Used to be really decent at spoken. I’m at about a decent sixth class / first year level now after practicing with my youngest for a bit and I’ve definitely improved but it’s also definitely plateaued.
I’m doing little things like reading the Gaeilge along with English on any signs I come across but struggle with RnaG news or the like.
Like I can make out the words but I’m just so rusty I lose context quickly.
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https://cula4.ie/ is handy. media made for kids/young people is great for getting used to sentence structures and common vocab. they’ve got everything from “saol faoi shráid” to the irish dub of “shrek”!
https://www.rte.ie/player/series/bluey-as-gaeilge/10019908-00-0000 “bluey” is available in irish on the rté player just beginning this week or so. the first episode says there’s only 6 days left to watch it, so they won’t be up forever, sadly.
https://snas.ie/ has a load of resources starting at level B1; i enjoyed going through the lessons based on “ros na rún”, and the explanations for the grammar/vocab in them are in english.
a blog i keep coming across when i’m looking for explanations online is https://toingaeilge.com/ too. it hasn’t been updated in a few years, but it has some great breakdowns & good lists of resources too.
https://www.foclach.com/ and https://seafoid.com/ are some daily word games (based on wordle and waffle) that might help with expanding vocabulary. i find seafóid easier & it pops up with a definition as soon as you get each word.
other than that, i recommend reading as many books in irish that you can get your hands on, starting with books for kids & working your way up. starting at too high a level is likely to just be frustrating & demotivating, so focus on what you can easily do now & keep adding to it.
for getting books, your local library’s online catalogue will let you know what it has & what it can get via inter-library loan. (free resources are my favourite 🥳)
i’d recommend these for buying books in irish, if there’s nothing of interest anywhere local: https://www.siopaleabhar.com/ https://www.siopagaeilge.ie/ https://www.litriocht.com/
ádh mór ort! 🙌
Legend. Go raibh míle.
fadhb ar bith! 🙌
I like the Gaeilge Gan Stró series because they’re modern and include good audio to listen to. I find it easier to just listen to the audio until it sounds familiar and then read the chapter after that.
I saw an Irish teacher online recommending something for retention that works well for me: basically when I hear something on Irish radio or TV that sounds familiar but I don’t know what it actually means, I write it down and look it up later. I remember those well and they’re usually useful and current.
Fair play OP, ádh mór leis. Some great replies too.
Thank you! I like the idea of the audio for sure. A little pricey but I suppose their audience is limited.
Buntús Cainte is available online for free as far as I know (Youtube, and some of the language apps have the audio course included). I really like that one too and I have all three books/CDs. It’s a bit dated in some ways, but the blas on the speakers is fantastic.
Sound. I’ll give that a whirl. Been using the Sionnach app daily since posting and it’s helping but I definitely could do with some handy audio.
I must give Sionnach a go. I have it installed but never got around to it. Thanks for the nudge!
