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Discussion podcast about learning to speak Irish Gaelic (in English). This is an interview with Karen Reshkin from Chicago is an Irish language instructor at Na Gaeil. She’s also a musician, playing the fiddle
Karen is an accomplished Irish language speaker.
What you’ll hear
- Karen’s approach to learning: do it in small regular pieces
- Don’t stress and beat yourself up with learning to speak Irish. Instead, use your curiosity to study texts, try to decipher what you’re seeing.
- Reach out to others learning to speak Irish too. Twitter and Facebook are good places to start.
Mentioned in the show
After-hours seannós dancing at Oireachtas na Gaeilge:
http://youtu.be/vqhfkADsscI
- Na Gaeil of Chicago, where there are Irish language lessons at the Irish American Heritage Center
- Madison, Wisconsin immersion weekend – listen to our podcast interview with Dineen Grow
- Bloomington, Indiana Irish immersion weekend – listen to our podcast interview with Mara Bernstein
- Oireachtas na Gaeilge
- Sean-nós dancing
- Gaeilge gan Stró textbook
- Lúibíní and the Agallamh Beirte – song and spoken witty performances
- Oideas Gael in Donegal – listen to our podcast interview with Liam Ó Cuinneagáin
- “Tá mé, tá sé”, which means “I am, he is”. You get to put that into practice if you’re a member, with Bitesize Lesson: Creating short sentences. If you’re not yet a member of our online program, sign up to learn to speak Irish Gaelic in Bitesize portions.
Bonus!
Karen recorded a video on the pronunciation rules of Irish Gaelic. The video below is also accompanied with a text document.
http://youtu.be/oIokUII7LX0
Get the next episode as soon as it’s up
- Subscribe on iTunes
- Alternatively, subscribe on Android to this RSS feed
- Use the audio player in this post. The player also has a download link to grab the episode’s MP3 file.
- List all our past episodes
The show comes out each fortnight on Thursdays at 8am EST. Thanks for listening. We’d love to hear from you about the episode. Just leave a comment below.
Eoin
5 thoughts on “It’s All In Your Perspective, with Karen Reshkin (Ep. 36)”
The perspective thing is true! I remember learning Spanish with friends at work, and I didn’t feel self conscious or frustrated by what I didn’t know, because I got to use what I did know all the time (in the course of my job) and people were always surprised and impressed that I knew anything. As a result of that positive approach, learning Spanish now in the classroom is much easier than any other language I’ve tried, cause I have that confidence already.
Hi Tara,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Your experience might be useful to many people and give them the confidence they need to start learning 🙂
So nice hearing Karen’s perspective on learning Irish. I’ve sat in her classes at Irish language immersion weekends, and she’s an excellent teacher who makes a difficult subject so much fun to learn. That’s the mark of a great teacher.
Hi Brenda,
Thank you for commenting. I am sure that Karen will be glad to read your comment 🙂
Nice to know that you’re both connected!