Well, that's me watched the last couple of episodes of Ros na Rún, so I'll be down to just the two a week from here on in. I noticed another instance of "le" (with) appearing when the subtitles said something in English using the past for a situation continuing to the present (you know, "I've been living here for five years", "I haven't done that in ages" etc) so I rewound to try to hear what verb construction they used. I couldn't make it out. I'm going to focus my conscious studies on the verb system for the time being -- it's the thing that I seem to have most trouble with.
Right, there's a documentary about the harmonica on the TG4 site, so I'm off to watch that now.
Friday 3 February 2012
Thursday 2 February 2012
Progress so far
Enough whining. I may not be taking the class, but as I said, I'm learning the language anyway.
So, since the new year I haven't really done much to get started with the language (I'm pretty certain I was already ahead of the guys who will still be taking the class anyway, so getting any further ahead risked making the class boring).
So anyway, less than a week ago, I started watching Ros Na Rún again, spurred on by a mention Teango made of it on my main language blog (Lingua Frankly).
Now when I was watching this before, I did pick up a reasonable number of things -- either structures that are similar to something in Scottish Gaelic, or things that use similar words in a different way.
So I was familiar with things like "Tá mé [taw]" (I don't know the proper spelling of that last word) -- similar to "Tha mi taghta" (that's quite a Uist thing in Scottish Gaelic). I even spotted the use of "le" (with) to explain how long you've been doing something -- it's something that's getting less common in SG, but it's slán (healthy) in Irish.
I also recognise a few things that aren't exactly like Scottish Gaelic from previous false starts: "Tá brón orm", for example, which is completely different from the Scottish Gaelic for "I'm sorry" ("tha mi duilich"), but uses a structure which exists for other purposes in SG.
I've watched over 2 hours of the programme in just a few days, but I'll be running out soon (it's only on twice a week, about 25 minutes a time). Anyway, there's plenty more stuff out there I can watch.
(Oh, but the irony! Ros na Rún is set in the Connemara Gaeltacht, and it's the Connemara dialect that they're teaching in the college.)
So, since the new year I haven't really done much to get started with the language (I'm pretty certain I was already ahead of the guys who will still be taking the class anyway, so getting any further ahead risked making the class boring).
So anyway, less than a week ago, I started watching Ros Na Rún again, spurred on by a mention Teango made of it on my main language blog (Lingua Frankly).
Now when I was watching this before, I did pick up a reasonable number of things -- either structures that are similar to something in Scottish Gaelic, or things that use similar words in a different way.
So I was familiar with things like "Tá mé [taw]" (I don't know the proper spelling of that last word) -- similar to "Tha mi taghta" (that's quite a Uist thing in Scottish Gaelic). I even spotted the use of "le" (with) to explain how long you've been doing something -- it's something that's getting less common in SG, but it's slán (healthy) in Irish.
I also recognise a few things that aren't exactly like Scottish Gaelic from previous false starts: "Tá brón orm", for example, which is completely different from the Scottish Gaelic for "I'm sorry" ("tha mi duilich"), but uses a structure which exists for other purposes in SG.
I've watched over 2 hours of the programme in just a few days, but I'll be running out soon (it's only on twice a week, about 25 minutes a time). Anyway, there's plenty more stuff out there I can watch.
(Oh, but the irony! Ros na Rún is set in the Connemara Gaeltacht, and it's the Connemara dialect that they're teaching in the college.)
That seems to be that.
As I didn't know whether the college was going to be able to sort out the timetable, I went through the system again searching for other courses I might take, and I found a course in anatomy and physiology that I could follow as a distance course.
I haven't managed to register on it yet, as the so-called self-registration system requires a code that you've got to get of the course teachers.
So after getting in touch with the other college and getting information (although without managing to actually enroll), my college got back to me with a revised timetable, but a timetable that the teacher didn't like and didn't think was good for the students.
So I'll do the anatomy then -- no point causing other people grief, and I've been wanting to do some anatomy for a long time anyway.
The fun part, though, is the sheer disbelief of some people -- it's not really what you expect from someone who speaks and studies multiple languages. Dropping a language course for anatomy? Superficially not my style. But then again, I'm supposed to be a polymath, so it's high time I got a new discipline under my belt anyway!
(This doesn't mean I won't be learning Irish - part of me quite likes the idea of going up to the teacher at the end of the year and having a conversation in Irish, pointing out that I would have been fine even with the reduced contact hours. However, that's might not be enough to motivate me, and I've got plenty of things to be getting on with this year, and so I won't be able to let Irish get in the way. So I'll give it a go, but I won't be under the same pressure from deadlines so it might not go quite as well. We shall see.)
I haven't managed to register on it yet, as the so-called self-registration system requires a code that you've got to get of the course teachers.
So after getting in touch with the other college and getting information (although without managing to actually enroll), my college got back to me with a revised timetable, but a timetable that the teacher didn't like and didn't think was good for the students.
So I'll do the anatomy then -- no point causing other people grief, and I've been wanting to do some anatomy for a long time anyway.
The fun part, though, is the sheer disbelief of some people -- it's not really what you expect from someone who speaks and studies multiple languages. Dropping a language course for anatomy? Superficially not my style. But then again, I'm supposed to be a polymath, so it's high time I got a new discipline under my belt anyway!
(This doesn't mean I won't be learning Irish - part of me quite likes the idea of going up to the teacher at the end of the year and having a conversation in Irish, pointing out that I would have been fine even with the reduced contact hours. However, that's might not be enough to motivate me, and I've got plenty of things to be getting on with this year, and so I won't be able to let Irish get in the way. So I'll give it a go, but I won't be under the same pressure from deadlines so it might not go quite as well. We shall see.)
Tuesday 31 January 2012
Invest in some software, please!
Just a rant (not directly Irish-related) to get something off my chest.
If you were running a university that was composed of 13 colleges spread across most of a country, and had 50 extra "learning centres" spread across that same country, would you not put a bit of money into some timetable scheduling software?
Wouldn't that be a bit better than having administrators at each of your colleges individually sorting out timetables then phoning each other to sort out the one or two students who chose to take a module from one of the other colleges as an option?
My problems at the moment come because one overworked individual didn't notice that I was doing a particular course -- a course that is part of my basic degree pathway. She shouldn't have needed to notice anything -- that's what we have computers for now.
So I'm probably going to have to pick another module (instead of Irish), but I'm completely stumped because the lack of central timetabling means there's no place where I can go and see which modules are available from other colleges that don't clash with the courses I'm taking already. So it may well take me another week to work out what to do, and in that time, I'll be getting behind in whichever class I do end up taking.
If you were running a university that was composed of 13 colleges spread across most of a country, and had 50 extra "learning centres" spread across that same country, would you not put a bit of money into some timetable scheduling software?
Wouldn't that be a bit better than having administrators at each of your colleges individually sorting out timetables then phoning each other to sort out the one or two students who chose to take a module from one of the other colleges as an option?
My problems at the moment come because one overworked individual didn't notice that I was doing a particular course -- a course that is part of my basic degree pathway. She shouldn't have needed to notice anything -- that's what we have computers for now.
So I'm probably going to have to pick another module (instead of Irish), but I'm completely stumped because the lack of central timetabling means there's no place where I can go and see which modules are available from other colleges that don't clash with the courses I'm taking already. So it may well take me another week to work out what to do, and in that time, I'll be getting behind in whichever class I do end up taking.
Sunday 29 January 2012
Hiccup
Oh dear. The timetables went up around the college today and there's a bit of a problem -- one of the two periods of Irish clashes with the music course I was also supposed to be doing. Do I pull out of Irish, or do I attempt it on one hour of teaching plus my own self-study to keep up? Tricky tricky tricky.
Fáilte... a new start
Irish has been on my hit-list for years. In fact, when I first started learning Scottish Gaelic, I considered learning Irish instead. After all, my family's mostly Irish if you go back a few generations.
In the end, two major factors convinced me to start with Scottish Gaelic:
As I've got a good amount of Scottish Gaelic under my belt, I'm in no danger of falling into the number 2 trap. Also, because I studied a fair bit about linguistics and language change at uni, and because I've already learned several languages that are closely related to each other (Spanish, French, Italian and Catalan) I'm quite comfortable with the idea of multiple individual and independent languages arising from a common source, with none being more "correct" than any other.
I had been thinking about picking up Irish properly for a while, and then I discovered that I could take it as an optional model -- I'm studying Scottish Gaelic full-time this year, and the college offers the Gaelic course as a 15-point module (ScotCat points -- a full year equals 120 points).
So, no more excuses. Term starts tomorrow, and I'm on the course (unless they've messed up the timetabling). The exams are in the week of the 14th-18th of May, so I've got a well-defined timetable, something that has been lacking for a lot of my self-directed study.
As I understand it, the course is quite academic in its approach, but there's an Irish poet living near the college who is giving conversational Irish classes too, which should be a useful supplement.
There's a very good range of resources in the college library, covering the usual range of learning materials, some heavier specialist linguistics texts about the language, and loads of literature.
As I said, I've got TG4 and RnG on-line that I can access at any time.
I've previously done a little bit of Irish:
So this blog is basically my log for the next 3-and-a-half months, where I'll be keeping track of what I do and how much as I try to get myself a good conversational and written level in the language. It will serve as a record of what I actually do, rather than merely what I think I do, so that I can better evaluate the correctness of my beliefs, and so that I can adjust my beliefs to better suit reality.
Any suggestions and insights are of course welcome.
In the end, two major factors convinced me to start with Scottish Gaelic:
- There wasn't a great deal of it, but there was Gaelic on TV here in Scotland, and there was a radio station too. Having access to material was obviously going to make learning easier.
- I'm a bit of a bolshy type, and I was worried that I'd get in into my head that Irish was somehow "correct" and that Gaelic was simply an incorrect form of Irish.
As I've got a good amount of Scottish Gaelic under my belt, I'm in no danger of falling into the number 2 trap. Also, because I studied a fair bit about linguistics and language change at uni, and because I've already learned several languages that are closely related to each other (Spanish, French, Italian and Catalan) I'm quite comfortable with the idea of multiple individual and independent languages arising from a common source, with none being more "correct" than any other.
I had been thinking about picking up Irish properly for a while, and then I discovered that I could take it as an optional model -- I'm studying Scottish Gaelic full-time this year, and the college offers the Gaelic course as a 15-point module (ScotCat points -- a full year equals 120 points).
So, no more excuses. Term starts tomorrow, and I'm on the course (unless they've messed up the timetabling). The exams are in the week of the 14th-18th of May, so I've got a well-defined timetable, something that has been lacking for a lot of my self-directed study.
As I understand it, the course is quite academic in its approach, but there's an Irish poet living near the college who is giving conversational Irish classes too, which should be a useful supplement.
There's a very good range of resources in the college library, covering the usual range of learning materials, some heavier specialist linguistics texts about the language, and loads of literature.
As I said, I've got TG4 and RnG on-line that I can access at any time.
I've previously done a little bit of Irish:
- Pimsleur's short course -- 8 or 10 lessons (can't remember exactly) at 30 minutes each.
- A little reading on the internet, which didn't get me very far but means I at least know what the main tenses are.
- A little bit of a discussion of Irish-substrate theory in Hiberno-English as part of my English grammar study.
- Pootling around with the first couple of lessons in a flashcard-based piece of software, TeachMe! Irish.
So this blog is basically my log for the next 3-and-a-half months, where I'll be keeping track of what I do and how much as I try to get myself a good conversational and written level in the language. It will serve as a record of what I actually do, rather than merely what I think I do, so that I can better evaluate the correctness of my beliefs, and so that I can adjust my beliefs to better suit reality.
Any suggestions and insights are of course welcome.
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