Teach Yourself Gaelic Book/CD Pack (Teach Yourself Languages)

A good book for grasping the basics. I speak Irish but urge caution when tackling Gaelic: there are differences between the two Languages. Use BBC Alba in conjunction with this book and you will learn quickly. Book could do with more points on grammar,e.g.:the passive voice. See O'Siadhail's "LEARNING IRISH" for example of comprehensive treatment of a Celtic language.

Good, but not enough by itself (5/5 people found this helpful)

Possibly the best teach yourself option currently available, but its difficult to learn from books and cd alone. A face-to-face course is highly beneficial. I started learning from this, then got other books and took a couple of courses.

The content is good, and you could have a reasonable conversation using it, but only if the other participants kept to its content and pronounciation. Even a simple conversation with a 'real' gaelic speaker may be difficult to understand though, partly because they will use vocabulary not covered, but also because of 'localised' pronounciation and word use - I am told a gaelic speaker can easily identify Skye gaelic, Harris gaelic, various sub areas of Lewis gaelic, BBC gaelic etc.

There are lots of variations from community to community (even neighbouring villages) in pronounciation etc. I didn't understand this fully from this book and was still left with quite a few questions. I would recommend the following book as a supplement:

Scots Gaelic - A Brief Introduction (Paperback)
by George Robert McLennan (Author)

You will probably also need a dictionary and if at all possible book yourself onto a course.

For something a bit more in depth I rate the following:
Gaelic Verbs: Systemised and Simplified (Paperback)
by Colin B.D. Mark (Author)

Finally, watch the Rocket Post and feel clever about understanding the small snippets of gaelic used (mainly hello & how are you).

stopped after two days (3/4 people found this helpful)

The thing that annoyed me the most about this book is that there are no written pronounciations. Without these it doesn't matter how well explained things are - the reader is left looking at unfamiliar words and letters in combination and scratching his/her head. Even with the audio, it's not clear and I quickly found myself thinking - God! why didn't they just write down the [pro-nun-see-a-shons] of the very difficult words. If you only want to read Gaelic then this book will work for you, but as for myself, I felt robbed of the £20 I spent.

GOOD BOOK FOR GETTING A GRASP OF GAELIC (42/42 people found this helpful)

If you've ever listened to the Radio Scotland Gaelic services, you'll know that Gaelic sounds like a difficult enough language to get your ears round even before you start learning it. But for those of you who listen wistfully, wishing to be able to speak it with ease and flair, I can promise that after a read through this book, you can (by making the effort) become familiar with the language fairly quickly. Even if you are not the type of person who can readily pick up grammar points, this book explains it well, giving good concrete examples which are not ridden with exceptions and using words that won't send you scrambling to find for the glossary at the back. I read through the book along with listening to the cassette, and one of the handiest things about it is that you can listen to the tape without the book and thus improve pronounciation. All in all, it makes it possible to learn Gaelic through self study, and with a bit of drive and determination, I would imagine that even people who consider language learning a form of torture, may be able to pick up enough to have them picking up a Runrig album and singing along loudly in full confidence !

Teach Yourself Gaelic Book/CD Pack (Teach Yourself Languages)

Iain Taylor, Boyd Robertson

Reader Reviews:

Scots Gaelic (1/1 people found this helpful)

Good, but not enough by itself (5/5 people found this helpful)

stopped after two days (3/4 people found this helpful)

GOOD BOOK FOR GETTING A GRASP OF GAELIC (42/42 people found this helpful)

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