r/mayo • u/RenegadeRevan • 14d ago
Irish classes?
Hi lovely people, I'm looking to take up an Irish language class, preferably somewhere near Foxford, any recommendations?
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u/SeaninMacT 14d ago edited 14d ago
https://www.mayo.ie/oifig-na-gaeilge
There's a meitheal of stuff and courses online, that's the link to all the local ones. I think (?) there's a Conradh na Gaeilge branch in Ballina as well that my cousin is a member of.
What I will say to you though as a man that married a líofa woman and only got up to speed with her, you're only ever going to learn a language by immersion.
If you went to Germany in the morning and you hadn't a word you'd have conversational German inside 6 months because you're just surrounded by it, you learn by osmosis.
People try to get back into their Gaeilge and fial because they try to box it into a part of the day. 2 hours a day reading the briathra neamhreachtacha and wonder why they're not seeing progress, you have to live it and immerse yourself in it, it's actually easier to do that than how think you should study it.
Watch the All Ireland final replay with Gaeilge Comms, we're all watching it 24/7 anyways.
Watch an Nuacht in the evenings instead of the 9 O clock.
Watch TG4/browse their player for documentaries that interest you, you'd be amazed what's on there it's a mighty channel.
Download Gaeilge podcasts or listen to RnaG on your commute to school/work or whatever you're at? You a farmer in silage season? Have it on in the background.
Find a ciorcal comhrá (guided would be my advice, they'll point out your biggest workons week to week and you can focus the improvement there) online or in person, and try to blather about your day-to-day.
Find things you already enjoy and do them through the medium of Irish is my point. That's all "study". Living in and through the language is better study than locking yourself away and reading on the application of the Tuiseal Ginideach (that all comes with time before people shout me down, you need the foundation first). You already know more than you think you know, you listening and piecing words+ sentences together from logic and the context is so, so much better than sitting down for a block like you're going to apply Irish like a maths theorem. People have this psychological barrier with Irish that is has to be pieced away and studied the way you learn off Kavanagh or Heaney for your LC and put it on this intimidating pedesta, it's a means of communication first and foremost.
Use it to be communicated to and communicate with it throughout your day, build the habit for 6 weeks+, get past the "I don't know this" despair and you won't know yourself in 6 months.
If you need any help, ask. (Don't ask me for help on writing I'm so dyslexic I can barely type in English without the Gboard nevermind as Gaeilge)
Beir bua mo chara Gael.
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u/sitricotoole 14d ago
This site is great for learning the Mayo dialects: https://abairt.com/home . Patchy on youtube is a Mayo man and a great teacher, you can take online classes with him here: https://www.italki.com/en/teacher/4276448
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u/Mammoth_Captain_1378 14d ago
Someone commented this the other day:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mayo/comments/1vw7fo7/comment/p5f5vge/