Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew, PhD, University of Pennsylvania Language Professor, has provided in-person Irish-Gaelic lessons to club members from time to time. However, she has found it difficult to find times suitable for everyone who is interested in learning the language. So, she has created a group on Meetup.com, making insturction available for people everywhere at any time. The following is quoted from her e-mail to Paul Dolan regarding the lessons:
"...You have to join Meetup.com, which is free, then each weekly lesson is available for a $5.00 payment via PayPal, which has a link on the Foghlaim na Gaeilge website. [Go to www.meetup.com and look for the Foghlaim na Gaeilge group.] The price for the lessons covers a moderate amount of dialogue and feedback after the lesson.
The lessons basically start from scratch...[and] I think you'd find them fun and informative. I'm setting up the conversational parts as I imagine real dialogue might unfold as people talk in an online environment, not exactly what's in most textbooks.
I sent a free 'sample portion' to the members of Foghlain na Gaeilge and have enclosed it below. There's general info first, then the actual lesson starts. There are now about 35 members of the group, and I hope this online version of the meetup will enable them to meet up 'cyberly' and eventually initiate discussions among themselves online. A lot of the people's schedules are so diverse that it was getting hard to find meeting times that were good for the majority.
It would be fun to have you 'on board.' -Roislin"
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Gaeilge a hAon don Chruinniú "Meetup": Foghlaim na Gaeilge (Learning Irish)
Dia dhaoibh! Hello!...I'll start with this free sample, which is part of the first lesson. The full lesson is available upon payment of the dues, which are $5.00 per seesion, weekly, payable through PayPal (details will follow in another e-mail). [Send your inquiries and email address to Dr. Blyn-LaDrew at RoslynB-L@comcast.net] The lessons will be generated weekly and the $5.00 dues will be payable in advance per lesson. As part of the program, you can email me back with brief questions about the lesson, and eventually group members might like to try having email 'chats' with other members of the group.
The lessons will be focused on conversational Irish and the first few lessons will deal with how to introduce yourself online to a group of Irish learners or speakers. That's a topic that hasn't been covered much in existing Irish textbooks! Basic pronunciation will be included, but for more pronunciation details, I'd suggest consulting the new textbook and CD set, Colloquial Irish: The Complete Guide for Beginners (NY: Routledge, 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-38139-0-7), available from most major online booksellers or from the Routledge website.
These lessons will be written in basically the same dialect as that taught in Colloquial Irish, that of Cois Fharraige, Co. Galway. Sometimes there will be notes about pronunciation in other dialects or in 'An Caighdeán' (The Standard). The lessons will include some basic vocabulary, a few conversation lines, some notes on sentence structure, and occasional proverbs or quotations. Some may include exercises you can try yourself and an answer key will be provided, so you can self-check your answers. A pronunciation guide will be included each time, based on equivalent sounds in English, or, occasionally, other languages, like German, which has the same 'ch' sound as Irish. A more formal pronunciation guide can also be found in Colloquial Irish, which uses the International Phonetic Alphabet.
As for level, these lessons will start from scratch, with no previous knowledge asumed. For those of you who have studied previously, or have attended some of the sesions, I think you will also find the lessons fun and useful, as an opportunity to practice your Irish, learn some new phrases, and use Irish online.
The sample below is just part of the total ceacht (lesson). For the rest of today's lesson, please contact me for information on how to pay or look for a forthcoming email. The length of each lesson will be partly determined by the amount of space in the text boxes for Meetup's email--it's not infinite!
For all future lessons the payments will be due by Saturday and the lessons will be sent out each Sunday, except for occasional times when I might be traveling or if there are unforeseen circumstances. If that does happen, the lessons will be sent out as quickly as possible.
Please do note: this isn't a translation service and it isn't an online private tutorial where dozens of individual questions can be posed per lesson. I do hope that it will use the Meetup format to bring Gaeilge to you, pé Ait a bhfuil tú (wherever you are), and that eventually, when some of these online lessons are completed, we can meet in person and put ár gcuid Gaeilge (our Irish) in practice. And I add a reminder, hopefully, just as a routine note, that should we as a group really become active chatting with each other online, the conversations should be kept appropriate and encouraging, with no 'shouting' or other negative behavior. As a group organizer, I do reserve the right to monitor and respond to that.
For "A Portion of Lesson One/Cuid de Cheacht a hAon [kudj de hyakht uh hayn] click here:
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