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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
- Oideas Gael courses in Donegal, as described on our blog by Audrey
- Podcast 17: Is Eoin a native speaker?
- Take a free trial of the Bitesize Irish Gaelic program, to get a taste of our Bitesize lessons that you can take at your own page
- Take our free email course Irish for Beginners, and you’ll also receive our free email newsletter with notifications of any new podcast episodes
- Kinsale, County Cork
- Ennis, County Clare (where Eoin grew up)
- Belfast
- Bitesize Lesson: Excuse me, Please, Thank you
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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
9 thoughts on “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself learning Irish, with Pat in Florida (Ep. 18)”
Dia ar sábháil! Bhí mé an-ghnóthach agus ní raibh an t-am agam éisteacht le Pat!!!!!!
Michi
Tá sé go deas go raibh tú ábalta éisteacht leis anois.
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
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?
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!
Thank you for sharing about your wonderful trip. Were you able to understand the Sunday Mass in Gaelic? It does sound glorious.
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.
I had a lovely time chatting with you, and I respect your optimistic outlook on how to learn, and keep learning.
That is wonderful.