'Couch to Comhrá' aims to get learners beyond cúpla focal!
Ever wanted to learn Irish, but just never got the time? Well, a new Irish-language company has launched an innovative online programme that promises to have people communicating in Irish within six weeks without leaving ever leaving their couch!
That's the claim being made by the founder and Director of Education at Gaelteanga, Éamonn Ó'Dónaill, whose has launched the 'Couch to Comhrá in 6 Weeks' challenge.The course is aimed at those who have studied Irish at school, but never quite managed to gain much fluency in the language.
Mr. Ó'Dónaill is the leading developer of Irish language teaching and learning materials for adults and has been a teacher of Irish to adults since 1981. He also worked as a language consultant on various RTÉ and BBC language-teaching series and has written several best-selling books for learners, including Now You’re Talking and Turas Teanga.
“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.
Éamonn 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" said Mr. Ó'Dónaill.
Registration for the Couch to Comhrá in 6 Weeks course is now open at gaelteanga.ispringmarket.eu or at www.gaelteanga.com and the full course is being offered for a special reduced fee of €10.