Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
You’re interested in speaking the Irish language, so that you can connect with others, and use that connection to get a deeper sense of belonging. It’s a direct connection with your past.
Speaking the Irish language cannot be achieved by the strategy of showing up to a class once per week for twelve weeks, for example. Successful speakers always find a way to make the language part of their daily lives.
Leap-frogging other learners needs you to immerse yourself in Irish. What is immersion? In an ideal world, it would imply that you’re living and surviving through the Irish language, with no choice of “escape”. Even living in the Gaeltacht will not guarantee that for you, with English being so strong.
If you break immersion down into modes, you can look at it through:
- Reading immersion
- Listening comprehension immersion
- Speaking immersion
Since you can’t just move to the Gaeltacht, what’s the minimum viable immersion you can make part of your every day? Since immersion is so important to your long-term goals of belonging, how can you break it down so you can immerse yourself in the Irish language just a little bit every single day?
Listen to the Bitesize Irish Podcast 093 for ideas on how you might do that in your own life.
Announcing: Ceardlann an tSamhraidh
And check out the Bitesize Ceardlann an tSamhraidh (summer workshop) that’s running in June/July 2019. It offers you a way to immerse yourself in the Irish language daily, with others on the same journey, while you also build connection with others.