When they start learning a new language or a new skill, people have different tactics of approaching such an important task. Are there any steps that everyone can take without making any mistakes? Probably not.
But everyone needs to start somewhere.
Irish Gaelic is a beautiful language and those who are willing to embark on a very worthy journey of preserving it may face some challenges. That’s why we started to work on our Member Interviews – blog category where people who already know how to speak Irish or are doing good progress can share their challenges and methods of overcoming them.
Let’s say you want to learn Irish Gaelic. You browsed around our website, maybe took the Bitesize free trial and want to really start putting in the work. What should you do first? How do you start to add the Bitesize lessons to your daily schedule?
If you’re facing these challenges and want to learn Irish Gaelic, we recommend you to read the following blog post where we interviewed Elwin Brake – a Bitesize Irish Gaelic community member. He has some good advice for those who want to learn Irish and don’t know where to start.
Bitesize: Where abouts in the world do you live and what do you like about that place?
Elwin: I live in Clifton Springs, New York and I like that it a small quiet town close to the bigger city fun of places like Rochester which allows easier fun without city hassle.
Bitesize: What got you wanting to speak Irish Gaelic?
Elwin: A love of the sound of it being spoken in the movie “Darby O’Gil and the Little People ” not much real Irish in it; but, enough to catch my young ear I guess and since finding out how rare the language is I want to help keep it alive… to be honest the idea of not being able to hear it again because it was allowed to die while I still live is disquieting to me.
Bitesize: Do you have Irish ancestry? Tell us about it.
Elwin: I know that I do have Irish Blood but I know not from where… you see as I have learned Irish, I have discovered that there are speech patterns in my family that were odd and unexplained until compared to Irish…
This is particularly obvious in our tendency to tell time with phrases like “quarter of”, ” Half Past”, and “Twenty After” without mentioning the hour because we expect the person asking at least knows that much… not a safe assumption outside of the family in my country… oops.
Bitesize: How do you use Bitesize Irish Gaelic?
Elwin: At this point I have been through the online lessons all once and move about my day trying to use what I have learned to construct my own conversations in my head in Irish based on what I see in my actual day… using the lessons as a reference when I get stuck….
I wish I could actually converse with a speaker other than myself… but that really is the only missing piece… not so much in written as in spoken dynamic conversation…
Bitesize: What advice would you have for a total beginner of Irish Gaelic?
Elwin: My advice to a person wholly new to Irish is… don’t try to decipher the written link to the spoken on your own Irish really is a language that follows rules… learn the basic rules and look at phrasing as you hear the native speaker eventually the patterns will emerge… let it come to, you don’t force it…
I promise it is not like anything you have seen or heard,
but it will happen and it is a beautiful thing!
Everybody has to start somewhere, right? Follow Elwin’s advice and start slow but take the first step of taking a free trial. The Bitesize Irish Gaelic method of learning Irish doesn’t stop here, though!
Start with the basics and move up from there! Sign up for Bitesize Irish Gaelic.