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Irish language immersion at Oideas Gael | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Irish) | Immersion | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| mezzofanti Octoglot Senior Member Australia mezzoguild.com Joined 4749 days ago 51 posts - 112 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic (classical), Arabic (Egyptian), Irish, Arabic (Levantine) Studies: Korean, Georgian, French | Message 1 of 11 21 August 2012 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I've been here in the Gaeltacht in Gleann Cholm Cille, Co. Donegal for the last week
(started my course at Oideas Gael on Sunday but came a little early to adjust). Has anyone else been here on the course? Curious to hear from other peoples' experiences. After 8 months of learning in complete isolation in Australia it's been a massive challenge for me. My comprehension of Irish is very high but I've decided to stay in a lower level because my speaking is way behind my listening. The biggest problem I'm having is that so many students and teachers talk English constantly, even if I try to only speak Gaeilge. The course itself is great though. I'm heading to a different Gaeltacht area after the course to see if I can find people more reluctant to speak English. Anyway, if you've been learning Irish and never been to Oideas Gael then I highly recommend it. Edited by mezzofanti on 21 August 2012 at 8:35pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 11 21 August 2012 at 10:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Did you meet Benny Lewis? He spent some time there recently, according to his newsletter(s).
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| Saim Pentaglot Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5084 days ago 124 posts - 215 votes Speaks: Serbo-Croatian, English*, Catalan, Spanish, Polish Studies: Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Occitan, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic (Maghribi), French, Modern Hebrew, Ukrainian, Slovenian | Message 3 of 11 22 August 2012 at 10:12am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I had this with a recent Serbian course for foreigners (at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, if anyone's interested, I'd highly recommend it for Serbo-Croatian learners). For a few months there was only A2 and B1+ students that I met (because I was in those classes) and I mostly hang out with the A2 ones who would speak mostly in English to me. Then there was a more intensive summer course where I was in C1, and there was plenty of people to talk to only in Serbian. Only one C1 student insisted on English (he didn't have anywhere near a C1 level anyway), and many B1 and B2 students could be talked to in Serbian as well. Even some A2 students tried, but mainly those whose English was also limited. :P Maybe if you had gotten into a higher level this wouldn't have been a problem? What level were you on? Did people from different levels mix at all? Edited by Saim on 22 August 2012 at 10:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5557 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 4 of 11 22 August 2012 at 2:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Great to hear you're enjoying the Oideas Gael course up in beautiful Co. Donegal! If you can get down to the west coast of Co. Galway, it's also well worth it. I particularly love the way they speak Irish around Connemara. :)
My auntie lives south of Galway, and having gone back to uni to study Irish history and literature, can certainly hold a conversation in the language. If you like, I can send her a quick email and ask where's good for speaking mainly in Irish. Edited by Teango on 22 August 2012 at 5:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4623 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 5 of 11 22 August 2012 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I flirted with Irish Gaelic in the late 90s and went to Oideas Gael 3 times for the long-weekend courses. I enjoyed the experience immensely, I had been learning from the excellent "Now You're Talking" book & tapes at home (now out of print I believe).
Therefore I had some knowledge of the language when I arrived, although I'd never actually spoken it with another person. I remember there were around seven class levels during my visits, I opted for level 2 the first time (level 1 being for total beginners with no Irish). From what I can remember, our tutors spoke lots of Irish in the classroom although obviously interspersed with English since we were post-beginners. Everyone was brought together on the first night and encouraged to use whatever Irish they had. There was also lots of socialising in the pub (Biddys) where people could help each other out and the locals were also supportive. Brian the Bus Eireann driver (big beard, wild hair) was a great bloke. I sometimes with I'd kept my Irish up but I got frustrated with the lack of opportunities to speak. Obviously that would be different now with the internet. Gleann Cholm Cille itself is a Gaeltacht village but not everyone is a native Irish speaker and you hear a lot of English being spoken. But practically all the local business people spoke Irish and were happy to talk to me in the language. Have a great time. Edited by beano on 22 August 2012 at 2:34pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mezzofanti Octoglot Senior Member Australia mezzoguild.com Joined 4749 days ago 51 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic (classical), Arabic (Egyptian), Irish, Arabic (Levantine) Studies: Korean, Georgian, French | Message 6 of 11 22 August 2012 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks very much. Biddy's actually closed down this week because the owner wasn't paying his taxes or something! They went out with a bang though. :)
I might try to make it to the Connemara Gaeltacht if I get time. I'm much more use to that dialect than the Ulster variety. (..)
That's a good point and I might actually try out one of the higher levels to see how I go. We've got 4 levels this week - I was supposed to be in 3 but I chose 2. The levels mix but tend to all speak English although there are a couple of students like myself trying to only use Gaeilge so I'm spending time with them in the breaks. Edited by Iversen on 24 August 2012 at 10:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5557 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 7 of 11 22 August 2012 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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My auntie recommends "An Spidéal" (Spiddal) on the shore of Galway Bay, if you fancy practicing your Irish. She said that anytime she's been there, they always spoke Irish in most of the shops (and had Irish above the doors), and it's also where the TG4 tv series "Ros na Rún" is filmed. Edited by Teango on 22 August 2012 at 4:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 11 22 August 2012 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I suppose all the info is somewhere on their website, but maybe we can get a good answer from you since you're there now.
For which levels do they arrange courses? Total beginners? "Advanced" learners? Is it easy/possible to change group if the tempo/level is to high/low? My active Irish is close to zero, and my passive only slightly better, but I once went through the whole Linguaphone course, I've done TY Irish at some point, I've been a member of an Irish language mailing list and so on. Did you start "from scratch" at the beginning of your 8 months? What was your level (if applicable) when you attended the course last week? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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