The GaelMinn Gazette: October, 2016
THE GAELMINN GAZETTE (#136): OCTOBER, 2016
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The GaelMinn Gazette, a monthly e-newsletter from Gaeltacht Minnesota, carries helpful items for anyone studying the Irish language, anywhere, as well as news of interest to local and regional students.
Please FORWARD this newsletter to any friends who may want to learn Irish. And if you received this Gazette from someone else, go to www.gaelminn.org to sign up.
To read this newsletter as a web page, go to www.gaelminn.org/lastgaz.htm .
Content (C) 2016 Gaeltacht Minnesota
CONTENTS
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Tips, Tools, & Tricks
---Get In A Listening Rut
GaelMinn News & Announcements
Lessons Learned: From the Classroom
---How To Slow Down Your Learning
About Gaeltacht Minnesota
TIPS, TOOLS, AND TRICKS
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----------GET IN A LISTENING RUT
When I first started learning the language (roughly about the time Noah was folding up his umbrella), it was hard to find ways to hear spoken Irish. A few cassette tapes were cherished and well-worn.
Now, of course, you can listen to plenty of Irish over the Web. Perhaps the most popular source is Irish language radio, Raidió na Gaeltachta, at http://www.rte.ie/rnag/ . There is a wide variety of programs to choose from. But too much variety in your listening may not be all that helpful.
After all, when you first start listening to these radio programs, the speakers sound like they are talking at speeds that make them impossible to understand. If every time you listen, you hear a different accent, different vocabulary, different styles, that just makes it harder to pick up the patterns of the spoken language.
The better option may be to pick one of the talk programs and stick with it. Not only should you stick with one program for a while, you might want to replay the same program a few times. The benefit of this approach is that the host is the same, giving you a consistent accent, using their own catch phrases over and over. Little by little you start to recognize some patterns.
To find a program, go to http://www.rte.ie/rnag/ and click on "Pioc Clár". Under news programs -- Nuacht agus Cúrsaí Reatha -- a couple of good choices are Adhmhaidin and Cormac ag a Cúig. (Avoid the Nuacht programs, straight newscasts, as they change presenters often.) Under talk programs -- Caint -- you might try An Saol Ó Dheas, Ardtráthnóna, or Barrscéalta. Take those links to the individual pages, and generally there will be a link to Podchraoltaí (podcasts). IMPORTANT: there are typically two links labeled "Podchraoltaí", you want to take the LOWER one, the one underneath the picture of the presenter.
From there, you can often choose either a full program or various excerpts, either to stream or to download. Pick something and listen to it several times. Then if you need a change, choose another file from the SAME program, with the same host. That gives you a chance to learn that host's favorite expressions, and to get comfortable with one individual's accent.
Never be discouraged by how much you don't get, listening to real-speed broadcasting is tough! Always be encouraged when you pick up a new word, or recognize one of the host's catch phrases. Even if you don't know what they're talking about, hearing the sounds together, over and over, will do wonders for your ability to participate in real conversations. And repeatedly doing the listening part of the conversation with the same partner -- the host of your chosen program -- will help you a lot faster than jumping from program to program.
Get in a rut!
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GAELTACHT MINNESOTA NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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----------WELCOME NEW STUDENTS
Welcome to the students who completed the "Intro" course and joined Mary's class this week.
----------MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We'll have details later, but you might want to put December 19 on your calendar for our annual Christmas Dinner.
----------CLASS SCHEDULE
NO CLASS on Halloween
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LESSONS LEARNED: FROM THE CLASSROOM
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We've learned a few things in our Monday night classes -- from both instructors AND students.
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Learning Irish way too fast? Well, we can give you a few tips to make sure you don't learn too quickly. Here are five ways to keep from getting the most out of your class time:
1. DO YOUR REVIEW, or homework, the night before your regular class meeting. Students who put off working on their materials from a class often run out of time in the week, of course. But, what the heck, you'll get to it NEXT week, right? (The BEST time to review your class materials is the DAY AFTER your class -- while you still remember how the exercises worked, and so on.)
2. DON'T USE your dictionary too much in class, because everyone will see that you don't know the vocabulary. (Actually, we have often noticed that our best students are working their dictionaries in class all the time, and they tend to bring the bigger dictionaries, too.)
3. ONLY SPEAK when you know what you want to say and how to say it. If you only know some of the words, or are pretty sure that you're going to make a mistake, let someone else talk. ("Someone else" will make mistakes, but learn from them, and make more rapid progress than you do.)
4. ALWAYS WORK WITH THE SAME PARTNER in class, so you know exactly what to expect. Then you'll have one person on the planet that you can talk with, in Irish. (Of course, students who aren't afraid of learning faster often switch partners, and learn different things from each of the people they work with.)
5. REMEMBER THAT CREATING PRACTICE EXERCISES is a job for the teacher. When you've done the exercises on your handout or a page of your text, you're done, put it away. (Pay no attention to those students who are making up similar exercises of their own, extending the pattern in the text or handout.)
Do you recognize any of the above habits in your own study practices?
It doesn't take a lot of time or a strenuous effort to change any of the above, and when you do, you will become a more effective, more efficient student of the language.
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ABOUT GAELTACHT MINNESOTA
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Gaeltacht Minnesota is a volunteer organization that has been teaching free weekly classes in Irish for more than two decades. Besides free classes, we offer several workshops each year, a newsletter for learners, and participate in a wide variety of community events.
---------- CONTACT US
You can stay up to date with Gaeltacht Minnesota at www.gaelminn.org , or drop us a line anytime at info@gaelminn.org .
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