- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Teach Yourself Books; 4th Revised edition edition (26 Dec 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340870745
- ISBN-13: 978-0340870747
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 16.2 x 5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,843,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
Product Description
Product Description
The aim of this book is to teach you to understand basic, everyday Irish. It is suitable for both the complete beginner and for Irish people who have learned some Irish at school but who have had little opportunity of speaking it. This is a functional course, based on the kinds of situations in which Irish is used, each of which is dealt with in a separate unit. The first half of the book includes much of what you would expect to find in a phrasebook, and enough Irish for you to get by in simple situations. The second half of the book will prepare you to be more adventurous, and at this stage you can make more use of the appendices at the back of the book. Each unit has one or more dialogues, a vocabulary for each dialogue, questions about the dialogues, some cultural information, a grammar section and exercises to check your progress. The book starts with a comprehensive guide to pronunciation and at the end of the book you will find the key to the exercises, appendices which summarise the main grammar points, an Irish-English vocabulary and an English-Irish vocabulary and, finally, a grammar index. The accompanying double cassette provides approximately 2 hours of listening material. The cassettes (0340 87076 1) and book (0340 87073 7) can also be purchased separately. Alternatively, the listening material is also available on a double CD which can be purchased on its own (0340 87077 X) or in a pack with the book (0340 87075 3).
About the Author
Diarmuid O Se is a lecturer at University College, Dublin. He has worked as a secondary teacher and language laboratory instructor and was for many years a researcher at the Linguistics Institute of Ireland. Joseph Sheils is Head of Modern Languages at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He was previously Head of the Department of Language Pedagogy at the Linguistics Institute of Ireland. He is an experienced teacher, teacher-trainer and curriculum developer.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found this course to be really sympathetically done. As with most modern teaching methods I have used, the grammar is presented in context, so you can speak right from the start. If you want the grammar, what you need is there, sometimes spread over a couple of units, but it’s easy to find as the contents list and index are very complete. The voices on the CD are nice and clear, and I like the way that names are used for practising pronunciation. All in all, a nice user-friendly way to begin learning Irish.
40 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you are not serious about learning Irish you would waste your money on this course. There are lots of much cheaper phrase-books on the market. They won't teach you much, but you will learn some everyday phrases.
However, if you are serious about learning the language this course is a disaster.
- It is poorly organised. The grammar is presented in a very random way and you will have to jump from chapter to chapter to learn points of grammar since one piece of grammar can be split up between many chapters.
- It does not take you that far. It says "explore the language in depth" but that is something written on the cover of every new Teach Yourself book. It is true for some of the courses but definitely not for this one. You will have learned a basic vocabulary and some grammar by the end of this book, but you will be far from competent in Irish. Other courses take you much further.
- The language used in the course. Irish is divided into three dialects as well as a standard dialect. Amazingly, this course is not based on any of these. Rather, it takes some aspects from one dialect, some from another dialect and some from the standard language. True enough, Irish speakers will understand you but you will sound very strange - not unlike a foreigner speaking English mixing Oxford English, Texas English and Cockney.
- The pronunciation on the CDs. I've never heard a more stilted pronunciation in my life (and I've heard lots and lots of Irish). If you use this pronunciation you will be understood (altough those to whom you speak will be confused) but you yourself will not understand what you hear. Spoken Irish isn't anything near the pronunciation given here.
My recommendation is that you look up the excellent course "Learning Irish" here at Amazon. I've written a review of that course too, so I won't repeat myself except from saying that it is superior in every possible way.
(This review is based on the newest version of Teach Yourself Irish, 2004. The earlier edition is identical except from the cover and some web-sites.)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Please don't be put off by some negative reviews this book has received. It is an excellent introduction to Irish for beginners. User-friendly, it moves at a moderate, easy pace. The recorded dialogues are spoken at a speed that actually allows a novice to imitate the pronunciation. There are other, more detailed books on Irish - 'Learning Irish' and the older Teach Yourself, for example - but this is the one I would recommend to begin with.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
