Viridzen - Gaeilge/Cymraeg

[Ciarán12]

The Gaeltacht isn't the only place you will find Irish speakers. The vast majority of speakers don't live in a Gaeltacht area. I've been told that your average Corkonian has better Irish than the average Dubliner (though this hasn't actually been borne out by any experience of my own), so you may well find people with some Irish on your travels. If you're going to Cork, there's an Irish language shop/café there, I went in and spoke Irish last time I was in Cork and the staff are friendly (and I'm sure they'd be very interested to meet a foreigner who speaks Irish).

[Viridzen]

What exactly is the purpose of the Gaeltacht? Are they the places with a majority of Irish speakers, or where it's used officially? I'm not sure.

[Viridzen]

Okay, so I got "Learning Irish", and I have to say it's not very good on its own. It doesn't really do much in the way of explaining grammar; it keeps using this word "bhfuil" and I have absolutely no idea what that even means. It kind of expects me to figure it out, but it's the second lesson and I should be told the meaning of the word. The first lesson goes over slender consonants and broad consonants, and then doesn't tell much about the pronunciation (you have to go to the fold-out in the back for it, and that doesn't work well enough), and it uses some strange pronunciation I don't get. I would really need something to go with it.

Plus, I'm not even sure if I actually will go on the trip to Ireland, but, even if I do, I can just use English.

[Ciarán12]

What exactly is the purpose of the Gaeltacht? Are they the places with a majority of Irish speakers, or where it's used officially? I'm not sure.

Generally, it's an area with significantly higher numbers of native Irish speakers than the national average and where the government, at least nominally, tries to focus it's efforts in providing support to the Irish-speaking community.

Okay, so I got "Learning Irish", and I have to say it's not very good on its own. It doesn't really do much in the way of explaining grammar; it keeps using this word "bhfuil" and I have absolutely no idea what that even means. It kind of expects me to figure it out, but it's the second lesson and I should be told the meaning of the word. The first lesson goes over slender consonants and broad consonants, and then doesn't tell much about the pronunciation (you have to go to the fold-out in the back for it, and that doesn't work well enough), and it uses some strange pronunciation I don't get. I would really need something to go with it.

I suggest using an introductory grammar book in addition to the course book, either that or you can ask questions here. As for pronunciation - the rules for pronunciation of the written form in Irish are not that straightforward, so you won't find any simple explanation that you can learn easily and apply universally. The course book does give IPA AFAIK, so if you have questions about why something is spelled a certain way you can ask here. Actually, there's a thread for pronunciation around here somewhere.

Plus, I'm not even sure if I actually will go on the trip to Ireland, but, even if I do, I can just use English.

Sure, and you will have to most of the time. Personally, I think it would be more enjoyable for someone interested in languages if you did learn some Irish, but it's your holiday.

[linguoboy]

I would really need something to go with it.

Try using this for grammar (explanation of bhfuil and other dependent forms here) and this for pronunciation (paying special attention to what it says about Connacht/Connemara). You're not going to find an "all-in-one" textbook for learning any language, least alone Irish.

[Viridzen]

I was very angry when I wrote that post the other day; I hope nobody was bothered by it. As you can see, I'm not going to be very active for a little while (Winter is making me feel sick), and I think I'm going to shift my attention away from Irish for a while.