The GaelMinn Gazette: June, 2017
THE GAELMINN GAZETTE (#144): June, 2017
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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) 2017 Gaeltacht Minnesota
CONTENTS
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Winding Down ...
Tips, Tools, & Tricks
---Rewrite Your Textbooks
GaelMinn News & Announcements
Lessons Learned
---Finding Word Patterns
About Gaeltacht Minnesota
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WINDING DOWN ...
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This month marks twelve years of publication of The GaelMinn Gazette, and we're coming to the end of our run. Your faithful editor is cutting back on his activities for a variety of reasons and this newsletter is one of the things to let go. Right now, we predict that the September edition will be the last issue of this newsletter.
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TIPS, TOOLS, & TRICKS
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----------REWRITE YOUR TEXTBOOKS
Well, not so much rewrite them, as rearrange them a little.
Whether it's your class notes, a self-study course, or a reference text you're working with, you'll find that the order of topics tends to be grammar driven, and sometimes you just need to rearrange things a little so you can figure out how to say things in Irish.
This topic arose in one of our classes when we started talking about the conjunction "that", in English. We say, "I hope that you will be there," or "She says that her mother is ill," or "Did you see the car that I bought?" or "Did you see the car that I was in?" It turns out that those "thats" are handled by different Irish constructions. As a result, the first construction might be discussed at one point in your materials, and the next one several chapters (or weeks) away. In other words, what seems logically to be one topic for the learner is handled as several separate topics by the text, course or teacher.
You might encounter similar confusions when talking about key words ("for": purpose, versus a gift "for" a person, etc.) or common concepts (time: in two weeks, in a while, a little while ago, etc.). That's why it can be very helpful to learn to adapt your resources so they work the way YOU work, when you want to say something in Irish.
Look for these kinds of unifying notions, based on WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY, rather than HOW to say it. Then, start constructing your own supplemental materials that will bring everything you need together in one place. Here are some ideas:
* At the very least, construct your own index. This can be done on one course or book or set of notes, but it is even more valuable when you cross reference different materials. Describe a concept you frequently need to express (like the examples above), or want to master, and then list the resources and page numbers (or class dates, for notes) where these items are covered.
* Thing about writing out your own, new notes from these resources. If a concept like "that" is covered in three different places in your text, write out the key points from those three chapters in ONE section of your notebook. Bringing the material together will do a lot to help you remember when to use one construction, when to use another. And if you write or type the notes up -- instead of just photocopying or indexing -- you tend to PROCESS the information more actively, and retain the key points longer.
* Create some exercises for yourself that help you see the different usages, to choose the right options. After all, if a concept like "that" or "for" is handled in different places in your materials, each unit will just have exercises for the ONE use that's handled in that chapter or class. When you've discovered that several constructions are related to the same concept, and you've brought together some notes from different resources, create some exercises that follow the models from your texts or class -- but mix them up, make sure you have to handle all the constructions, so you get used to choosing the right version of "that" or "for" or whatever you're working on, on the fly.
Textbook chapters, course units, and class notes are all wonderful STARTING points. But if you work to organize them to meet your needs, they become all the more powerful as aids to learning Irish.
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GAELTACHT MINNESOTA NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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----------FALL "INTRO" CLASS
If you have been waiting for an opportunity to join our weekly classes, plan to enroll in our four-week "Introduction to Irish Gaelic" class that will be offered through St. Paul Community Education starting September 25.
Keep an eye on our web site at www.gaelminn.org for more details as we get closer to the end of fall.
----------IRISH FAIR VOLUNTEERS
The Irish Fair falls on the second weekend in August (11-13, go to www.irishfair.com for details), and we'll be doing our usual bit greeting visitors and answering questions.
We'll also be promoting our fall Intro class.
If you're going to the Fair, count on giving us a few hours of your time. Students at every level can handle the tasks involved, and your enthusiasm really helps reinforce Gaeltacht Minnesota's place in local Irish culture.
We'll have more details in class soon, just pencil in the dates for now.
----------CLASS SCHEDULE
Classes are meeting in separate locations and on independent schedules, check with your instructor.
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LESSONS LEARNED
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----------FINDING WORD PATTERNS
You probably have a lot of words written down in your notebook, or perhaps on word lists or flash cards, from your studies.
Now, if you don't, you should try writing out your vocabulary, with a pen or keyboard. If you just rely on your books for vocabulary, you're missing an opportunity to speed up your learning. Writing things out forces you to process the words, to look at how they work, in ways that just reading them over and over won't do. In fact, some say that there is more benefit in WRITING flash cards than there is in USING them.
Anyway, every once in a while you might try arranging the vocabulary you've learned into groups of words that are similar in some way. You can do this either by writing out words from your notes and texts, or by rearranging any flash cards you might have.
For instance, one time you might focus on the beginnings of words. Put "deas" and "dearg" in one pile, and "doras" and "dorcha" in another. When you have some nice "families" of words, go through them and say them out loud, looking for similarities in their pronunciation.
Maybe next time you'll put all the words that end in -úil in one pile, or even collect verb forms -- all the ones ending in -ann in one pile, those ending in -íonn in another. Then, when you say the words in your groups, you'll sharpen the differences in your own pronunciation.
Again, the learning is in the processing. Don't look to others -- books or teachers -- to give you the word patterns. Look for your own groupings, and as you build your little piles of words, you'll understand more about what makes different words sound alike or different from one another.
And that will not only make it easier for you to learn new words, but will give you confidence in your own spelling and pronunciation.
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ABOUT GAELTACHT MINNESOTA & THE GAZETTE
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Gaeltacht Minnesota is a volunteer organization that has been teaching free weekly classes in Irish for more than three decades. Besides ongoing free classes and this newsletter, we offer a workshop and an introductory class each year, publish columns about the language in regional publications, and participate in a wide variety of community events.
The GaelMinn Gazette is distributed to our subscriber list on the 25th of each month: Will Kenny, editor.
---------- 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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