I usually just watch Rotana Gulf (5alijiya): ruclips.net/user/khalejiatvfeatured Pretty much all the major TV stations in the Mid East including Saudi/Gulf have channels on RUclips or streams on their websites that aren't restricted by region. Plenty of content around to watch.
Aw, it looks like I've failed again. I happened across a video of this bloke from a few years back where he'd set about learning Irish Gaelic, and then I listened to some of his interesting and well balanced spoken content, and he seemed keen enough and with a good grasp on methodology for learning, and I thought to myself "At last! I've surely now finally found someone who's gone to study in earnest and finally learned to correctly speak Gaelic to a reasonable level!". So I tried to find some video or podcast showcasing what would surely be the first person I'd found on the interwebs who's actually achieved such a seemingly simply feat. But alas, it turns out he gave up, having done so well, but just before reaching what could be described as a reasonably good spoken level. Ah well, maybe some day somebody will appear who's gone to study Gaelic and actually learns it to a level of correctly speaking it, but it now seems very unlikely. The one possible exception is the mysterious and now apparently disappeared Neapetru, a RUclips contributor of only one video, in which he reads a monolog with apparently the only correct pronunciation of any adult learner of Gaelic on the whole wide Internet, but as he's reading it from a text, maybe he's more than anything a good linguist (phonologist) and renderer of phonetic script, and possibly does not speak conversational Gaelic at all. Irish Gaelic would therefore thus far appear to be one of the few languages practically impossible in this century for adults to learn with correct pronuncion to a functional level. If anybody out there would like to try and breach this invisible rampard I'd be glad to help them in any way I can. I'm pretty sure it's not even difficult, and I have some tips that I know would help.
I'm a little confused by your comment. Are you suggesting I gave up on Irish? There's a difference between giving up and shelving something for the time being. Hard to focus on Irish when I'm learning Greek, maintaining other languages like Russian and Arabic, raising a family and working. There are only so many hours in a day. Irish is always near and dear to my heart.
Oh, I'm not suggesting anything, and I encourage you to continue whatever you enjoy doing, of course. But I was observing that it seems that I can find nobody in this century who has set out to learn Gaelic and then actually learned it. In the meantime many MANY have successfully learned Greek, Arabic and Russian to the point where they pronounce all the sounds correctly and can join in in full conversations with native speakers, something which no longer happens with Gaelic. [All of this century's learners I've heard speaking it are actually saying something other than what they believe they are saying, as they simply never learned the correct phonemes. Therefore all adult students now instead of the word for "day" say "melt", saying "my van" instead of "my wife", "not" instead of "nine", and so on, as the replacement of Gaelic phonemes with a mismatched English or other equivalent is now what's actively TAUGHT, as even the teachers now seem unaware of the correct phonemes.] Already in the last century I had a hunch that there would never be any method for learning living spoken Gaelic as focused and therefore learnable to a practicable level as the great but also greatly underestimated Learning Irish by Michael Shields, and I wonder if this is part of the reason that now nobody learns Gaelic beyond the stage of intermediate student. In one of your videos you mentioned that somebody (very unfortunately, to my estimation) talked you out of embarking on that very method, and as soon as I heard that story I rightly (to my estimation, again) figured your fate with success in the language was then sealed. I hope you'll excuse my rambling, and be aware that I intend no offence with my remarks, as they just illustrate how I; perhaps wrongly; observe the situation of what I see as a crisis in the learning of Gaelic, where about half of its natural contrasting consonant phonemes are now being systematically removed from the language taught to all new learners.
Still confused by the point you're trying to make. I think what you're trying to say is that modern pronunciation of Irish by non-native speakers is not the way Irish is supposed to be pronounced - I agree with you on that point. This is precisely why my learning method is to focus on high repetition of *natural* dialogue. The only way to maintain authentic pronunciation of Irish (or any language) is to listen and repeat natural language. There's no trick to it or secret strategy. Just listen and repeat. If I had the time and need to do so, I would spend a year in West Cork around the elderly Gaeilge speakers but I doubt that will happen any time soon.
Yes indeed, you've probably identified the thrust of my argument better than I. Good points, indeed, but ALSO in the case of Gaelic I believe there really IS a trick or secret strategy to remedying it, as to replace the dozen or so WRONG consonants so consistantly repeated and drilled by practically all new learners with their correct contrasted renderings, it would not require a year of living in some remote Gaeldom (although that would indeed be the ideal long-term solution), but rather some brief but focused precision instruction with a correct and aware speaker, using samples and examples for each of the dozen or so phonemes which modern instruction bafflingly leaves out in the cold. Imagine it took one hour per phoneme (tops!), then in a dozen hours all told the learner is then a speaker in posession of all of the correct phonemes of everything he will from then speak in Gaelic, as with a little practice these phonemes would soon become second nature, tied up in muscle memory on each use, both in speaking and listening. Until this is done, Gaelic learners I imagine are currently like a speaker of Arabic would be if in place of the three or so (I believe) Arabic phonemes which sound somewhat like an H to an English_speaker, they simply used the phoneme of a standard English H in place of every one of them. The difference is that most learners of Arabic very soon become aware that there are different such sounds for different phonemes, and accordingly learn to distinguishably reproduce them, while nowadays learners of Gaelic are forever unaware of the different values of many of its contrasting consonant pairs.
Just to let you know that I left you a comment on your most recent video in Gaelic, in which I left you some thoughts and tips. I was expecting to hear some response from you, but then I realised that as the video was done like five years ago, that maybe you haven't noticed any recent comments on there. I'd be interested if you could give it a read and maybe let me know your thoughts. Best wishes, Patchy.
The Greek Orthodox New Testament is the original Greek New Testament. They read Koine Greek in the liturgy. So yes, this book is great for it. I sold all my filming equipment as I wasn't using it enough. Now just a Canon G7X on a tripod (it's actually better quality than my DSLR was and far less of a hassle to carry around).
That is why I asked, because the quality seems higher. Thanks! In orthodox countries (I am from Romania), the liturgy and all the other services are usually in the official language. Are you orthodox too?
Oh, right. I thought you meant the Greek Orthodox Church. No I'm not Orthodox myself but I've had a lot of working involvement with them (particularly Coptic Orthodox).
Yeah, I should have been more clear when I asked the first time. Do you plan on sharing other insights on immersion in the future? (Besides the '8 Important things to do on a Language Immersion Trip') I found your video podcasts very useful when I decided to become a self-learner, especially the video on chunking.
You’re an inspiration - keep it up.
Thanks!
The Mezzofanti Guild do you know any good RUclips keyword searches to get real Saudi/Gulf Arabic dialect media?
I usually just watch Rotana Gulf (5alijiya): ruclips.net/user/khalejiatvfeatured
Pretty much all the major TV stations in the Mid East including Saudi/Gulf have channels on RUclips or streams on their websites that aren't restricted by region. Plenty of content around to watch.
The Mezzofanti Guild I know you’re probably busy, but could you name those channels? Thanks again.
Hey mate. Im a fan of your blog and was hoping to catch up with you for a beer when you were next in Brisbane.
Sure. I never say no to a beer.
The Mezzofanti Guild Nice! Please send me a PM when you're next going to be around.
Shukran
God Bless
New Testament Greek sounds very interesting and I am currently doing some modules at Bible College online in Ireland but taking my time.
That's great. All the best with your studies, Annette.
Aw, it looks like I've failed again.
I happened across a video of this bloke from a few years back where he'd set about learning Irish Gaelic, and then I listened to some of his interesting and well balanced spoken content, and he seemed keen enough and with a good grasp on methodology for learning, and I thought to myself "At last! I've surely now finally found someone who's gone to study in earnest and finally learned to correctly speak Gaelic to a reasonable level!". So I tried to find some video or podcast showcasing what would surely be the first person I'd found on the interwebs who's actually achieved such a seemingly simply feat.
But alas, it turns out he gave up, having done so well, but just before reaching what could be described as a reasonably good spoken level. Ah well, maybe some day somebody will appear who's gone to study Gaelic and actually learns it to a level of correctly speaking it, but it now seems very unlikely. The one possible exception is the mysterious and now apparently disappeared Neapetru, a RUclips contributor of only one video, in which he reads a monolog with apparently the only correct pronunciation of any adult learner of Gaelic on the whole wide Internet, but as he's reading it from a text, maybe he's more than anything a good linguist (phonologist) and renderer of phonetic script, and possibly does not speak conversational Gaelic at all. Irish Gaelic would therefore thus far appear to be one of the few languages practically impossible in this century for adults to learn with correct pronuncion to a functional level.
If anybody out there would like to try and breach this invisible rampard I'd be glad to help them in any way I can. I'm pretty sure it's not even difficult, and I have some tips that I know would help.
I'm a little confused by your comment.
Are you suggesting I gave up on Irish? There's a difference between giving up and shelving something for the time being. Hard to focus on Irish when I'm learning Greek, maintaining other languages like Russian and Arabic, raising a family and working. There are only so many hours in a day. Irish is always near and dear to my heart.
Oh, I'm not suggesting anything, and I encourage you to continue whatever you enjoy doing, of course.
But I was observing that it seems that I can find nobody in this century who has set out to learn Gaelic and then actually learned it.
In the meantime many MANY have successfully learned Greek, Arabic and Russian to the point where they pronounce all the sounds correctly and can join in in full conversations with native speakers, something which no longer happens with Gaelic. [All of this century's learners I've heard speaking it are actually saying something other than what they believe they are saying, as they simply never learned the correct phonemes. Therefore all adult students now instead of the word for "day" say "melt", saying "my van" instead of "my wife", "not" instead of "nine", and so on, as the replacement of Gaelic phonemes with a mismatched English or other equivalent is now what's actively TAUGHT, as even the teachers now seem unaware of the correct phonemes.]
Already in the last century I had a hunch that there would never be any method for learning living spoken Gaelic as focused and therefore learnable to a practicable level as the great but also greatly underestimated Learning Irish by Michael Shields, and I wonder if this is part of the reason that now nobody learns Gaelic beyond the stage of intermediate student.
In one of your videos you mentioned that somebody (very unfortunately, to my estimation) talked you out of embarking on that very method, and as soon as I heard that story I rightly (to my estimation, again) figured your fate with success in the language was then sealed.
I hope you'll excuse my rambling, and be aware that I intend no offence with my remarks, as they just illustrate how I; perhaps wrongly; observe the situation of what I see as a crisis in the learning of Gaelic, where about half of its natural contrasting consonant phonemes are now being systematically removed from the language taught to all new learners.
Still confused by the point you're trying to make. I think what you're trying to say is that modern pronunciation of Irish by non-native speakers is not the way Irish is supposed to be pronounced - I agree with you on that point.
This is precisely why my learning method is to focus on high repetition of *natural* dialogue. The only way to maintain authentic pronunciation of Irish (or any language) is to listen and repeat natural language. There's no trick to it or secret strategy. Just listen and repeat. If I had the time and need to do so, I would spend a year in West Cork around the elderly Gaeilge speakers but I doubt that will happen any time soon.
Yes indeed, you've probably identified the thrust of my argument better than I. Good points, indeed, but ALSO in the case of Gaelic I believe there really IS a trick or secret strategy to remedying it, as to replace the dozen or so WRONG consonants so consistantly repeated and drilled by practically all new learners with their correct contrasted renderings, it would not require a year of living in some remote Gaeldom (although that would indeed be the ideal long-term solution), but rather some brief but focused precision instruction with a correct and aware speaker, using samples and examples for each of the dozen or so phonemes which modern instruction bafflingly leaves out in the cold. Imagine it took one hour per phoneme (tops!), then in a dozen hours all told the learner is then a speaker in posession of all of the correct phonemes of everything he will from then speak in Gaelic, as with a little practice these phonemes would soon become second nature, tied up in muscle memory on each use, both in speaking and listening. Until this is done, Gaelic learners I imagine are currently like a speaker of Arabic would be if in place of the three or so (I believe) Arabic phonemes which sound somewhat like an H to an English_speaker, they simply used the phoneme of a standard English H in place of every one of them.
The difference is that most learners of Arabic very soon become aware that there are different such sounds for different phonemes, and accordingly learn to distinguishably reproduce them, while nowadays learners of Gaelic are forever unaware of the different values of many of its contrasting consonant pairs.
Just to let you know that I left you a comment on your most recent video in Gaelic, in which I left you some thoughts and tips.
I was expecting to hear some response from you, but then I realised that as the video was done like five years ago, that maybe you haven't noticed any recent comments on there.
I'd be interested if you could give it a read and maybe let me know your thoughts.
Best wishes,
Patchy.
Good luck
Cheers!
You have been very busy I must say!
What kind of filming equipment do you use? Also, the 'Learn New Testament Greek' can be used for the Orthodox New Testament?
The Greek Orthodox New Testament is the original Greek New Testament. They read Koine Greek in the liturgy. So yes, this book is great for it.
I sold all my filming equipment as I wasn't using it enough. Now just a Canon G7X on a tripod (it's actually better quality than my DSLR was and far less of a hassle to carry around).
That is why I asked, because the quality seems higher. Thanks! In orthodox countries (I am from Romania), the liturgy and all the other services are usually in the official language. Are you orthodox too?
Oh, right. I thought you meant the Greek Orthodox Church.
No I'm not Orthodox myself but I've had a lot of working involvement with them (particularly Coptic Orthodox).
Yeah, I should have been more clear when I asked the first time. Do you plan on sharing other insights on immersion in the future? (Besides the '8 Important things to do on a Language Immersion Trip') I found your video podcasts very useful when I decided to become a self-learner, especially the video on chunking.
Glad to hear it. Yes I'll be adding a lot more and will try to get some video up at least once a week from now on.