GaeilgeGirl

I like these books. They have a good amount of satire, and there are some real gems of wisdom hidden in there as well. I like Granny Weatherwax as well. Is Terry Pratchett pagan, I wonder? Some of the stuff he writes is dead-on about the pagan community, especially in regards to the witches. Not in a realistic way, but more in a satirical fashion. I like his concept of dwarves as well.

Hello and welcome! Good luck in your studies! Spanish is pretty close to French as well. Check out some of the other forums for some good language resources. See you around!

Has a television show or a song encouraged you to learn another language? I have some friends who are watching The Exorcist TV show and it has inspired them to learn Latin. I was inspired to learn Gaeilge after listening to Clannad and Anúna. I watched a few Bollywood films and tried to learn Hindi because of them. I also know a lot of people have decided to study Japanese because of their love of anime or Japanese video games.

That would work nicely for nouns and adjectives, but with difficulty for verbs and adverbs. It would be a nice thing to use with fill-in-the-blank worksheets and such, so that you can integrate grammar and syntax into your studies. Even as an adult, I find things like that helpful because it adds some concreteness to the abstract words. On this subject, you know what would be useful? Coloring books with the word printed below. With the surge in popularity in adult coloring books, I think it would be great if language learning courses took advantage of this.

I gave up on trying to learn Hindi. I was learning from a CD and a book. I think my main problem was the method I was using to study, and then it was hard to study from the book as well. I would get annoyed before I even sat down to study. It meant learning a whole new alphabet, new sounds, different grammar, and it was all way too much. Now that I'm learning Irish, I'm using a different method. It's also easier because the alphabet they use is the one I learned with my native language. I think if Duolingo comes out with a Hindi language learning program, I might give it a try.

I started studying Gaeilge because I loved the music of Clannad and Anúna. I got into Celtic Women and got to see them live in concert. I listen to a lot of Irish bands, and I love the songs that are done in the native language. Do any of you listen to Irish music, and if so, what are your favorites?

To "carp" about something is to complain. "Becky hates her job. She carps about it all the time!" (A carp is also a type of fish, in the same group as a koi or a catfish.) If something is "like trying to drown a fish", it's something that is not effective and a waste of time. If someone has "a memory like a goldfish", it means that they have trouble remembering things. (This is based on myth, since goldfish can remember things for years.) There's also "jumping the shark", which is used in TV and entertainment. It means doing something crazy and unbelievable to try and keep people watching the show, and it usually a sign that said show is going downhill. I hope these help!

Maybe this is something only I do, but has anyone ever watched a children's show in another language to help learn it? It seems that if English-speaking kids can learn words and letters and such from Sesame Street, then shows like it should be able to teach us adults. Sometimes I can catch on to what the characters are talking about, but sometimes I'm totally lost. Thoughts?

If you're interested in Welsh, Cwrs Mynediad is a great phone app. Here's the website: http://www.cwrsmynediad.com/ There are more resources on the Government of Wales' web page. There is a strong push to revive the Welsh language in schools and across the country. Reading some of the mythology is also a good introduction into the culture and some of the names and words.

I'm leaning to Urdu as well. Especially if this was before the Partition, which, given that it was your grandfather's is very likely. Fortunately, Urdu is still spoken, so you can probably find someone to translate. Calligraphy is widely used as an art form by Muslims, as it is forbidden to depict a human or animal form in religious art. But then again, if it's directions to an ancient treasure, let us know!

Those are some great sites. Thanks! If it helps any, I set my Facebook language to Gaeilge. It has really helped me. Even the feelings you can put with your posts are in Gaelige, and sometimes I have to look at the faces to learn what some of the words mean. If you check your Facebook often, like I do, you'll see the words repeated over and over.

Okay, here are my guesses. I wasn't sure about the first two, though. 1. Gaeilge 2. Gaelg 3. Gáidhlig Is that correct?

My favorite villain is AM from Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". It is a mad computer, but you can understand the reason for its madness and hatred. It was responsible for controlling and carrying out World War 3, but it was given all the empathy and creativity of its human creators. It could not use any of its human gifts for anything but war and killing. Humans would certainly burn out with endless war, but AM was forced to kill and destroy because that was all its programming allowed it to do. It eventually killed off everyone except for five people, and used its unlimited resources to make them immortal and torture them for eternity. I don't admire AM, but Harlan Ellison did a masterful job of writing the evolution of a villain and showing what war can do to a mind.

Learning a language from a book, a class, or an app is one thing, but it's a whole other challenge to talk to someone who grew up speaking that language. I would love to go to Ireland to practice my Gaeilge, but I feel really intimidated to try it on a native speaker. I've spoken to a few Irish speakers I've met, but I'm always so embarrassed about my skills. Do you think that, in order to really master a language, you should spend some time in the country or region where the language is spoken? Do you think it's important to get to know the culture behind a language firsthand?

This may sound a little mean, but my favorite is the German word "schadenfreude". It means taking delight in another person't misfortune. While it's not the nicest, it's certainly a human thing, and we've all done it. I appreciate the Germans for being honest about something that really doesn't translate into English very well. I think this might be one of the better-known German words in the U.S. The musical "Avenue Q" did a song about it. The language are a bit "rough" if you want to look it up on YouTube.