? S? D. , Sheils J. Teach Yourself Irish Complete Course. - Hodder
and Stoughton Ltd, 1999.
The aim of this book is to teach you to understand basic, everyday Irish. It is suitable both for the complete beginner and for Irish people who have leaed some Irish at school, but who have had little opportunity of speaking it
This is a functional course, based on the kinds of situations in which Irish is used, each of which is dealt with in a separate unit. In Unit 1, for example, you will lea some simple greetings, and how to give and understand personal information such as name, address and telephone number. In Unit 2, you will lea to say what you do for a living, and, in Unit 3, to talk about your family. Until you reach Unit 12 the emphasis will be on very immediate and daily situations: so Unit 4 deals with socialising, Unit 6 the weather, and Unit 10 shopping. From Unit 12 on you move to less immediate things, such as talking about past and future events in more detail, and making suggestions.
The first half of the book includes much of what you would expect to find in a phrasebook, and enough Irish for you to get by in simple situations. Do not be put off at this stage by hearing or seeing something which you cannot understand. An Irish proverb says B?onn gach tos? lag (Every beginning is weak).
The second half of the book will prepare you to be more adventurous, and at this stage you can make more use of the Appendices at the back of the book.
Remember that a language consists of two things: words and ways of combining words. You cannot talk about things unless you know the words for them. In this book we give you basic vocabulary in each unit, but from an early stage you will find it helpful to have a short dictionary
in which you can locate the words which you want to use. We suggest the bilingual An Focl?ir P?ca {The pocket dictionary, An Gum), which also gives a recommended pronunciation. As for combining words, we have limited this course to the simplest and most straightforward ways of saying things. Leaers may want to move on to more advanced courses once they have satisfactorily completed this. We hope you will find that leaing Irish from this book is an interesting and rewarding experience.
How to use this book
Each unit has: one or more dialogues (Comhr? a conversation); a vocabulary for each dialogue; questions about the dialogues (ceist a question, ceisteanna questions); some cultural information in the early units; usually also a section dealing with important areas of vocabulary, such as numbers, names of days and months, etc; a grammar section; and exercises (Cleachtadh practice).
First study the dialogues with which each unit begins. If you have the tape, which we strongly recommend, listen and look at the book at the same time. Remember that the context is an important guide to the meaning, and as these dialogues are meant to be as realistic as possible you will be able to guess a certain amount of what is going on. Phrase by phrase translations are given beneath the dialogues, but these get shorter as the course progresses. At first you will be dependent on them, but you should find that many things which you already know reappear and you will have less need of translation. Satisfy yourself that you know what each sentence means, and how it means what it means. The grammar sections will give the necessary explanations. Most important of all, read each dialogue aloud until you feel familiar with it. You may be in a position to use some of these phrases before long, so the more naturally they fall from your lips the better. Most dialogues are followed by a couple of simple questions which will help you to confirm that you have grasped what is going on. Resist any temptation to bypass the practice exercises at the end of each unit. They have been put together carefully so that you will get the maximum benefit from the course.
The aim of this book is to teach you to understand basic, everyday Irish. It is suitable both for the complete beginner and for Irish people who have leaed some Irish at school, but who have had little opportunity of speaking it
This is a functional course, based on the kinds of situations in which Irish is used, each of which is dealt with in a separate unit. In Unit 1, for example, you will lea some simple greetings, and how to give and understand personal information such as name, address and telephone number. In Unit 2, you will lea to say what you do for a living, and, in Unit 3, to talk about your family. Until you reach Unit 12 the emphasis will be on very immediate and daily situations: so Unit 4 deals with socialising, Unit 6 the weather, and Unit 10 shopping. From Unit 12 on you move to less immediate things, such as talking about past and future events in more detail, and making suggestions.
The first half of the book includes much of what you would expect to find in a phrasebook, and enough Irish for you to get by in simple situations. Do not be put off at this stage by hearing or seeing something which you cannot understand. An Irish proverb says B?onn gach tos? lag (Every beginning is weak).
The second half of the book will prepare you to be more adventurous, and at this stage you can make more use of the Appendices at the back of the book.
Remember that a language consists of two things: words and ways of combining words. You cannot talk about things unless you know the words for them. In this book we give you basic vocabulary in each unit, but from an early stage you will find it helpful to have a short dictionary
in which you can locate the words which you want to use. We suggest the bilingual An Focl?ir P?ca {The pocket dictionary, An Gum), which also gives a recommended pronunciation. As for combining words, we have limited this course to the simplest and most straightforward ways of saying things. Leaers may want to move on to more advanced courses once they have satisfactorily completed this. We hope you will find that leaing Irish from this book is an interesting and rewarding experience.
How to use this book
Each unit has: one or more dialogues (Comhr? a conversation); a vocabulary for each dialogue; questions about the dialogues (ceist a question, ceisteanna questions); some cultural information in the early units; usually also a section dealing with important areas of vocabulary, such as numbers, names of days and months, etc; a grammar section; and exercises (Cleachtadh practice).
First study the dialogues with which each unit begins. If you have the tape, which we strongly recommend, listen and look at the book at the same time. Remember that the context is an important guide to the meaning, and as these dialogues are meant to be as realistic as possible you will be able to guess a certain amount of what is going on. Phrase by phrase translations are given beneath the dialogues, but these get shorter as the course progresses. At first you will be dependent on them, but you should find that many things which you already know reappear and you will have less need of translation. Satisfy yourself that you know what each sentence means, and how it means what it means. The grammar sections will give the necessary explanations. Most important of all, read each dialogue aloud until you feel familiar with it. You may be in a position to use some of these phrases before long, so the more naturally they fall from your lips the better. Most dialogues are followed by a couple of simple questions which will help you to confirm that you have grasped what is going on. Resist any temptation to bypass the practice exercises at the end of each unit. They have been put together carefully so that you will get the maximum benefit from the course.