One Bite at a time

BLÚIRÍN BEAG AG AN AM

It’s not your fault. The Irish language can feel overwhelming. Many, or most, give up. You can feel that your too old, or don’t have enough time, or that you’re not a “languages person”. At worst, the Irish language becomes a source of stress and self-judgement in your life!

Yet the Irish language is probably a calling for you. It’s a life-long journey of nourishment. You’re already expressing that calling by diving into the Irish language. The journey is worth it in itself.

Each Bitesize step is worth your effort, since the journey in itself is worth it, At Bitesize Irish, we help you overcome the feeling that you’re not doing “enough”. You are already good enough. Tiny bites of Irish allow you to connect through the language every day. The alternative is to wrongly think that you must study large portions of the language regularly: this is only giving yourself an excuse to avoid your calling. Thousands of learners have used the Bitesize approach, and love it.

The quickest bite you can take with Bitesize is to play an audio recording of a native speaker and repeat it out loud (known as the shadowing technique). Our online courses also feature videos on specific topics, which you may prefer at the time. After taking this Bitesize step, you can keep going if you feel like it (you will!). Complete a lesson in your own time, at your own pace, and make progress step by step.

Irish EVERY Day

Gaeilge GACH Lá

Even attending a weekly Irish language class is not enough. The most successful Irish language learners make the language part of their every day life, their daily practices. It becomes part of their identity. Failed learners think that they must take huge steps each time. They start to procrastinate. And finally they bury their heart’s calling.

By practising Irish EVERY day, you’ll move from being a learner to being a practitioner of the language. Start by practising a bite each day, and keep up that habit. With Bitesize Irish, you’ll have the opportunity to practice on your own (through online courses), and take guided action every day (through our community). Practice can be a mix of saying, conversing, reading, writing, and reflection.

Courage for conversation

Misneach le comhrá

Regular conversation is possibly the most valuable activity you can take on on your Irish language journey. A language is for expressing yourself with others.

Do you feel unready for conversation? Think about it the other way around: kids converse for several years before starting to converse. You get to have conversations because you speak it over and over again.

Attend online group conversations with a fluent speaker. You should attend even if you can’t speak it: our scripted conversations give you a change to role-play. For more advanced learners, we offer more open conversation around specific topics, so that you can get immediate feedback on how you’re expressing yourself.

Membership plans below launching soon...

For now, you can sign up to Bitesize Classic.

When these plans launch, you will have the opportunity to avail of the new benefits.

New Membership Plans (launching soon)

Ár bpleananna ballraíochta

Learner

Take daily bites of Bitesize Cúrsaí online courses at your own pace. Start from the very beginning, and continue on to everyday Irish. Thousands of audio recordings with phonetic spelling, so you can practice pronunciation. Video lessons explaining the finer points of the language.

Speaker

Are you already an active learner, including attending classes? As well as access to Bitesize Cúrsaí, be an active member of Bitesize Pobal, our private daily-practice community. Guided prompts to encourage you. Connect with others, help them, get help, share resources. Even recruit them to practice conversation.

Conversationalist

Hungry for conversation? Not getting enough, even with classes? Attend Bitesize Beo weekly group video conversations with a fluent speaker. Scripted conversation so that you can role-play even if you can't speak yet. More open topic-based conversation for advanced learners, with immediate feedback.

Get to know Bitesize Irish

Cuir aithne orainn

Bitesize Irish is run from Luimneach / Limerick, a city in the west of Ireland. We are your direct connection to practising the Irish language every day. Each of the team has Irish “running through our veins”. Bitesize Irish is what you might call a “micro-business”. We’re personal. If you’re a member, you’ll get to know us by name.

As well as the team members below, many of our original lessons were written by Audrey Nickel, in Santa Cruz, California. As an advanced adult learner with valuable perspectives on learning, her lessons came from a stance of empathy, not assuming any prior knowledge of the language.

Eoin Ó Conchúir, founder

Dia dhuit! I started Bitesize Irish back in 2009 to give you a way to practice Irish every day. The idea started as daily emails, but I quickly realised that they would be no good without lots of audio. Since then, I have been developing ways of bringing the Irish language into your every day life.

I grew up in Inis (Ennis) in County Clare. The Irish language is my first language – it’s my family’s language. I attended primary and secondary schools in Irish. For a long time I was uneasy that my spoken Irish is “urban” Irish, not straight from the Gaeltacht. In more recent years I have come to fully appreciate what I speak: modern, alive, Irish. I love the vibrancy around the language, and I get ultimate satisfaction seeing others find a deeper part of themselves through the Irish language.

Gabrielle, community manager

I found my grá (love) for Gaeilge when I visited the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking area of Ireland) when I was thirteen years old. It changed my life! I’m so happy to be able to share this love with the Bitesize Irish community and help you find that grá too. I spent seven years in Australia and so I understand – both from my experience and through the people I met while I was there – how important the Irish language and culture is to people with Irish heritage who don’t live in the Emerald Isle.

I’m originally from Co. Westmeath but I’m living the dream in Connemara Co. Galway now, as I study to become a secondary school teacher. I love Irish grammar (but I’m not fanatical!) and have dabbled in Classical and Old Irish too. I’m a strong believer that learning a language is about communicating – as long as the person we are speaking with understands, then it doesn’t matter if we make mistakes!

Siobhán, language assistant

Having been fortunate enough to having Irish as my primary home language and having had the opportunity to hear Irish all around me since I was a child, my goal is to help others make Irish their daily language, too. I, too, can understand the struggles of language learning as I am currently learning Russian and have dabbled in other European languages. For the past few years, I have been helping learners of all ages master the Irish language, both online and in a classroom setting. I received a Diploma in Applied Irish and Translation while studying in Carna, Connemara.

I was born in Galway but currently live in Tipperary. At Bitesize Irish, I help members understand the intricacies of the Irish language and offer opportunities to practice their conversational Irish, all with the goal of helping learners use Irish on a daily basis.