Okay, now we have a study set and hopefully we have gone through it a few times…. (at least once?). Now we re-read. A lot of people like to write all over their books as they read–which is great–you do what works for you. When I try to do that it just becomes a huge mess, mostly because I have the world’s worst handwriting ever. It is basically unreadable, even to me. It also becomes a huge distraction with me ” method” (do I really have a method? am I the kind of person that anyone would look to for a method?? :). I am distractable and lazy enough that if I have English written all over my Irish book then my eyes will go straight to the English and just read that. There is even a scientific name for this (the XX strope effect??). Once you become a reader your eyes are drawn to words. You literally have a difficult time, neurologically speaking, keeping yourself from reading. We must be hijacking some seriously old evolutionary brain structures with the skill of reading? Or maybe it is because reading is now literally tied to our survival? Anyhow, English gets in my way.
What I do instead is underline the word or phrase that gets in my way. This does two things for me. First, it allows me, when reading to acknowledge what I don’t know, but more importantly, it allows me to keep going. I try and guess what the offending word means out of context–exactly how we read in our native language. “He took the snaggleflux out of his pocket, aimed it at the target and shoot.” Who knows what a ‘snaggleflux is? No one, I made it up 30 seconds ago. Who can guess? Anyone who understood even most of the rest of the sentence. A snaggleflux is a type of weapon, a sort of gun. This is the ideal way to learn new vocabulary–in context and part of a story.
As you re-read you will find other phrases that you missed. Maybe you half understood them and now you realize that you mostly did not get it right. Things will start to make more sense.
okay, táimid ag léamh! Níl fhios.agam. cén fáth a change mo teanga default, so this part is praiseach mór! okay–rinne mé é? is féidir?
So, if you are following along at home with our read of David Walliams “Buachaill an Ghúna” then you are a few chapters in. Yeah! Let’s celelbrate that for a bit. We are actually reading a book. If we were really good little students then we would of course be diligently doing our flashcards from each chapter before we move on the next chapter….. but that is not really the point of reading. There has to be some joy in there. So yes, there are a lot of repeat words on those words lists.
What are the things that are tripping us up? Looking back at my list it is not so much new vocabulary as my weakness with the vocab that I, in theory, know. Those words that look familiar but that I just can’t be flexible with. In English I can draw a line, draw a breath and draw a conclusion. As Gaeilge tá sé an-deachair a tharriang the different concepts.
Today I am going back and looking at the verbs (and “verby” concepts, verbal nouns, verbal adjectives–let’s remember I am not a real linguist :). Here are some of the sentences that I initially did not get on first reading
a léirigh = to show
sin a léirigh = that show
Ba dhifríochtaí beaga bídeacha iad sina léirigh cé chomh cosúil lena chéile is a bhí na tithe ar fad i ndáiríre.
Éirigh = rise
D’éirigh = got, got up
Ach d’éirigh le Dennis ceann acu a shábháil
We get it in concept, he rose up and got one (of the pictures). But I got stuck on the rise, as in get out of bed rise. My lack of flexibility with the language got me trapped in direct translation rather than concept the author is conveying. This is where I just need to read more. So it is okay for you to push on in the book and just read the whole thing and then come back and dissect each chapter. (If you are coming to this and I (hopefully) have this all nicely laid out then this is where we let you in on the secret that it didn’t actually happen that way:).
But here are the chapters words in sentences
Caibidil a ceathair
fonn dul as amharc
desire to go out of sight
iallach air
forced (on) him
aon ghúna deas feicthe agat le déanaí
have you seen any nice dresses lately
le déanaí
recently, lately
éirí as
rebellion
de phlab
plop down
ag drogallach
reluctantly
ach imeart as amharc
just go out of sight
faraor nach bhféadfadh a leithéid tarlú
unfortunately this could not happen
feistiú ceannasach
arrangement dominant
i gculaith shnasata ghnó
in a polished business suit
ag iarraidh éirigh a bhaint as
trying to makesome sense out of it
ann sosa
there rest
anall leo
over with them
tharraing D a anáil isteach
D. drew in his breath
scéal sceite
leaked story
a mbéal ar leathadh acu
they spread their mouths on them
biorán
pin
cíortha
combed
ní fhéadfadh cuma níos mailísí a bheith air
couldn’t seem more mailicious (to be on him)
d’aithneofá ar a éadan go mbíodh sé míshásta go minic
you would recognize by his face that he was unhappy often
Inniu rinne mé athbreithniú mo chártaí Quizlet. Inniu rinne mé níos mó cártaí freisin.
12 Deireadh Fómhair
Dhúisigh mé tuirseach, mar léigh mé ró-dhéanach ach ansin I excersized go leor. Ansin rinne mé athbreithniú mo chártaí Quizlet agus rinne mé níos mó cartaí Quizlet.
Caibidil a naoi
go socair
calmly
ag rásaíocht
racing
stuama
prudent
a reo ná róstadh
freeze or roast
lán le féidearthaachtaí
full of possibilities
tósat
toast
is a cheap daoine
as people thought
ná ar maidin fiú amháin
not even this morning
fanta
wait
go ciotach
cutely, that’s cute
feidhmiú
functions
an spéirbhean
the sky woman
ar an dé deiridh
on the last two
an drochshúil dó
the evil eye for him
a bhréagadóir bradach níor léirigh tusa spéis dá laghad riamh sa sobaldráma sin
you rough liar you have never shown the slightest interest in that drama