Helen contacted us recently. I was encouraging her to attend next year’s Deireadh Seachtaine immersion weekend in San Francisco. This is a great thing to do if you can travel to one.
The trouble is, it can feel scary to attend an event like that. It can be a push to attend any event, but with this it feels like you’re exposing yourself more to being judged – for your Irish language ability.
I told Helen she should definitely attend. People are nice at these events. They want to help you out. You shouldn’t not attend because of your level of spoken Irish Gaelic. You should attend despite your level of spoken Irish.
Helen came back to me and said:
One thing I can try to keep in mind is that everyone there who is “better” than I am was once at my beginner’s stage. More importantly, what if they had just quit then because of it?
It’s so true! For all these people who feel like they’re “past” your level, they were all exactly at your level at some stage. They were clueless, frustrated, and couldn’t say “Dia dhuit” at some stage.
It’s your journey, not theirs. You can share your journey with them, and get a taste for their journeys. But it’s up to you to immerse yourself in the language daily in Bitesize pieces, it will never be up to them.