Help is at hand
October 1, 2013
Learning Irish was very difficult in the old days. You had a boring old textbook and perhaps a boring old teacher also, in a gloomy classroom. But things changed. There is a wide range of textbooks available now – they are attractive and have a modern look about them. But the perfect textbook has not been published yet – I haven’t had the time! But besides textbooks, back-up resources are available – internet resources in particular. Internet material is improving all the time, so it does no harm to mention to mention some of the sites again. There is no longer a printed version of Foinse, but Foinse is continuing with its daily news service on the Web. The service has learners in mind, and a summary of each story is given in English. It is an excellent resource – foinse.ie Nuacht1.com publishes pieces in Irish from the newspapers. There are windows on the site and you can get access to other sites through them, including Beo, Foinse, Gaelport, Meon eile, Nós, Nuacht24 and Treibh. Go to the bottom of the home page and you will get more than one hundred songs of every kind – traditional songs, children’s songs, sean-nós, pop music, Google RTE Gaeilge for details of Raidió na Gaeltachta, RTÉ and TG4 programmes.
Google BBC Irish, and you will get all sorts of information on material for everyone from the absolute beginner to the fluent speaker. It has simple lessons by a local teacher, Fearghal Mag Uiginn. And the computer games are great! I am a big child at heart. Gaelport’s news and information service is very important at this time, especially when Foinse is no longer with us. And if we don’t use the Internet sites, we will lose many of them too. Finally, a booklet with a list of Internet resources would be very useful. A little project for Foras na Gaeilge?
Classes: Classes will be held in St. Mary’s Hall, Muff every Tuesday from 5.30 till 7.00. All are welcome. Further information: Muff Resource Centre: (00353) 74 93 84572.
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