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| Morph |
New SpeakerHey, how would a person whos no Gaelic at all and would like to make his first steps into the Language go about it. I would need to learn really slowly though due to no experiance of the language. THanks for any help |
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| RadgeJougal |
Join the learners' organisation.
http://www.cli.org.uk |
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| garye |
Re: New Speaker
Morph, I've been learning for just over 3 years now and started totally from scratch. There's two main bits of advice that I would give. First, get your own learners resource. One (or better, two) of Teach Yourself Gaelic, Speaking Our Language or Colloquial Scottish Gaelic are good. The BBC Website also has some good stuff, Colin and Cumberland and Beag Air Bheag. As a complete beginner some of the stuff like Letter to Learners is too hard but useful later. Secondly, don't rely on stuff like this, go to a class as well. This gets you more used to hearing the language, clarifies stuff you think you've learned and helps you practise speaking. If there isn't a college in you area that does night classes, some local councils run night classes in the community. For useful internet links go to the Sabhal Mor Ostaig site (the Gaelic College on Skye),sorry don't have the link but just Google it. Learning Gaelic isn't easy and one of the hurdles for a new beginner is to not try and read it thinking it should read as the English alphabet should. Once your over that it loses it's scariness to a certain extent. You'll also find that the map of Scotland changes. Placenames and their meaning jump out at you in a way you never noticed before and you'll suddenly realise there is a lot more Gaelic around you than you realised. Oh and something which shocks some Gaelic learners, you get coerced into singing in class a wee bit-it's a Gael thing- but even if, like me, you can't sing a note, it really helps in learning the language as it gives you a better perception on how the rhythym of the language is. |
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| Babygael |
Hai Morph, this link will give you access to many sites.
http://www.rampant.scotland.com/gaelic.htm this link gives problems to click and go,so you may have to get it through google or so. This is the S.M.O link http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/berula Happy hunting! BG  
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| Abieuan |
Hi Morph, one of the first things you could do is to find someone who kens at least a wee bit o the language, this would gie ye a chance to practice what ye hae learned, if you are learning in isolation is is very difficult - join a class, you won't regret it. | ||
| Morph |
Thanks very much and hope to keep you posted on my progress | ||
| Morph |
Ciamar a tha sibh?
Tha mi math. Learned this from a mate who speaks slight gaelic, still trying to get the rythym |
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| Abieuan |
Aye, that's where you could do with a fluent speaker, once you ken that you are speaking it properly, it gives you the confidence to keep doing it. It seems that on cencuses there are a lot of people who can read and write in Gàidhlig but claim not to be able to speak it! That sounds crazy to me, i am not an academic and most of the phrases i ken are easier remembered by speach than by the spelling. I suppose i've been at it for a while noo, mind. |
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