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Anyone who has used one of the other titles in Routledge's Colloquial series will know exactly want to expect. The book is an introduction to the Scottish Gaelic language for students presumed to have no previous knowledge. The emphasis is on building oral proficiency and the language presented has a concrete context in real-world situations e.g. shopping, food and drink and hobbies, usually presented in the form of lively dialogues. Grammatical explanations are clear, concise and again rooted in a real-world context. The book has a clear layout and it is easy to locate information within the text. As with other Colloquial textbooks, the authors do not attempt to cover too much material in each chapter (of which there are sixteen), although a wide range of topics and contexts are dealt with during the course. The pronunciation of Gaelic does not come over well on paper, although the introduction to the book does give a good outline to the subject. However, a student serious in wishing to learn the language would be well-advised to buy the cassette which accompanies the course. This contains many of the dialogues and texts spoken by native speakers and will aid good pronunciation. Self-study is not the easiest way to acquire a new language. However, if your aim is to learn modern, spoken Scottish Gaelic, you have an excellent opportunity with this course.
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