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Title: Colloquial Scottish Gaelic: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series) by Katherine M. Spadaro, Katie Graham, Fiona Boyd, Iain Macleod, Iseabail Mactaggart ISBN: 0-415-20677-4 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 05 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $46.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Not for a beginner.
Comment: Look elsewhere for a beginning point in gaelic. This course seems to be okay for a person that has some gaelic understanding. A beginner starts like a child learning names of things and people and then basic adjectives. The basic verbs come next and then more sophisticated conjugations.
The tapes do follow the book but they go too quick driving me crazy pushing "stop, rewind and play" to repeat the word. The book gives the sounds of the vowels and consonants but many of the words heard on the tape defy any attempt to construct the same word phonetically as found in print. If you have an apptitude in languages then you could try this method of learning but if you are like most of us - don't! I have studied other languages but nothing like this ancient Gaelic, it has only 16 letters in its alphabet.
Rating: 4
Summary: Similar to Teach Yourself Scottish Gaelic
Comment: I'd rate this just shy of 4 stars. I'm a beginner who's been through TY Gaelic a couple of times on my own. This book and cassette follow a similar format with dialogs supplemented by grammar sections. One difference is that this book gives a translation of the dialog rather than word/phrase definitions. I prefer the latter, since then you can use those words/phrases as building blocks while the translation gives you it all at once.
One nice thing about Colloquial SG is that there are multiple, subject-related dialogs in each chapter. Another useful feature is the descriptions of how Gaelic words and phrases work in relation to English syntax. Colloquial is more casual in it's approach to the learner: a positive. There are also various word puzzles to work on. However, I found TY Gaelic to have better cultural sections.
The set I bought features two cassettes, as does TY Gaelic. Colloquial Gaelic features more male speakers (although they don't seem as "lively" as the female speakers) on the tapes than does TY Gaelic. Also, like TYG, this book uses simplistic cartoons in the exercises, which I disliked.
Overall, I was glad to buy this book/cassette set for it's slightly different material, different speakers (accents, pronunciation, gender), and more casual approach than Teach Yourself Gaelic. The two complement each other more than they overlap.
Rating: 5
Summary: Entertaining as well as enlightening
Comment: I'm coming to this language cold with a Southern American background, so needless to say, I've been intimidated to even try to learn Gaelic. It indeed proves to be one of those languages that one must simply submerse one's ears and mind in, and this lesson set gives that opportunity in an undaunting, clear and inviting way. It gives the requisite pronunciation guide, it pushes the student to formulate Gaelic responses, and it peppers the lessons with gorgeous readings of Gaelic as well as snippets of mouth music and Gaelic singing. If nothing else, the voice who reads Donald/Mr. MacDonald will charm one into a profound appreciation for the language, even though one's own pronunciation may remain out of reach for quite some time. Hearing Gaelic read with such a pristine tongue is worth the price of this course several times over. If he isn't a world-renowned narrator, he should be. It would have been nice if the tape gave the page number each time it skipped to another place in the book, and the section on hurting anatomy gets a wee bit grim. Nevertheless, these are minor setbacks. After playing the tapes and studying the book a few times, I've almost by accident caught on to some of the language's nuances, and it's a language that's full of nuances, skips, and mystery. My experience so far has been that the only way to come to an understanding of Gaelic is by these accidental discoveries and sinking-ins, and the book is geared in that direction. You overhear conversations and by the third time around, patterns emerge. This might be vexing for those looking for a more conventional method of learning, but to me, it's proven fun and, albeit slowly, enlightening. Along with lessons on the language is some interesting material on culture and history. This is presented for the most part in Gaelic, so in order to learn more, one must delve more into Gaelic. The course seems to take for granted that actually learning the language is indeed daunting, and so extends invitation after invitation to simply learn more. I find this very helpful. An overly simplistic or technical approach would have bored me. I can listen without yet understanding the half of it, and yet gradually a picture of sorts does emerge, and the listening itself is like watching gold flow. I'm glad I splurged and bought this course. One day, I hope to be conversant in Gaelic, but it's enough just now to have a deeper and stronger appreciation for such an enchanting language.
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Title: Scottish Gaelic-English/English-Scottish Gaelic Dictionary by R. W. Renton, J. A. MacDonald ISBN: 0781803160 Publisher: Hippocrene Books Pub. Date: September, 1994 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Teach Yourself Gaelic Complete Course by NTC Publishing group, Teach Yourself Publishing, Boyd Robertson, Iain Taylor ISBN: 0844238619 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: 11 January, 1995 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Highlanders: A History of the Gaels by John MacLeod ISBN: 0340639911 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Pub. Date: January, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title:Talk Now! Scots Gaelic ASIN: B0000899Y9 Publisher: EuroTalk Pub. Date: 31 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $16.99 |
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Title: Beginner's Gaelic (Hippocrene Beginners Language Series) by James MacLaren ISBN: 0781807263 Publisher: Hippocrene Books Pub. Date: July, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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