Tentaclezoom: I appreciate your comment. I wrote mine because I received a call from someone last week who has studied the Irish language for a decade and feels they haven't made much progress. I feel they are fed up and wouldn't mind quitting right now. My comment is to make sure that the reader understands that Gaeilge is NOT comparatively an easy European language. I continue to study it for the reasons which you state and others. Also, there is nothing wrong with studying a couple of languages at the same time. So perhaps a little side study in Spanish would help the person have confidence, feel linguistic accomplishment, etc. I often come at my Gaeilge through my Spanish words as I am a fluent Spanish speaker.
Irish is disproportionately difficult compared to the other languages that I know and that I have studied. That fact won't keep me from studying it, but it helps me to adjust my expectations. I have thought about this long and hard and I think that several key factors make it so difficult for me: 1) there are not thousands of people around me with whom I can speak it, hear it, and experience it (like Spanish here in the USA). In fact there is NOT ONE PERSON closer than 80 miles to me who has any knowledge of it. ! I have found a few learning folks on Skype that are willing to battle it out with me, but that is no substitute for native or fluent speakers with whom one might speak and hear it and know that it is right. 2) The orthography (spelling) is outrageously difficult compared to the other 4 languages that I know. Hebrew is WAY easier and more phonetic even with the minor (but fun) inconvenience of learning an entirely new alphabet and writing "right to left". Knowing that I am screwing up as I write it chills my desire to jump on board and write stuff out. I've done that here on this site and been followed by comments correcting each and every mistake that I make. I can spell check anything, but it is a better gauge of what one knows to jump in and go for it. We could tag our photo with our skill level so no one who is a more elementary learner would look to another beginner for spelling tips, grammar, etc. Immediate correction really doesn't encourage anyone to keep at it.
Another area which makes it a little difficult is the passion and parochialism for the different dialects. One who studies say Ulster Irish (like this site leans) finds it strange to be corrected by someone who speaks another "dialect". It would be sort of like me from Texas correcting a person from Massachussetts who pronounces "park the car" like "Pahk the cah" to my Texan ears. My response is "who cares?" Try to hear me, understand me, help me, and realize that the language will die if no one new attempts to learn it. I think the Irish Government could do much to promote the speaking of Irish by hiring 10 native speakers who are teachers from each of the three main areas. They could post lessons on the web and have interactive Irish speaking lessons with live folks via Skype. They would need about 60 speakers (3 sets of 20) to cover the time zones etc, so the cost would be probably between 2-4 million dollars a year. They could allow any worldwide learner say 1.1/2 hours a week, and more if they paid a small fee.
Anyway, these are just a few thoughts and ramblings at 5 in the morning of a person who loves the language,
Slán
Faber