What do you want?

We're busy getting our 365 podcast, dictionary and flashcard service ready for launch, as well as working on a whole range of great features for the website. All these resources will be FREE to access, download, share and edit.

But so we get things right, we really want to know what else learners, speakers and teachers of Irish would like to see on the site. So let us know! Want something for your iPod? Your cellphone or mobile? Need some print-outs to read on the bus? Or maybe you just want loads of quizzes and vocab learning games. 

Post your heart's desire here and we'll do our best to provide it!

Tá gramadach Gaeilge uaim. (Caighdeán Oifigiúil le do thoil)

 Get rid of the leprechaun image if you want to be taken seriously - it's insulting.

 Thanks for your feedback.  We've been showcasing the Talk Irish website to Irish groups in the US and Ireland recently, and have had really great feedback on the look and feel.  We're trying to make our site fresh, friendly and fun.

 Perhaps you could give us a little more information on why you find the image insulting?  Feel free to email us at info@talkirish.com.

FiorGhael:

 Get rid of the leprechaun image if you want to be taken seriously - it's insulting.

To who? I am Irish I was born in Ireland and was raised in Ireland my parents were Irish and their parents before them I still live in Irish and as far back as I can trace my roots I am Irish and my family has always lived in Ireland. Leprechaun happens to be my nickname becuase I used to be short and I have red hair I use it for lots of different things (not just this). I am not a foreigner who is obsessed with fairy tale images of Ireland.

to be fair, i think he's refering to the gnome on the main page and not your sign on name.

cib é ar bith,  an rud is far gur feidir libh á dhéanadh ar an suíomh seo:

grammar games that are fun

vocab buildiers

I've seen stuff on other sites but they're pretty boring and there isn't much in them. The key to learning language is repetition in varing contexts. making it interesting and memorable is the trick. and a tricky trick it is. Grammer in Irish is very difficult but i can say from bitter experience that learning grammar is pointless without  vocab/stock phases. so these things are the most important for complete beginers.

Games to help with learning 'word genders' and 'plural forms' would be fantastic.

 With out this knowledge grammar rules are a waste of time; as they all refer to gender based mutations/relative clauses (which in many cases are the same thing).

Thanks for all the great suggestions for what you'd like to see on the site!

I agree that language learning has to be interesting and memorable, and we'll try to reflect that in our materials.

If you've any other suggestions, feel free to add more :)

Thanks again!

I agree that fun games are key to learning grammar. Easier said than done of course ;)

In my experience, creating a decent vocab builder is a lot easier than trying to create extensive and fun grammar games. And I've always found it lots easier to learn vocabulary than grammar. Of course this means I have lots of words in my head, but then can't use them because I don't have a decent grasp of grammatical rules.

Have you found basic quizzes to be useful? I've always enjoyed them as a revision or a test tool, but find it difficult to learn from them in the first place.

What we're hoping to create here is a way of learning vocabulary that intersects with grammar games, and with different platfroms - e.g. you can learn on the site, you can take content with you on your ipod or cellphone/mobile, you can print and carry flashcards. What platforms do you currently use for language learning? 

I like the vocabulary idea!  And maybe from that we can

(meaning those of us who are complete beginners)

can start putting together simple sentences. Good job!

This is going to be great...remind me when I'm banging my

head against the wall later that I said this will you? lol

Seriously, I think your plans are just what is needed.

Slán,

Deb

Ba mhaith liom na "uru" a scriofa le na cnaipi istigh an bosca teachaireachta seo. :)

Tá brón orm, níl mé cinnte cad é atá i gceist agat anseo. (Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean here). You seem to be asking how to write urú in the message box. Urú doesn't require any special characters - i ngeall, i mbliana are examples of urú. I think you probably mean the fada, which is the acute accent on vowels. This can usually be done in one of three ways - you can insert a special character, use AltGr + the vowel, or ctrl + alt + the vowel. If this isn't what you mean, let us know!

typing a fada on a PC
http://talkirish.com/forums/p/25/58.aspx#58 

typing a fada on a Mac
http://talkirish.com/forums/p/26/59.aspx#59 

Wolfrealt,

Your message came through to me on email - but doesn't show up on the site, so I've posted it below:

 I have been learning Welsh online for about 2 months now and am totally amazed at the results from using this particular course, it's not just me everybody and I mean everybody on the course is stunned how well it works. It's free and run by a bunch of language enthusiasts for nothing more than a love for their language. I'm mentioning that here because I would love to see their method being used for Irish. It.s based on learning key words and patterns and repitition repetition.. I will post a link to the website so if you want you can check out the method, or just get a few ideas. Their method really works fantastically and it would be brilliant to see this for Irish. Thanks very much by the way for the great work your doing here. http://www.saysomethinginwelsh.com/home/

Totally delighted you've been loving this site and that you've forwarded it to me - I'm so keen to try it out. I agree with the comments that people have made about learning from other language resources, like the BBC - or for me - Rosetta Stone. These shiny packages look great, but don't work.

I'm also learning French - a language with loads of resources - but I struggled until I found the Michel Thomas method. It works very naturally and easily, and it seems to have something in common with the website you've suggested. I'm going to take a good look at it now, and see if we can do something similar here.

Go raibh maith agat,
Michelle

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Oh yeah, tá ceart agat. Scríobh mé "urú" in ait fada ". Brón orm. An rud a bhí i gceist agam, a bheith abalta a scriobh fadai inseach an fhuinneog mar shampla cosúil le

http://www.abair.tcd.ie/.

Ach go raibh maith agat don naisc

http://talkirish.com/forums/p/25/58.aspx#58

Níor obair an modh sin ar dtús, mar bíonn sé ortsa dul go dtí na Roghanna Méarchláir Windows (Windows keyboard settings), agus ansin a dhéanamh cinnte go bhfuil "Irish" mar teanga roghnaithe . Ach tá gach rud ceart go leor anois, má fheiceann tú fós. :)

Fadas for everyone!!

I just found this site the other day and I absolutely LOVE it.  In September I started attending an Irish class run by the local Irish American Club.  It has been working out wonderfully, however, we are always on the lookout for new resources and I think this site is going to be huge in helping us all get better as speaking and reading the language.

On that note, the one thing that I would like to see is a simple "Invitation" system (if one already exists, please point me in its direction!!) so that I can send out invitations to all of my fellow Irish learners to join the "Talk Irish" community.  I am going to do it via email for right now, but I think a simple invitation system might be nice.

Thank you very much for all of your hard work on this amazing tool!