Explore Member Spotlight: Anna-Karin’s Journey from Finland to Gaeilge
“I thought, this is such an ugly language… why would I want to learn this?”
That was Anna-Karin’s honest first impression after stumbling across Irish.
But eight months into her Explore membership at Bitesize Irish, she says:
“I don’t know why this language resonates so much with me—but I keep going.”
Anna-Karin lives in a village in Finland, where she juggles three roles—as a church musician, music teacher, and practical nurse—while raising two teenagers with her husband and their family cat.
She’s a Finland-Swedish speaker with no Irish heritage or family ties to Ireland. Yet something stirred when she encountered Irish—first through music, then language. It was a funeral song request that unexpectedly opened a portal: “They asked me to sing a Westlife song,” she explains, “I wasn’t really familiar with their music or the band itself so I listened a lot to their music and I read about the band, the research a bit and as I did I came across pages about Ireland and I looked at more pictures and I read about the history and the language.”
The more she read, the more it resonated.
“I read that Irish is a very old language… that it has three dialects… and that some consider it a dying language. That really caught me. Here our dialects are also very old and being pushed aside. It felt familiar.”
But her first lesson didn’t go smoothly:
“It was difficult. It was so different from anything else I’d ever tried.”
Still, she kept circling back. After joining Bitesize Irish’s 5-Day Challenge, something clicked. “I couldn’t sign up straight away,” she admits. “But when I did, I gave myself one month. If I didn’t like it, I’d stop.”
She didn’t stop.
Now a regular contributor in the Pobal community, Anna-Karin balances language learning with daily life—offering gentle encouragement to others along the way.
💬 What Keeps Her Going?
Our Explore membership is all about a daily sustainable rhythm of deeply connecting with the Irish language.
- Real connection: “It’s real people on Bitesize. That’s what makes me feel at home.”
- Daily rhythm: She engages with Gaeilge Gach Lá challenges and enjoys seeing other learners’ progress.
- Shared experience: “I’ve studied Finnish, Swedish, English, German… Irish is different, but not impossible. The spelling is hard—but the pronunciation isn’t as bad as people think!”
🧠 Her Advice?
“Don’t be afraid to try. If you want to learn a language, you have to put in a bit of work. It won’t just fall from the sky. Be patient. Commit a little, and just begin.”
🎶 From Music to Meaning
As a musician who plays funerals, Anna-Karin understands the quiet emotional thread that music—and now language—can carry across borders. Her journey is a beautiful example of how learning Irish is not always about ancestry. Sometimes it’s about resonance. The kind that stirs under the surface, and won’t let go.
Why not get started for free as Anna-Karin did? Take our free 5-Day Challenge for Gaeilge Gach Lá.
I enjoyed getting to know a fellow Pobal member, and I appreciated Anna-Karin’s encouraging words in regard to learning Gaeilge.
I agree, Ellie! GRMA