Mashed Articles

Can’t remember the exact date when I started listening to podcasts in my car, but that must be at least 5 years ago. It was ITConversations that triggered me into buying a small 256KB MP3 player (which ended up in the washing machine). Doug Kaye, the founder of ITConversations, has started a new initiative: SpokenWorld.org. This site is a directory that helps you find spoken-word recordingings.

When I did a search on some of my favourite topics – SOA and Cloud Computing – I immediately found a few new podcasts: OnSOA and The Cloud Computing Show.

After a hectic month organising and promotion, today sees the official launch of Talk Irish with a party in An Chultúrlann, on the Falls road in Belfast.

We’ve had lots of new members and loads of visitors in the last couple of weeks. We’ve featured in the Sunday Business Post, SiliconRepublic and done interviews for several radio stations and newspapers. We’ve still got a lot of work to do on the site, but we’re delighted with the number of people who’ve emailed us to tell us what they love about it.

So I’m hoping the launch will go well today. There are loads of Irish language events happening all round Belfast today – from intensive language courses to plays and performances. But if you’re free, and you fancy some fíon, ceol agus craic, drop into an Chultúrlann before 2.30pm to catch Aodán Mac Póilin from Ultach say a few words about the site before I take you through a tour of the features.

If you can’t make it, there’s still time to brush up on a cúpla focal before St Patrick’s day – just visit www.talkirish.com.

Whoo! After far far too long, we’ve finally launched our new dictionary, vocab learning game and quizzes on www.talkirish.com.

I’ll start with our 365 dictionary. It’s linked with our free Focal an Lae (word a day) service. Learners can search for an Irish/English term. The chosen word is displayed, along with an image. The learner can see the headword, cases examples and sample sentences. But the best thing for the learner is being able to listen to the entries. This is especially important to Irish language learners, as it’s difficult for many learners across the world to get access to Irish language audio.

I have to say, my WordFlash game is my favourite new toy. WordFlash is based on the premise that the brain learns best through repetition, a little bit at a time.

When the game opens, a picture square flashes and an Irish word is played. The learner must click that square. The first square is repeated, then a new square flashes. This continues, and the learner must repeat the chain of flashes for as long as possible. While they play, their brain makes an association between the image, text and audio.

There are two modes – practice and test. But also 2 levels – listen and read. Listen mode encourages the learner to associate the sound and picture, without any text. That’s really important in a Celtic language like Irish, whose written form can appear very alien to learners. Learners of Irish frequently mispronounce the words they see. I hope that by teaching them the word sound first, then then find the text easier to read, and have a phonetic system to apply to it.

Our quizzes simply let a learner test the following:

Irish-English text translation skills
English-Irish text translation skills
Spoken Irish recognition skills

All the games plug into our database of Irish words and associated images. I’ve designed everything so it can localise easily into any other world language. What we’re working on now is getting our subscription model up and running – so learners can unlock the free versions of the games.

If you’re interested in what we’ve done and want to get involved or find out more, feel free to contact me – details at www.talkirish.com.