How are things going?

[GunChleoc]

Now that the first two months of the year have passed, how is everybody doing? What are your successes, your frustrations?

[sr3nitygirl]

Well, i started (again) well before the start of 2012, but I am very happy with how my Beginner course at the AGA has gone so far.

The course content is graded and steady, and there is plenty of time for review which helps to drill it into my head. Our course instructor is simply wonderful (Tapadh leibh, a Mhairead!).

It is through this course that I have met and continue to work with my practice partner (Sineag), usually three (sometimes four) times a week outside of the class-time. We usually work for between one and two hours (depending on how fried our brains are!) per session, working on the course content, but also reading to each other from Gaelic Children's books, things we've written, or simply conversing as much as we can.

We are fortunate to live relatively close to each other (about 150 miles apart), and we have already managed to meet up once and spend the day shopping, speaking as much Gaelic as we can. It's great to have someone to work with, with whom you feel completely at ease.

What is amazing to me is how quickly the last few months have gone by, and there are but 9 weeks left before the end of the course!

[Lìosa]

My "Gaelic buddy" (a bit more advanced learner than I) communicates with me primarily via text, and we haven't seen each other in person since before Christmas. I try to text him sometimes in Gaelic when I can remember how to spell things, and he sometimes gets it and sometimes doesn't...either he's at work and too busy to try to tr*nsl*t* or I just miss the mark. Yesterday he told me he might be missing a (pipe band) gig in a couple of weeks, and I wrote what I thought meant, "You're kidding," and he wrote back, "Where am I going?"

I'll get there eventually!

[Wilsons-of-Oxford]

Bha sàs agam. Tha mi feumach air fòcas. I feel I could learn to write if I sat down and learned all the grammar through Taic. But I have difficulty converting my thoughts to Gàidhlig structure. I have no idea how I'm going to get speaking down.

I have had difficulties. I am in need of focus.

[GunChleoc]

I have been thinking to myself about the language learning process recently and I find there are three stages:

- Understand how it works
- Remember how it works
- Actually use it!

If you've read up on a grammar rule or looked up a word, it doesn't mean you can instantly use it. It takes practice, and when producing language you have to think of a bazillion things at the same time: pronunciation/spelling, which are the right words to use, how do I put them together to form the sentence I want.

I like comparing leaning a language to learning the pipes: You need to train fine motor skills, again and again, you need to learn the notes and the gracenotes, then how to put them together into tunes, and finally you will want to remember your tunes!

So, you shouldn't try to do too much. Take it slowly, and practice the things you can do until your fairly confident before you move on to the next thing.

If you have difficulty putting what you have learned into practice, there is only one thing you can do: try. Write something and do your best with it. Don't be afraid to write something silly or to have a nonsense conversation. Then we can interact with you and have a look at where you need a little help.

[bsuibhne]

Tha mi a' leasaich slaodach ach is leam e fhathast.
I am improving slowly but, I am still enjoying it.
I want to concentrate on improving my vocabulary to help with reading some of the post on here.

[GunChleoc]

If you need fast dictionary access, I have added Wordlink to the top of this page. You will need to post the link of the page you're currently seeing into it, i.e. And then you can click on words. For some reason, it doesn't seem to work with forum pages. I'll let them know.

[GunChleoc]

It's fixed. Use the link on top of each page in the link list.

It won't work if you're blocking referrers in your security software though.

[bsuibhne]

is math sin!

[sr3nitygirl]

After a promising start, the fire seems to have gone down a bit.
I suppose that's to be expected, but I hope everyone is still doing well with their Gaelic learning!

[sr3nitygirl]

OK, so it's almost a year to the day when I began this latest attempt at seriously learning the language; the latest of many attempts I have had in my life, most of which have been less than successful, so this is a positive thing.

I am happy to report that, for the most part, this has been a fun and (by my own standards) successful year. I feel that I have learned a great deal, and most of all, I have stuck with it and I continue to have (with one notable exception, more later) a high level of enthusiasm for learning.

What's been different this time is that I have three main things working in my favour.

1. I have been the fact that i am enrolled on a structured (Skype-based) course, so that even though I am far from the Gaelic-speaking areas, I have something to give me a solid foundation, and it has also given the the great gift of meeting and working with my friend Jen with whom I continue to practice through the summer months while we wait for the Autumn classes to restart.

2. I've also been working through Muriel Fisher's four-part Gaelic course, and that has been an absolute joy. I love her presentation style

3. This forum. I can't even begin to tell you how much FnG has helped, and I continue to read the site every day, even if I don't post something every day. When I have posted (especially in my "essays" thread), everyone has been so wonderful and supportive, and I've learned a lot from the many people who have taken the time to correct my errors and put me on the right path - and while I continue to make dumb mistakes, hopefully it will all sink into my skull Special thanks to GunChleoc, Faoileag, Thrissel and the others who have taken the time to help me along the way.

Of course, the one area where I know I am sadly lacking is actually speaking the language. Jen and I do converse during our practice sessions on Skype, but there is a level of comfort that we have with each other (on Skype and in person) that isn't necessarily present when trying to talk with others. An example would be that we attended a Gaelic concert together in Virginia a couple of months back, and we were completely overwhelmed and intimidated to the point that my brain 'froze' when trying to converse with someone I know and I just came off looking daft (there was some other stuff going on, too, but I won't go into that). That experience had something of a crushing effect on both of us and I think it's fair to say that we were discouraged a bit by it, but we are back on the rails again.

I really wish I could spend some time in a Gaelic-speaking community in Scotland or in Nova Scotia and take advantage of the opportunities therein, but sadly this isn't possible at the moment. And I confess that my attempts to put some kind of meeting together in Virginia this year was affected by the discouragement I felt after that unfortunate episode, and that fell apart.

But, anyway, that's my one-year anniversary report card. Not sure if this is going to be of use to any of you reading it, but it feels good to write it all down!

[faoileag]

Taing mhòr, a Steaphanaidh - bha sin glè inntinneach agus glè fheumail, nam bheachdsa.
Tha mi uabhasach toilichte gun do chùm thu ort ag ionnsachadh a dh' aindeoin amannan doirbh agus 's e adhartas drùidhteach a rinn thu cuideachd. Tha dòigh-obrach / dòigh-smaoineachaidh dheimhinneach agad!

Thanks, S. That was very interesting and very useful in my opinion.
I'm really pleased that you kept learning despite difficult times, and you've made impressive progress too.
You have a very positive attitude.

[GunChleoc]

*emerges from hiding*

I am glad you're still enjoying yourself and getting ahead

About trying to speak out there - it's always an extra step. The classroom is a sheltered environment, and people are used to talking slowly and picking vocabulary you might know. Not so when you go out into "real" situations - that's always more difficult! Don't let it stop you :hug:

*goes back into hiding*

[Lìosa]

Well, I got a little lax in my Gàidhlig over the past few months, with the end of the school year and springtime pipe band competition season. As I'm now preparing my lesson plans for the fall (I homeschool my 13 year old son), I'm mapping out Muriel Fisher's Level 1 course for both of us to work on. It'll take the whole school year (and maybe a little more) to get through it because I'm going so slow, but I'm determined to make sure we have everything solid and finally get us past "ciamar a tha thu" and get myself past having to cut and paste phrases to communicate via post-dealan!

[sr3nitygirl]

Sin thu fhèin, a Lìosa!