Our blog serves as regular motivation for you to speak the Irish language. Find posts about culture, videos where you find how to say certain phrases, and member interviews to tell you about their experience of learning the language.

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself learning Irish, with Pat in Florida (Ep. 18)

img_0028-kerry-ireland

You could learn a lot from Pat Hagan. He’s lives around Jacksonville, Florida. For the past year he’s been learning Irish. He’s made great advances in speaking, and is about to jump further by attending classes in Donegal, Ireland.

What you’ll hear

  • Pat’s background – in his own words, a blue collar background, and his experience of learning Irish
  • After a while, you’ll start to look back and see how much you have learned so far
  • His motorbike trip around Ireland
  • His approach of taking learning at his own pace, and not putting too much pressure on himself (but still always making some progress)

Mentioned

Get the next episode as soon as it’s up

Bitesize Irish Gaelic Podcast

The show comes out each fortnight on Thursdays at 8am EST. Thanks for listening. We’d love to hear from you about the episode. Just leave a comment below.

Eoin

Bitesize Irish Gaelic Facebook page 2

9 thoughts on “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself learning Irish, with Pat in Florida (Ep. 18)”

  1. Michael Watson

    It is encouraging to hear of other people making advances in their Irish. I have been learning, via Bitesize, for several years. I am Australian and am currently spending a lot of time in New Zealand. Recently I was in a local Irish Pub in Queenstown (we have to do something about that name!!) when I met an Irish family who could speak Irish, from Cork. We had a great conversation in Irish.
    They were blown away by the fact that they were having a conversation in Irish with an Australian in New Zealand! Fantastic.
    I take every opportunity to converse in Irish, it is amazing to see the looks on Irish backpackers faces when they are serving in cafes and bars in NZ and they are addressed in Irish! So far from home and somebody knows their language.
    It is sad to see the decline in Irish. I, for one, will do my best to keep it alive.
    Slan
    Mike

    1. This is very touching. The mental picture of an Australian speaking Irish in New Zealand is awesome! It is very encouraging to see the language being kept alive one person at a time. Have you ever visited Ireland?

  2. Just returned from a great trip in Co. Donegal. You couldn’t go wrong if you stayed near Kilibegs, specifically a B&B on the Kilibegs side of Kilcar — off the wild coast road and Sunday Mass just about all in Gaelic. Glorious!

  3. Very glad you found my comments helpful. Eoin was quite masterful in guiding the dialog to be sure ! I admit I have very little experience in giving interviews or in public speaking so of course 20 minutes after the interview was over, I thought of much more I could have said and much better ways of expressing those things I did say.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.