Hallo

[CanalBoatDreams]

Ciamar a tha sibh?
I am an absolute beginner as far as Gaelic is concerned. I was trying to learn before but didn't keep up with it so now I'm going to try again.
Hopefully I can stick with it and learn enough to be able to help out in time.
I'm already looking through Beag air Bheag and I've got the Teach Yourself book but any other resources would be a great help.

[Neas Olc]

Failte dhan fòram! Tha mise ag ionnsachadh cuideachd agus tha mi uabhasach gu dearbh! Tha "Taic" math ma tha thu ag iarraidh...taic.

http://www.taic.btinternet.co.uk/taic.htm

[CanalBoatDreams]

I think I've got that:

'Welcome to the forum! I'm also beginning to learn and I'm certainly proud. "Taic" is very good for support.'

Am I right?

[Coinneach Cìr]

Tha mise ag ionnsachadh cuideachd agus tha mi uabhasach gu dearbh! Tha "Taic" math ma tha thu ag iarraidh...taic.

I'd tr*nsl*t* the above as: I'm learning too and I'm just terrible! "Taic" (i.e. support) is good if you want...support.

Co-dhiù fàilte chridheil bhuamsa cuideachd!
Anyways a warm welcome from me too

[GunChleoc]

Agus bhuamsa cuideachd!
And from me too!

Carson nach toir thu sùil air an roinn Iomradh is Ceanglaichean, tha tòrr de stuth feumail ann an-siud.
Why don't you check out the Reference and Links section, there's a lot of useful stuff over there.

And feel free to ask questions if you need help

[chris-1961]

Ciamar a tha sibh?
I am an absolute beginner as far as Gaelic is concerned. I was trying to learn before but didn't keep up with it so now I'm going to try again.
Hopefully I can stick with it and learn enough to be able to help out in time.
I'm already looking through Beag air Bheag and I've got the Teach Yourself book but any other resources would be a great help.

Hàlo. Ciamar a tha sibh fhèin?

Is mise Chris agus tha mi a Penicuik.

I'm also an absolute beginner to the Gaelic language and like yourself, I've been using Beag air Bheag as a stopgap to learning for the time being.

I'm hoping to go to college in the near future and learn Gàidhlig properly so that when I go on holiday where Gaelic is spoken, I can happily converse with people.

[GunChleoc]

Halò agus fàilte ort!

Don't be shy about trying out what you have learned so far

[agasgoil]

Check out The Atlantic Gaelic Academy. On-line (Skype) classes, flexible days and times, easy payments. I will complete my first year with AGA next week and I highly recommend it to anyone who is without a native speaker to help them. Learning from books and the web is certainly helpful indeed, but you can't beat TALKING with Gaelic speakers each week!!
The new term starts in Sept. and they are taking registations now. Or, you can fill out a pre-registration form that just shows your possible interest.

agasgoil

The website is www.gaelicacademy.ca

[agasgoil]

By the way, CanalBoatDreams, where are you stationed? My ex-husband was a "Coastie". When I met him, he was on the CGC Citris (or, as they called it, the Sh*t Rust) out of Coos Bay, OR. I suppose it's scrap metal now. Then, we were at the CG station in Kennewick, WA. What fun we had back then!! Some of the best times of my life
(I still catch myself asking "Where's the Head?" And of course I get nothing but confused looks in return!)

agasgoil

[Cèid]

agasgoil - are you taking the beginner level at the AGA? How far along does the beginner level get? I'm interested in enrolling for Sept and the native speaker I've been working with via email thinks by Sept I ought to be ready for the intermediate level.

[agasgoil]

Cèit,
Yes. I'm taking the beginner level. The last class is this Wed. New classes start in late Sept. The beginner level goes through TYG lesson 8. They also give us lessons taken from the Taic website. We went through lesson 19. Beginner class does not cover past and future of verbs (only TO BE), nor does it cover the genetive case of nouns. These things will be in the next level. Does this help? If you want more details, let me know.

agasgoil

[neoni]

plenty of native speakers get by without using the genetive at all. that isn't something you should try and learn untill you have a lot of experience with the language for two reasons;
it isn't at all necessary for fluent, confident and natural speech
the irregularities are hard to learn, but will easily be picked up from set phrases and place names (ceòl na mara)

once you get it though it's awesome

[Seonaidh]

I'm sure they do Zero. And it's a bit hard for a Welsh speaker, where there's no separate genitive case as such (or any others, for that matter). But in English there's a separate genitive case - almost always done by adding S onto the noun, with an apostrophe. So, for a native English speaker, the Gaelic genitive shouldn't be a problem.

Now, what grammar did you learn when you learnt your native language? Absolutely none - you got it by trial and error and loads of practice. So, don't worry about the genitive - or any other grammatical nasty. Just do it - get into the way of speaking - and, of course, listening. Once you've got things like "Cat mac dràibhear bus na sgoile" (much simpler than in English - "The school's bus's driver's son's cat") you're starting to think like a Celt.

[Cèid]

Cèit,
Yes. I'm taking the beginner level. The last class is this Wed. New classes start in late Sept. The beginner level goes through TYG lesson 8. They also give us lessons taken from the Taic website. We went through lesson 19. Beginner class does not cover past and future of verbs (only TO BE), nor does it cover the genetive case of nouns. These things will be in the next level. Does this help? If you want more details, let me know.

agasgoil

Sorry for the late reply. I don't know if you're still coming to the forum, but I'll be taking the intermediate class on Monday evenings. I was wondering if by chance you'll be taking the intermediate class this year (via LDL) and if so, perhaps we'll be in the same class. Tha mi an dòchas gun chì mi an sin thu!

[agasgoil]

No, Ceit, I'll be in the Wed. afternoon Intermediate class. I work Mon. nights. I still "practice" with a couple of students from last year's class, and although I don't know if this will continue on a regular basis once classes resume, keep in mind that any students can get together on their own time. Perhaps you and I could meet on Skype sometime to work on our Gaelic lessons.