Did you make a New Year’s resolution for 2018? If your goal is to learn Irish Gaelic then you should know that you’ve embarked on a beautiful journey. Learning the Irish language until you’re fluent is a huge task, but luckily for you, Bitesize Irish Gaelic has all the tools you need to start your learning adventure.
The process of learning Irish Gaelic is a bit different than learning other languages. First of all, Irish isn’t the easiest language to learn but it surely is beautiful. If you want to master the Irish language, you will need to do the following:
- Learn a ‘bitesize’ portion of Irish every day (or every week)
- Immerse yourself in Irish
- Practice the language
- Visualize yourself being fluent
While the first 3 above tips are easy to complete (since you have all the tools you need at Bitesize), visualizing yourself being fluent in Irish may be a little harder to do since it something we can’t help you with. Visualization is a technique that will help you learn the language. This cognitive tool is stronger if you first do the first 3 things from above (learn, practice, immerse yourself in Irish) because it’s more successful if you have a mixed mental sensory experience (sound, sight and – why not – smell).
Visualization is a powerful technique for people looking to improve themselves (have a better lifestyle, learn new things & languages). It’s being used by psychotherapists, entrepreneurs and successful people overall. The good thing is that you can use it to learn Irish Gaelic – just like Maria McClure (Bitesize Irish Gaelic member). Maria has Irish ancestry and used our program to learn Irish Gaelic, but she soon realized that if anyone wants to be fluent in Irish, visualization is extremely helpful.
Bitesize: Where abouts in the world do you live?
Maria: My name is Maria McClure I was born in St.Paul, Minnesota. I lived in a Catholic neighborhood comprised of many people of Irish ancestry. I went to a school where on St. Patrick’s day we would put on a play every year with an Irish theme. I moved to Texas with the whole family at age 30. I have been here almost 40 years.
Bitesize: What got you wanting to speak Irish Gaelic?
Maria: I guess what got me fixated on learning Irish Gaelic was, that reading a book, written by my cousin Bridgett O’Malley – FORGETTING IRELAND. I learned that our Great-grandparents did not speak English. I downloaded a program on my old computer. The computer died and I began again almost 20 years later with Bitesize.
Bitesize: Do you have Irish ancestry? Tell us about it.
Maria: My Great grand parents on my father’s mother’s side were brought here in the Connemara project. Archbishop Ireland and JJ Hills project to populate the great plains with Catholics.
Also My paternal grandfather was from Old Dromore Co Kerry. So my father was first generation Irish American. My mother is from South America of a broadly mixed heritage.
Bitesize: How do you use Bitesize Irish Gaelic?
Maria: Using BSI is great when I enter through the links on your emails other than that a bit difficult to access. I enjoy the YouTube, Videos and the Facebook page immensely.
Bitesize: What advice would you have for a total beginner of Irish Gaelic?
Maria: Advice can only be to keep trying. Listen to all the videos and lessons available. Most importantly keep dreaming, envision yourself being fluent. Believing that someday you will be.
Le meas, Maria.
Want to strengthen the connection to your Irish heritage? Make the first step and sign up for a Bitesize Irish Gaelic membership. Don’t forget about practicing the language, immersing yourself in Irish and visualizing yourself as being fluent.
If you want to start slow, that’s also fine – you can always sign up for our free trial!