Rosetta Stone

The Holy Grail of language learning, but how good is it? I bought three months worth so that I could find out. One of the best things I have ever done for my language learning....however....I don't think you could use it if you were a complete beginner. You need some Irish before you take it or else it would all be just a confused mess.
There is no English...at all. It uses Munster Irish. Most of the sentences you can figure out for yourself because they have introduced you to the vocabulary you need before you even get the sentences. I have put a lot of them in Google Translate (which, by the way, is a LOT better than it used to be) just to make sure I have the sentence translated exactly right but most of the time, I don't have to.
It all starts with a Core Lesson that introduces you to the sentences and vocabulary in that lesson. I write them all down and put them into Quizlets. I am on Unit 4 now and there was about 115 sentences/vocabulary in the first lesson on that unit. There are 4 lessons in each unit. So it is a lot.. but I put them in Quizlets of about 20 each which makes it manageable and learnable. I learn them all and I make sure the Quizlets are set to write in Irish and English  and I use the Learn feature so I have to get them right 4 times before I can call it learned.
After the Core Lesson there is Pronunciation, Reading, Grammar, Speaking, Review, Listening and Vocabulary. It basically give you the same sentences in different ways. You write them, read them, fill in the blanks etc. You would think with all that repetition that you wouldn't need to do the Quizlets but, trust me, you do need them. If you really want to learn that is.
At the end of the 4th lesson there is a Milestone part. Where they give you a sentence and you are supposed to be able to say the next one. They don't use the same pictures as the lesson and it is nearly impossible to figure out what they want you to say in this section. I have found them so frustrating and useless that I totally skip them now. They aren't immersing you enough for you to be able to do this lesson.
Over all it is a really good program. I am learning tons. Where it is really lacking is on the Extended Learning section. It has Play, Talk, Stories and Audio Companion.
The Audio Companion is just the Rosetta Stone app for your phone. You get the exact same thing..only on your phone.
As for Talk, I haven't really tried it. You talk with people in Irish from around the world while playing game together...I don't want to talk with strangers like that...not yet anyway.
The Play section is pretty much the same thing except you can play one of 4 games by yourself or with a stranger. I have only played them by myself but I have to say, they aren't real interesting games, very basic and boring. Play the Quizlet ones, they are a lot more fun.
The Stories is, to me,  the most useful. They give you a little, very short "story" (sometimes just a paragraph) to read, then they read it to you and then there is a part where you can actually read the whole thing yourself (yeah, good luck with that). I mostly just read and listen. They start out with 3-4 the first few units, then they trickle down to 2 and then just one story for each unit, as if they got tired of making them. I guess with a pay program that is as famous as Rosetta Stone, I expected more- at LEAST 5-6 stories for each unit so that you really get some practice, but no, as it gets harder...you get one story. Also in the part where they read it to you...they talk really fast. Faster than you would speak normally, I think. It is not helpful.
There are also Live Tutoring sessions that you get now and then but have to pay for. Nah, not me, not yet anyway.
It sounds like a lot of negatives but no program is going to get you to fluency. You have to combine a lot of them and do a lot of extra to get enough vocabulary to actually speak the language, especially such a difficult language as Irish.
Rosetta Stone is definitely worth the money. I'm sure I'll have to buy 3-6 more months to get to the end of the 12 units but I'm definitely going to finish.
Other notes on the program: They use a lot of verbal nouns- running, reading, watching etc. and not a lot of actual verbs (at least in the 4 units I have done) but I think it is easier to learn where you don't have to focus on trying to conjugate verbs all the time. You get a verb now and then and you learn it to say I or he/she did something. It works so far. I really needed work on those verbal nouns anyway.
They build on what you have already learned. You might think you would forget what you had learned 2 units ago when they will put in a few sentences using what you learned then along with what you are learning now. For instance: a few units ago we learned how to say something is "close-gar" or "far- i bhfad" from something else. Two units later we are learning about shopping and stores and you get " Where is the bakery?", "The bakery is close to the bridge", "The hardware store is close to the park."
Grammar rules have become understandable with use. I used to get so frustrated on Duolingo trying to remember all those grammar rules. When to use lenition or eclipsis, when is it "his book","her book" or "their book". It is amazing how with enough use and figuring it out for yourself that these things become a lot more natural to you. I'm getting it and I never thought I would.
So do get Rosetta Stone if you already have some Irish. It will help immensely if you just put some effort into it.

And We're Back to Duolingo

So I haven't been back to Duolingo in quite some time. I stopped by now and then but never got serious about it as the Irish course was always way too difficult.... and then they changed it. They must be listening to what people are saying cause they did a big overhaul on the whole system. There is now a lot more repetition. You can't go through the lessons nearly as fast but it is a good thing. You have to go over the lessons several times before it levels up and then it has to level up 5 times to turn it "golden". I am only about a third of the way down my tree now but I feel like I am actually learning now. 

But one of the best things is that the people who were so nasty on the forums are gone. You can go on there, leave a comment, and nobody comes and leaves you an ugly comment back. Of course, they aren't there any more for explanations either but most of the explanations are there in the forum already anyway. I guess they didn't like the changes but I think they are wonderful. 

I have to say though, I don't think you should ever use Duolingo by itself. It doesn't explain anything fully and you will just end up frustrated. Buy Irish textbooks (the kind the kids use in Ireland). They have exercises for you to do that will help a LOT. Also get a grammar book. My next post will be on the one I have begun using. And above all read books in Irish and listen to Irish language shows. It will help you immensely. 

Quizlet- Learning Irish

I myself have created a "class" on Quizlet called Learning Irish . It is basically a flash card type of class and it has no sound (because the sound part is not free on Quizlet) but it has really helped me learn my vocabulary from the Future Learn courses and I thought it might helps others as well. You can use them as regular flash cards or you can use the "write" option so that you can learn to spell your words as well. (They have changed the flash card option so it does several different things and keeps at you until you learn the word. SO much better!)
I add to my Quizlet class whenever I get the chance or whenever I am learning something new and need flash cards. Anyone can join the class that wants to use the card. I don't get anything for doing this, no one pays me for it.

Just a note--I shared it with Duolingo and one of the former nasty people on the Irish course (they all seem to have left) pointed out (very nastily I might add) that one of them was wrong.  Well hell, I'm not perfect. If you see one wrong, let me know. I haven't found any others so her trying to say it wasn't a good resource just because it had one wrong....isn't exactly the case. I really hate people who think they are so damn high and mighty.

Future Learn

Future Learn  had several little Irish language courses. I think they are great if you have the time to sit around and memorize vocabulary because that is what they mostly are, pages and pages of vocabulary and then a page now and then on Irish language history. They only give you a certain amount of time to view the course- free- and if you want to view it after that you have to pay for it. I have saved most of the vocabulary in quizlets and have taken some time to learn several of them. It has helped my understanding immensely but is basically a lot of memorizing. I have now gotten to 105 and they are reviewing some which is really helpful. I think the courses are fine if you have time on your hands and don't mind memorizing but I wouldn't recommend them to beginners. I think you will get burned out really fast if you are a beginner trying to do them.

The Living Language Series

I bought the whole Living Language series on Irish a while back. It comes with 3 books, CD's and a notebook of paper.

I bought it because I heard it had lots of writing exercises for each lesson and I really feel that writing exercises are important for me. I can't learn how to spell anything if I don't have writing exercises, just like I can't memorize words unless I know how to pronounce them. It is just the way my brain works.
I am about half way through the first book and have found it to be pretty good. Not really as many exercises as I had hoped for but a lot more than you get with some other books. It seems to build one lesson on the other but you do have to study the vocabulary.
The only flaw I see in it is that it tells you the prepositions but doesn't give exercises for them, it just kind of glides on past them and you see a preposition later once in a while. Prepositions are not my strong suit so I had hoped to get more practice at them but it isn't going to happen with these books.
I listen to the CD's in my car and that has helped me to understand what I hear quite a bit better. It's a pretty good series to get and I recommend it.

Mango

Found this one just yesterday. Mango. Was very excited when I saw they had an Irish course. It is free if your library has paid for it and ours had. This is definitely a great place for beginners as the lessons are pretty easy. They only introduce one or two new words at a time and then they connect them with other words you have already learned to make sentences. And yes, it is very basic stuff but I still have learned how to say two new things in the first seven lessons and, unlike Duolingo, they are useful things. It has a LOT of repetition but we all need that in order to learn a language but it is a little boring if you already know most of the words. Still, I am hoping it gets harder and I learn more as I go along and even if I don't, it is still reinforcing vocabulary that I have had before but haven't used in a while. What I would love for it to add is a writing component. All of these courses except IsFeiderLiom are missing that element and even IsFeiderLiom only has very limited writing. I think writing the words yourself is really the key to learning how to spell them. Anyone can recognize a word when they see it but that doesn't mean you can spell it.
Anyway, check out Mango for some reinforcement on what you may already know and to add a little vocabulary and if you are a complete beginner, this is definitely the place to start.

Great Video!

https://www.facebook.com/northernvisionsnvtv.belfast/videos/1068271089946227/

Everyone should watch this video on how the west Belfast Gaeltach got started. Great video in Gaeilge but with subtitles.

Is Feider Liom

On my quest to find a better site than Duolingo, I ran upon this one. http://www.isfeidirliom.ie/   What a great site for beginners! The lessons give you vocabulary and you can hear the words spoken. It gets into grammar some but not so much that you get frustrated. Then it has games to play to reinforce what you are learning. I really have enjoyed it and love the easy, slow pace. I am kind of amazed at how much I really do know after being so confused all the time on Duolingo.
Keep in mind that the lessons take a couple minutes to load so don't give up when you get a blank page, just wait and it will bing at you when it has loaded.

New Thoughts On Duolingo

What happens as you take a large online course like Duolingo is that as you go along your thoughts about it change. I am now on level 16 with 10 more lesson sections to go on my Irish "tree" on Duolingo, and it isn't nearly as good as I once thought. For about the first 10 lessons everything was great and it goes right down hill from there on. Oh I am sure if you are really dedicated, write down all the words and all the strange odd exceptions, then study for hours on end....you could probably learn it...but most of us don't have time to study 40 words at a time...and this is the problem from about the 10th lesson on...the work just gets way too hard. It is as if the "course creators" as they call them on Duolingo, got together and had a competition to make the most difficult...useless...sentences they possibly could...and also use the hardest words they could find-----and then we aren't going to give them that word again for the next twenty lessons and let's see if they still remember it....
Or in the next section we are going to give them 43 new verbs (Verbs Present 3 section) but we really will only use about 6 of those verbs ever again and never enough so they can really remember them.

It just isn't a course for beginners. I wouldn't even call it a course for intermediate learners. It's an advanced course.

I really believe that in order for a beginner to really get a handle on a language, they have to start with easy sentences that they are going to use..a LOT...repetition is the key and you aren't going to get that at Duolingo no matter what they say. The Irish course has way too many words for that.

For a while I thought it was just me. Those moderators on the Irish boards sure did have me thinking I was the stupid one because I don't know all the parts of speech. I wonder if they realize how many people they drive away from the course with that? But it wasn't me. I tried the French course. Nice course. WAY, WAY easier! I am getting a lot out of it. I am on level 13 in the French course and haven't been on it for very long at all. I tried the Spanish course. Never had any Spanish in my life! I so far am not finding the course that terrible but I am only on level six. I tried the Welsh course. I thought I should try something closer to a Celtic language to really see if it wasn't just Irish that was hard. I haven't gone far on the Welsh course but already I love it. Short lessons without a million words in the lessons. Welsh is going great!

I'll still stick with the Duolingo Irish tree, see if it gets any better but I am not taking it too seriously.

Gaeilge in Canada

Really interesting article here. The only shame is no one taught the author how to write Gaeilge instead of Gaelic. Anyway, good article. I wish I could get to one of these gatherings sometime but Canada is a long way away from Georgia.

Canada's Gaelic speaking community

Usborne Internet-Linked Irish For Beginners

So I am constantly looking for more Irish children's books to read. I go spend a lot of time on Ebay and Amazon just looking (if I spent that time studying I would probably know more Irish!) and each week I buy just a couple more books and I wait forever (or it seems like it) because most of them come from Ireland or the UK. I ordered two this last time and it has been several weeks but the Usborne Internet-Linked Irish for Beginners has finally come in. I thought it was just like a children's book that would teach me, maybe, a few new words. It turned out to be so much more. Every two pages is its own lesson with lots of great vocabulary words and how to use them in a few "useful" sentences. Here are the lessons:

About this book
Saying "Hello"
What is your name?
Naming things
Where do you come from?
More about you
Your family
Your home
Looking for things
What do you like?
Table talk
Your hobbies
Telling the time
Arranging things
Asking where places are
Finding your way around
Going shopping
Shopping and going to a cafe
The months and seasons
Colours and numbers
Pronunciation guide
Grammar
Answers to Puzzles
Glossary

Let's take for instance the pages for Your Home. There are 23 New Words or phrases for you to learn. You learn names for different kinds of houses and how you say that you live in them. Then you learn what each room in a normal house is called and how you say "Who is in the living room(bedroom kitchen, bathroom etc)? And how to reply to that. Then there is a little "Points to Remember" box and it tells you what words "sa" aspirates or doesn't aspirate.

The Glossary at the end is an Irish/English dictionary and for each noun tells you whether that noun is masculine or feminine.

The only down side of this book that I can see is the "Internet linked" part. You are linked to the Usborne site where you find what book you have and there is supposed to be links to help you. I had hoped it would help with pronunciation of the words I didn't know.  The book says that they are kept updated but I clicked on several of them and none of them worked anymore.

Still I think this book is definitely worth having. If I ever get done with my Duolingo tree I intend to sit down and study each lesson until I know them.

Enjoy your studying!

Songs

Yeah, I know, you didn't expect songs but songs are how a lot of children learn and it won't hurt you to learn some songs while learning Irish at the same time.
Children's songs are really good. Here is a song I am learning now: An bhFaca Tu mo Sheamuisin but if you look on the bottom of the page there are lots of songs you can learn. What have I learned from this song? Well "an bhfaca tu" means "have you seen" and apparently you can put "in" in the end of the work to add the word "little" to it. Things I hadn't yet gotten to in on my web courses or books.

Then if you want some music that is more modern you have to go to Youtube and find TG Lurgan. They are absolutely wonderful. Here is the song "Wake Me Up" 
Then if you go to this site (this can be found under the video too) you can find the lyrics in Irish and English.
Learning one of these is a little ambitious for a beginner but it can be done if you want it bad enough.

Books

Of course, books are going to help. There are several really good Irish language books out there. When you get books, however, get the CD's with them. There is nothing more frustrating that trying to learn Irish from a book without a CD. The words are just too hard to figure out from their spellings. You need the CD to get the pronunciations right. 

One of the best books I have is Teach Yourself Irish by Diarmuid O Se and Joseph Sheils. There is an incredible amount of information in the book and some short exercises as well. It is not exactly a text book and I would not use it by itself but it is great to reinforce what you are learning.

Another excellent book is Learning Irish by Micheal O Siadhail. I love how it gives vocabulary first, grammar, exercises,text to read and  sections to translate. I unfortunately, do not have the CD to this book yet which is why I haven't been using it. When I do get the CD though, I am going through it cover to cover.

Gaeilge Gan Stro is another book I bought. I bought it because I hoped it was more like a textbook I would use in school, with lessons and exercises. I came with 4 CD's and was quite expensive. It was also a real disappointment. If you want to learn Irish by memorizing sentence after sentence...this is the book for you. I hope to use it later on when I am better at Irish but right now it is not getting used at all. No grammar, no vocabulary...just memorize sentence after sentence...ugg.

Anyway, those are the Irish language books that I have. There are others and I will post about them if I get them and tell you what I think. 

You can't just stick to the language teaching books though, you need other books. My Kindle is full of Irish language...children's books. Yes children's books because you aren't going to be able to read adult books (good luck finding Irish language adult books anyway). You won't be able to read them at first. Children can't read at first and they, for the most part, know the language. You might get Google translate to help out at first but eventually you are going to start to pick up the words and know them (just like any child!).  Most of these books I find on Amazon.com. You might find some on Ebay too but most of the time I find them cheaper on Amazon. I am constantly ordering new ones. Remember simple is better at first. Some of the ones I own are: Ulchabhain Oga, Is Geal Liom Sibh Go Leir, Fiacla Mhamo, and Saili na Spotai.

The one book I have found the most usless with the Irish language is an Irish/English dictionary. I have one. I never use it. The problem with Irish is that their words take so many different forms that it is almost impossible to look at word up unless you know the basic root word and most of the time you don't. It is way easier to use Google Translate which given a sentence will most of the time get it right. It has to have the sentence most of the time though to get the words put in the right context. 

So start getting some books people. They are definitely going to help.

TG4

You can't mention Irish language without mentioning TG4 . The only Irish language television station. Without it I would not have even tried to learn Irish because if you can't hear the language spoken on a normal basis, you don't have much chance of learning it. That being said, you have to go watch the shows on TG4 on a regular basis and by that I mean...daily. I suggest that you find the shows that have English subtitles or you will just grow bored because you don't know what anyone is saying. Even with English subtitles you are still learning. You will find yourself picking out those Irish words that you know and you will hear them more and more as you progress. Small sentences will start to have meaning. This is where I am now. Some shows are better than others. I once read that I should watch the children's shows because they talk slower on them but I didn't find the children's shows to be very helpful because even though they talk slower they also talk in funny voices and it is hard to understand the words. I suggest you watch the adult shows. You get a lot more regular conversation on them and it is just easier to learn from. 

When you run out of interesting shows on TG4 look for more of their shows on Youtube. I recently found this one called No Bearla (sorry no fada).  It was an excellent show and since he talked in Irish most of the time to regular people it was great for learning, plus it was just an interesting show for someone who doesn't live in Ireland. 

Anyway, watch as much as you can, as often as you can. It is likely the only real immersion you are going to get unless you go to Ireland and visit a region where they speak mostly Irish. 

Memrise

Memrise.com is also a wonderful place to learn Irish. It also uses a quizzes type of system to help you learn. The difference is that anyone can make a course on Memrise which means they may or may not be correct. I would suggest if you find a course with an error in it on memrise that you inform them of the error and then leave the course. Irish is difficult enough without learning it wrong to begin with.
There are a lot of Irish courses to choose from on Memrise. There is even a Duolingo course which will definitely help you with Duolingo. But there are also specific courses like ones on the Days and Months in Irish (which I cannot seem to learn well from Duolingo), the weather, numbers, adjectives, question words etc. etc.
 Memrise also has courses to go along with Irish language books you may have like Learning Irish and Gaeilge Gan Stro.
Memrise also tries to encourage you to come daily with a "streak" clock. I basically ignore the thing because I have so many courses going on there that I could never keep up with them all every day.
They also have a Pro version that you can pay for which adds a few nice features. I pay $7 a month and am happy with what I get for that.
If you have the time I would suggest using Duolingo and Memrise together. You will learn a lot more. I usually stay on Duolingo as long as I can and then when I get sick of it, I go to Memrise where the learning is not quite so intense for me.

Start with the Best- Duolingo

The Pros and how it works
Basically if you want to learn any language go to Duolingo first. Duolingo has an amazing amount of languages you can learn. They have the basic ones: French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, and then they have other not so common ones: Turkish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Welsh, Hebrew, Vietnamese....and the list goes on and they are always adding more. Irish is, of course, one of them.
The site is FREE! Yes FREE! How long it will stay that way, I don't know. Usually the online things that are free at first end up charging you after they get big and Duolingo is one of the best language learning sites there is out there so don't be surprised if it eventually  starts charging.
Anyway, what happens when you pick a course on Duolingo is that you get a "tree" which is basically a big bunch of buttons which is your language broken down into manageable categories--too many to list here. You click on one and you start your learning. Duolingo does not really have a "lesson" to it. There is a "note" portion on each section where they try to tell give you some information and you definitely want to read all the note sections. Then you click on Practice and it basically quizzes you. It might give you a sentence in Irish and you have to write it in English or vice versa. It might give you a multiple choice question or one where you listen to the Audio and have to write down what it says in English or Irish. At first you won't know anything but don't worry, it will give you them again and eventually you will know them. Yes, it is a bit frustrating at first but it works and once you get used to it, you learn at a fairly good pace. Each section can also have several sub-sections. And once you finish a whole section you can "Review" but in these reviews they aren't going to give you all the same words or sentences. They are going to get harder and sometimes they will give you things that there is just no way you could know them from the previous lessons. And it is REALLY frustrating but you will either get to know them eventually or move on. Each section has a set of little gold bars around it. You are supposed to keep the bars full. So if one goes down in a section you must review again to fill it which gives you the repetition you need to really remember the lessons.
Duolingo also has a system where you pick how much XP you want to get in a day. The most you can is 50 which means you will have to do or review at least 5 lessons. If you get to your XP number you get a "streak" day added at the top of the page. It counts your "streak" days. This is supposed to be a incentive for you to come every day and practice.
They also have "levels". After you get a certain amount of XP (I don't know how much) you move up a level which also is an incentive to keep coming and getting to a higher level. The levels only go up to 25 though, apparently after that they feel you should have finished your "tree".
Then there is the Forum. There is a link on every single quiz question where you can go to the forum and ask anything you don't understand. It is a wonderful feature and Irish has several very knowledgable people on the forum who are helpful.
On Duolingo you can do as many languages at a time as you want. I myself am doing French (which I had in school) along with my Irish but I am sure if I did too many it would get a bit confusing. There are definitely other languages I want to learn there though.

The Cons

Duolingo can sometime come up with the stupidest sentences you have ever heard of. It is likely to help you remember better but I really find it does the opposite. Yes you remember the sentence better but you never really remember the words without the stupid sentence. Paul may have put the dog in the fridge but I never could remember the word refrigerator without Paul and the dog so really it is a silly technique that doesn't work but complain all you want. They aren't changing it.

The Irish forum can be a great place to go get answers to things that are not explained in the lessons and there are definitely very smart people on the Irish forum. I like to think I am a fairly smart person myself but I am sure the people on the Irish forum all think I am an idiot. I don't know my parts of speech and parts of speech are ALL they use in their explanations. Instead of just saying the Irish word "an" and "na" they are going to say "the indefinite article", EVERY DAMN TIME! Instead of saying the Irish word "Is" they will say "the copula".  Most of the explanations you won't have the slightest clue what they told you. Most people just say "Thank you" and move on BUT not me. I have to ask them what each part of speech is and to please give me simple explanations. I don't think they understand that here in America (USA) we take 4 years of English in school and months later we have forgotten it all...let alone YEARS later.
You also cannot complain on the Irish forum. They can be real ASSES to you if you do. They don't like complaints. The service is free so you should appreciate it even when it is stupid or wrong.
They also don't like chit chat. I tend to be a bit of a chatty person and was trying to share my frustrations and experience while learning and that was not acceptable to them. Apparently the people answering questions on the forum think it is just for them and if you don't have a question you shouldn't be there. It is a shame that it can't be more open to people sharing their experiences. I have noticed that the French forum is not that way and there are LOTS of people leaving messages on it that aren't strictly questions and there is quite a bit of complaining on the French forum that no one gets nasty about.

The streaks. The streaks are definitely an incentive....at first. And then later they become a burden. The higher your streak gets the more of a burden it becomes. My suggestion is that you not pay any attention to your "streak". If you need a day off, take one, because learning Irish is HARD and sometimes you need a day or two off. It will still be there when you get back to it. Just don't take too many days off.

Closing

Really the cons aren't that big of a deal. Duolingo is still the best place to learn Irish that I have found so far. It isn't a "complete" program. There is no such thing. You won't be fluent when you finish your tree but if you compare it to learning a language in school you will have over a years worth of language...at least...and you never had to leave your computer.

Why Learn Irish?

To start this blog, I, of course, have to answer this question. Why does a middle aged woman in the U.S. want to speak Irish?

Well, it's because I'm Irish.....

Yeah, I know people from Ireland do not understand why we say we are Irish here and have never lived in Ireland. Let me try to explain. Nobody here is just American except the American Indians, the rest of us were always identified by what country we came from. As people got off that boat they were asked, "What are you?" and you were Irish or you were, Danish, Swedish..whatever and you were proud of what you were and you passed that pride down to your children and their children and that is why there are still proud Irish here today.

I don't know a lot about my father's family except little bits that he told me but he did say his family went from Ireland to Canada (Canada was cheaper) and his grandmother came with them and they learned French there but the names my great-grandmother called my father were all Irish endearments. (a chuislela mo croi is one of them). They later moved down to the US to Hartford, Conn.  My father and all of his 5 sisters all had red hair and brown eyes. 

On my mother's side there is some Irish as well. She always said she was half English, quarter Irish and quarter Scottish. She was always very pleased that her sister had a little girl with red hair and brown eyes. She said they had thought red hair and brown eyes was so unusual until she met my father. 

So I'm Irish.....but I didn't grow up with Irish traditions and ways. My father was a Catholic but my mother was an Episcopalian. She sent us to the Baptist church because it was close enough for us kids to walk to. My father never went to church. He didn't tell stories that his grandmother had told him about Ireland and he didn't speak Gaeilge except those few little endearments now and then. But I think there is something about being Irish that just never leaves you. For instance, I have loved Irish traditional Irish music from the moment I first heard it. When I started learning to play the violin it was all so that I could play Irish music. I have book after book about Ireland. Books with pictures of Ireland, books about myths and legends, and then I found my first Irish language book...and then I found websites and then I decided to learn. 

This blog is basically going to be about resources for learning the Irish language and it will follow my journey on learning it. I hope it will be helpful to others who want to learn Irish. There likely won't be lessons but there will be links to lessons, books, websites..anything that will help you immerse yourself in the language. There are a lot more resources out there for an struggling language than you would think.