)
Niamh.
Folklore collections (Mioscais na gCumar, An gort broc)
Séadna.
Fiche Blian ag fás.
An tOileánach
Seanchas Amhlaoibh Uí Luínse.

Seanchas Amhlaoibh Uí Luínse only comes last if you want to understand absolutely everything, if you are happy to miss the odd word and not fully
understand why lenition or eclipses is occuring in some cases, why some form of the copula was used, e.t.c. it's about the same as Séadna.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Going right back to the original message...

Not long after I started learning Spanish, I was using a verb tense drill book, and I started to become aware of how many rubber marks (en_us: eraser marks) there were on the paper. The pattern was that I occassionally missed out tiny little words from the sentence and had to go back and make space for them after.

But the more I did, the more of a problem I realised this was... it wasn't just something I did when there was a rubber mark on the paper, it was something I almost always did. When you're writing, you're normally a few words ahead of your fingers, so you can actually think a sentence in the wrong order, but rearrange it in your head before the pen hits the word.

As a made-up example: you might think "do mé" but correct it to "dom" before you actually write it down. You might even think "Elaine tá..." before writing "Tá Elaine...".

This sort of strategy is good enough for writing, because the limiting factor is your writing speed, not your thinking speed, but in English, it doesn't work.

What I did with Spanish was to force myself to go right back to the start if I made a mistake, rather than correcting it out of order. I made myself mutter every sentence before writing it, so that it had to be in the right order.

(I was inspired by something I read about years before, saying that if musicians correct themselves on the fly, they train that sequence of error and correction into their memory of the piece, and my memory of childhood cello lessons is of me being utterly frustrated about making the same mistake again and again, and having to correct it again and again, in an endless, futile struggle.)

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A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

Dont worry, I forgot to go in to the Library a few times to get it, just picked it up today. will have to wait till weekend till i can start it.

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Bíonn rudaí maithe mall