A new Irish-language company has launched an initiative that promises to have people communicating in Irish within six weeks, and all without leaving their couch.
The Couch to Comhrá in six weeks challenge is the brainchild of online education organisation Gaelteanga and is aimed at those who studied Irish at school, but never quite managed to gain much fluency in the language.
Gaelteanga’s founder and director of Education Éamonn Ó Dónaill, a leading developer of Irish-language teaching and learning materials for adults, says it is an ideal time to take up the language.
"When the long nights begin closing in, many people will again be looking for a pastime to help while away the time this autumn, and this new resource will provide a stimulating challenge that aims to teach participants enough Irish to enable them to communicate at a reasonable level in the language in everyday contexts," he says.
A teacher of Irish to adults since 1981 and language consultant on various RTÉ and BBC language-teaching series, Ó Dónaill has also written several best-selling books for learners, including Now You’re Talking and Turas Teanga.
He describes the challenge “as an ideal course for those parents who want to lend a hand with their children’s homework”.
The Couch to Comhrá challenge will see participants accessing an online self-study course that will offer sound files to accompany each new word or phrase to aid pronunciation and user-friendly content that can be easily accessed from any device.
A quiz at the end of each unit of learning will be based on interactive questions which will “put the fun back into learning Irish” and minimise the amount of grammar required to gain reasonable fluency, according to ÉamonnÓ Dónaill.
Registration for the Couch to Comhrá in six weeks course is now open at gaelteanga.ispringmarket.eu or atwww.gaelteanga.com and is being offered for a special reduced fee of €10.
