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June 1, 2013 | Irish

Vocabulary Daze and a Heat Wave

New York City is in the grip of a heat wave, so today I roamed the entire worldwide web while lounging near an air conditioner.

This was a very hot day in New York, so I ended up spending much of the afternoon with air conditioning, FlashcardExchange.com, and various other vocabulary-abetting websites. My Irish vocabulary is not expanding fast enough. The situation is growing…

June 2, 2013 | Irish

From Flashcard Exchange to Foclóir.ie to Forvo!

Why do all these websites begin with an "f"?

I was going to return to my grammar books today, but I have a study system going now, and I want to see how it plays out. Here are the steps: 1. Go to FlashcardExchange.com and pick a…

June 5, 2013 | Irish

On Irish Nouns and Irish Verbs

I am trying daily to acquire some more Irish parts of speech.

Lenition—which adds an h after and softens many beginning consonants in Irish—is taking over my life!  An Unambiguous Title: Irish Nouns, by Andrew Carnie Today I wrote the word “thriathlete” in an e-mail and had…

June 7, 2013 | Irish

New Yorkers, Please Come to Brooklyn on Thursday!

I will be speaking at the Greenpoint Library about this project.

** UPDATE JUNE 13TH: Predictions of a torrential downpour have caused this event to be deferred, to June 20th. All other details below remain the same. My sincere apologies for any inconvenience! Dear Readers: Next Thursday I will be giving…

June 9, 2013 | Irish

Irish Irregularity Looks Very Irregular

The things that happen to verbs!

I am currently studying future tense in Irish. I have already made my way through chapters on imperative, past tense, and present. I would like to give you an example of a little sliver of what can happen with one…

June 13, 2013 |

ALERT: Brooklyn Public Library Talk Tonight Deferred One Week, to June 20th!

Torrential downpours are incompatible with language-learning presentations.

Dear New York-Based Readers, My talk scheduled for tonight at the Brooklyn Public Library has been deferred exactly one week. The weather here in New York is being uncooperative and threatening to wash us all away.  All details of…

June 15, 2013 | Irish

Irish Speakers in Short Supply

When you study Irish outside of Ireland, it's hard to find people to talk to.

When I put Irish on the calendar a while back, I figured my experience with it would be more intellectual than practical. I knew that with a dearth of my beloved Pimsleur lessons and a shortage of local Irish speakers,…

June 17, 2013 | Irish

Engaging Students in Their Own Language-Learning

Some thoughts I have had about pedagogical techniques for foreign-language acquisition in schools.

Sometimes through this site I hear from foreign-language teachers. These encounters make me wonder about ways to engage students, especially more advanced high school students, in language-learning projects that would help connect the classroom to the world around them. A…

June 21, 2013 | Irish

Skyping Experiment in English as a Second Language

I want to test out online teaching techniques for ESL. A few good volunteers needed.

Greetings, dear readers! Last night I gave a presentation about this project at the Brooklyn Public Library. The event was great fun, and I will post video excerpts as soon as possible. Me at the Brooklyn Public Library in Greenpoint …

June 29, 2013 | Irish

Searching for Irish (the Language) in New York

In which I talk to a nice woman from Ireland.

I haven’t exactly found Irish speakers in New York, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t here. This has been a terribly busy month workwise, and I confess it is one of my most delinquent months for language…