Hi everyone!

Cò thusa? / Introduce yourself
Emiel Vrolijk
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2020 10:18 am
Language Level: Very bad
Corrections: I'm fine either way
Location: Roswinkel, the Netherlands

Hi everyone!

Unread post by Emiel Vrolijk »

Hi there!

My name is Emiel Vrolijk. I'm 28 years old, and I live in the northern part of the Netherlands. My hobbies are playing lead guitar (hardrock, bluesrock, folkrock), fishing (with the method feeder, targeting tench, carp and bream), keeping exotic pets (tarantulas, scorpions, terrestrial crabs, snakes, lizards, cockroaches, isopods, freshwater shrimp and fish), reading (fantasy), writing (fantasy and Romantic/epic poetry), history (Romans, Greeks, Germanic tribes, Celts, military tactics, ancient weapons and armour, etc.), mythology (I'm somewhat of a naturalistic pagan, so I love that stuff), whisky (Talisker, Laphroaig) and languages (my native language is Dutch, and I speak fluent English, reasonable Italian, reasonable French, enough Swahili to hold a very basic conversation, and I can understand and read German and Spanish, but not speak or write them).

I have studied Celtic languages and cultures for a year, at the university of Utrecht, in the hope that I could learn Gàidhlig. I knew they wouldn't teach me that, but I had hoped that learning Old Irish and modern Gaeilge would give me a nice head start. However, I had not counted on first having to learn Middle Welsh (the Welsh spoken around 1400/1500 AD), and I failed miserably at that because my heart wasn't in it. Gaeilge went great, although I have forgotten everything since. Then, I went on to study African languages and cultures, but after 2 years, I didn't manage to learn enough Swahili to pass to the next year. Now I'm in my second year of European languages and cultures with Italian as my major, and I have managed to pass all courses so far, except for the advanced Italian course due to my low grade for the oral exam.

My infatuation with Gàidhlig started when I saw a live recording of Julie Fowlis' Bothan Àirigh am Bràigh Raithneach on YouTube. I was astonished by the beauty of the language. I delved into it some more and fell in love with the cadence and the melodious characteristics of Gàidhlig, which sounds almost as if its speakers are perpetually singing, even in regular daily utterances. I read some poems (with the help of a dictionary), and it really got to me. Ever since, I've made it a life goal of mine to learn it fluently, with a particular focus on being able to write it, since I would love to use it for my writings. Since I now have some spare time, seeing how I'm almost done with Italian, and since I got the idea to pick something Gàidhlig-related for my BA thesis next year, I thought it would be great to finally delve into it again, and immerse myself in as many Gàidhlig platforms as I could find. We were also supposed to go to Scotland in July (we've been there about 3 or 4 times now), but unfortunately we had to cancel due to the global pandemic. That really sucks, as I was rather looking forward to it.

So yeah... I really hope to learn a lot :) Glad to be here! Replies or questions in Gàidhlig would be appreciated :) I want to be forced to look up everything so I can learn it more quickly, haha!


GunChleoc
Rianaire
Posts: 4607
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:26 am
Language Level: Mion-chùiseach
Corrections: Please correct my grammar
Location: Dùthaich mo chridhe
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Re: Hi everyone!

Unread post by GunChleoc »

Fàilte chridheil ort!

Tha mi 'n dòchas gu bheil an tràchdas BA agad a' dol gu math.

Nise, sgrìobh rudeigin sa Ghàidhlig - 's e an cleachdadh a nì bòidheach! :)
Oileanach chànan chuthachail
Na dealbhan agam
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