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Jeff’s TAC 2015/Team Celts/Gaelic (Irish) log

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sctroyenne
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 Message 49 of 53
24 December 2014 at 11:25pm | IP Logged 
Teango wrote:
Wow, the Gaeltacht Minister himself! It's a shame he's not a fluent
speaker in this position, but fair play to him, I'm glad he's keen to actively rekindle
his Irish after 20 years. Actively relearning the language and taking classes should
hopefully offer him a clearer perspective on what it's like for other Irish language
learners around the country and how education and access to resources can be improved.
I couldn't find any clips of him speaking much spontaneous Irish, but I did find this
clip of him feature=player_embedded&v=KPreZxOAUjk">reading Irish aloud in parliament.


As someone who isn't Irish I don't really have a horse in the race but I thought it
could work out if he learned Irish to the point of being conversational to demonstrate
that it can be done. I had mentioned that Des Bishop/Benny-style big goals and projects
can really put the pressure on adult learners to make a lot of progress and I think
this is that same sort of idea on steroids.
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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 50 of 53
25 December 2014 at 1:45am | IP Logged 
I remember many positive things from the week. Some of those include enthusiastic learners who worked hard to stay in the same group they had chosen at the beginning of the week, who "levelled up" by speaking Irish to each other despite grammar mistakes and lack of vocabulary - in class, during coffee breaks, in the street, and in the pub.

I forgot to mention a nice chat with a man the last evening. It turned out that he learned Irish as a child but hadn't used it until he (recently?) moved back to the Glencolmcille area. He also spoke Irish to my friend (who was in level 1), and adapted his level so she would understand him.

More on the Gaeltacht topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xALlNgbBdoo (just for reference - we don't want this to be a political discussion)

By the way, I bought two books in the shop:
Cú na mBaskerville (Hound of Baskerville) and Lastall den Scáthán agus a bhFuair Eilís Ann Roimpi (Through the looking-glass and what Alice found there), and at this point I've nearly finished the Baskerville through my bilingual "reading aloud" method, one sentence in English, one in Irish, next sentence... I'll post a detailed summary before the end of this year.

Next book I'll read will be Eachtraí Eilíse i dTír na nIontas (Alice's adventures in Wonderland) - I just have to get that one first.
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agantik
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 Message 51 of 53
02 January 2015 at 4:55pm | IP Logged 
Godt nytt år, fellow member of the Scandinavian team ! Happy to read your log this year.
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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 52 of 53
04 January 2015 at 1:57am | IP Logged 
What happened after I returned from Ireland?

Well, not much! The autumn started with my deciding not to do any unversity studies (I had applied to four mini courses, among them Modern Irish Reading and Old Irish Reading). In late September I tried out Duolingo for some 30-40 days without interruption (same for German and Spanish).

I also watched four episodes of Canúintí Ceoil (~28 minutes) which is about regional styles in Irish music. I was very happy to recognize faces in the Donegal episode (as well as hear their accent) and in the Clare episode there was a lot of footage from Miltown Malbay where I went every summer around the turn of the century. I even saw people I played music with back then (one guy who will always be my number one proof that Irish is a living language).

Finally, I started my bilingual reading aloud method with The Hound of the Baskervilles/Cú na mBaskerville - something I finished the day before New Year's Eve. In the last third of the book, I read up to one paragraph in English before reading the same text in Irish.

My feelings are the same as after reading An Hobad (see previous page).

Spreadsheet stats:
Scriptorium 14 hours
Listening 15.5 hours
Reading 15.25 hours
Analysis (grammar exercises, conversation practice etc.) 90.25 hours
Shadowing 6.25 hours
Total 141.25 hours
Average 27 min/day

(The Old Irish stats: 44 hours of analysis)

Entries in Anki: 3024 (words and phrases, L2->L1). I don't study flashcards on a daily (or even weekly) basis anymore, especially since I've been unable to synchronize the deck with my AnkiWeb account since mid-October.

My goals from 2014 was:

  • finish the university course(s) - DONE

  • finish the second volume of Gaeilge gan Stró - not DONE - after the exam I didn't do course-related studying at all, but I'll probably return to the textbook this year.

  • go back to Oideas Gael in July, possibly for a two-week immersion (aiming for a higher level)- DONE (one week, at level 3)


Current level
Still limited active skills in a limited range of topics - but I'm getting better!
My vocabulary is still to weak to understand say, random newscasts, while videos on specialized topics can be surprisingly "easy" to understand.
My reading skills are improving day by day.

Goals for 2015:
As stated two posts above, I'll read the two books by Lewis Carroll, and after that I'm going to try an original book in
Maybe finish the second volume of Gaeilge gan Stró.
Probably a trip to Ireland in July.
Other than that - read articles on Wikipedia, write, maybe some self-talk, maybe book lessons with a tutor.

Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 04 January 2015 at 2:01am

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Teango
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 Message 53 of 53
04 January 2015 at 8:22pm | IP Logged 
A really impressive past year, Jeff, in which your Irish seems to have gone from strength to strength! I particularly enjoyed your accounts of learning Irish in the Gaeltacht, and would love to go sometime myself (although I'm a bit far away right now). I look forward to us comparing notes on Team Celts again this year, and although I haven't started using my recently arrived copies of Gaeilge gan Stró just yet, it looks very promising after flicking through the pages and reading the intro. Incidentally, my local native Hawaiian bookstore also has Hawaiian editions of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland " and "Through the Looking Glass", although they're way beyond my level right now.



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