Somebody recently made a comment on my Facebook page along the lines of "it's a pity that Scottish Gaelic is dying out". My response to that sentiment is it will only die out if we let it, and there are plenty of ways to pick up some of the language.
Having said that, it can be daunting trying to pick up any language from scratch, and so here are some thoughts from someone who has been doing so for over 30 years now, on and off, and finally getting somewhere after really going for it 3 years ago!!!
1) Probably the biggest barrier to overcome at first, but also the easiest, is the way that Gaelic functions in terms of spelling and pronunciation, because it just looks weird. Compared to some languages, such as Greek and Russian, where there is an entirely different alphabet to learn, Gaelic is much easier to get to grips with, as it uses the same type of letters as English does - although the Gaelic alphabet is actually shorter than the English alphabet in terms of the letters used - a b c d e f g i l m n o p r s t u. (Right, Gaelic speakers, at this point, let's not mention the different ways you pronounce them, let's just keep it simple!). You will also see the letter 'h' used, in certain circusmtances where it makes the sounds of letters change in particular circumstances - so the letter 'm' when it becomes 'mh', sounds like a 'v' or a 'w'. So yeah, that's well weird, there's clearly too much whisky being consumed, etc....
But then look at English words such as 'rough' and 'bough' - why should a 'gh' in 'rough' have a 'f' sound, and yet in 'bough' have a 'w' sound? That's even weirder - and one of the good things about Gaelic is that, in most cases, even though there are some weird rules (to an English speaker), words are almost always pronounced as they are spelt.
So you do need to get used to the spelling conventions employed in Gaelic - and that requires an initial shift of work. Your brain will keep telling you to try to catch yerself on, this is nonsense, but let your heart overrule your brain and tell it that it is not beyond the realms of mortal men to achieve this, considering people have been speaking the language for nearly two millenia! At one point, believe me, the penny will drop, and very soon, and you won't be tripped up by the spelling of words, even if you have absolutely no idea at this stage what they mean. It's just a hurdle, so leap over it, there's plenty more ahead.
2) Tied in with this early stage is to get used to hearing the sounds of Gaelic. There is a melodic lilt to various dialects of the language, and tuning your ear in to them can again help. Listen to Gaelic music (Runrig, Capercaillie, Julie Fowlis, etc), watch some BBC Alba programmes, listen to Radio nan Gàidheal. Don't worry so much about what is being said, just feel how they are saying it. Even if that means you end up doing impressions of a Leòdhasach (a person from Lewis!) to try to mimic it. Listen to Runrig's version of Loch Lomond and master the 'Ho, ho mo leannan' bit in the chorus...!
3) The basics. The verb "I am", how to say "I have", and how to greet and say goodbye to folks. Learn these, along with some basic nouns and adjectives.
How are you? I am tired. I am happy. I have a cat. You have a cat? I stole your cat. Technically, it's not my cat. You have no shame. Bye! Yeah, bye. Etc...
4) Vocab. This is where Duolingo can help, because it asks you to learn little snippets at a time. One of the things I learned doing my Gaelic Higher course is that it usually takes encountering a word in context about six times before it eventually sinks in. Duolingo plays on that, with words popping up again and again to drum it in. Just 15 minutes a day, and within a year you will have a sizeable Gaelic vocabulary list. The Gaelic dictionary on the LearnGaelic site is also great, because it offers pronunciations of the words it offers up (see https://learngaelic.scot/dictionary/).
5) Courses. There are plenty of courses, beyond Duolingo, with a bit
more oomph. My initial foundation in Gaelic from 30 years ago was
through a course called Teach Yourself Gaelic, by Boyd Robertson.
It had several lessons, each starting with a written conversation,
which was also recorded on an accompanying CD, and which then dissected
each conversation for new concepts in grammar, and other basics (how to
count, the days of the week, etc). It's still available as a course, but
there are other courses, including the BBC's free to access SpeakGaelic (BBC Alba) course. This has a site at https://speakgaelic.scot,
with lessons to work through, and the programmes themselves can be
found on YouTube also with subtitles (Gaelic subtitles for the Gaelic
bits, English for the English bits). The LearnGaelic site at https://learngaelic.scot also has all sorts of goodies, including the old Speaking Our Language course from STV, again, completely free.
6) Grammar. 25 years ago I had a tutor in Cardiff (don't ask) who would immediately
hammer me the moment I got something wrong grammatically. The bottom
line was I could not string two words together with confidence, because I
knew I was about to be ambushed by an ageing Gael who preferred the
concept of grammar to communication. It set me back a long time in terms
of gaining confidence to chat to folk in the language.
This is where it can get easy or it can get hard. When you grew up learning English, you didn't initially learn any grammar, you said what sounded right by listening to other folk and doing what they did. To be honest, this has been my approach to Gaelic also much of the time, which is HERESY to many Gaelic tutors. That's not to say that I have not had to learn grammar - I obviously have, especially doing the Higher in the last year - but I have tried to never let it trip me up in a conversation if I foul up. If I get something wrong, I'm happy for people to point it out. There are things I constantly get wrong - the genders of nouns, for example (sorry, Gaelic has 2 genders, like French!) - but it doesn't usually stop folk understanding me, unless I get the word wrong also! (I barely get English right half the time, even with my own God-given Ulster accent...)
So keep speaking the language even as you learn grammar and screw it up, just keep pushing through. Pennies will drop in time, the more you get used to the language.
7) Join a local conversation group - and try to do this from the outset. The biggest problem I have had, and which I know many learners have, is that they tend to get better at reading and writing Gaelic before they can speak it with any confidence - so much so that even when they know a word as written, they can't pronounce it right, because they have never actually spoken it. (In genealogy terms, it's similar to listening to non-Scots try to pronounce 'sasines' for the first time...!) I have taken the bull by the horns on this front this year by joining a regular meet-up group in Glasgow, to try to practice my speaking more, and have made quite some progress on that front. There are people more fluent than me, and people below me in their level of fluency, but we form a small community and help each other along.
8) Most importantly - scrub everything you have just read, and do your own thing. The previous points are from how I have done it, but I wouldn't dictate how to do it any more than I would tell you how to research your family tree! My approach may work for you, and it may not.
But whatever you do, keep at it - "beag air beag", a little at a time. It all sinks in, even when you don't think it is. And God loves a trier...!
Gur math a thèid leat! Good luck!
Chris
Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.
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