I mostly write about classical languages here, Greek and Latin, but long time readers will know that I have been a long-time learner of Scottish Gaelic [1]

. I thought it might be informative if I wrote a little bit about what I’m currently doing for my Gaelic studies, as a window into thinking about breaking through from intermediate to ‘fluent’, and then making some connections to Latin and Greek studies.

The story so far

I began learning Gaelic many moons ago, with the venerable Teach Yourself Gaelic textbook by Boyd Robertson and Iain Taylor, with accompanying cassette tape. I stalled about chapter 6 or 7, as many did. Then followed short-courses in Sydney, other textbooks, online tutoring, courses with the Atlantic Gaelic Academy, an eventually Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. When I started at SMO, it was phone tutorials, which meant calling in via skype to a phone-chat! The pandemic forced them to move genuinely online, for which I was truly thankful, and their Cursa Inntrigidh seamlessly rolled into their degree program, and so here I am several years later putting the finish touches on a BA in Gaelic.

For all that, I have been ‘at’ my Gaelic for a long time. And I have reached a pretty decent ability for that – I have read a few books in Gaelic, can understand a lot of content, write and translate into Gaelic, but I also have some limitations. I don’t have the ‘bank’ of conversational experience that I really want or need, I struggle to understand some spoken Gaelic (either due to vocabulary, dialect, or just some people are hard to understand), can’t always express myself fluently on topics, and just haven’t ‘arrived’ at what most people think of as fluency.

Fluency and imposter syndrome

But this year might be crunch-time. My final subject is ‘Gaelic 3’, the core language subject in the third year of the degree, and whereas I can often hide behind strong written work, this feels like the class that could finally expose that I’m nowhere near as fluent as I appear to be. Or that could be imposter syndrome at work. Who knows! I do feel, though, that this is the year to make a final push and really break through in terms of all areas of my language learning. So, I’m putting in the hard yards to make this year count. What does that look like?

A strategy for increasing comprehensible input day by day

The amount of material for Gaelic has grown year on year, and so learners today are better served than in years gone by. That’s a real blessing for me over here in Australia! I’ve put together a plan to tackle all elements of the language and get myself up to speed. Here’s what it looks like:

Apps!

Anki: the classic Spaced Repetition flashcard system. I set up a new deck, and I add every unknown or not-well-known word, idiom, phrase, or sentence. I then make sure to do my daily review of everything due. The deck is growing.

Duolingo: I’m on record as not a big fan of duolingo, but I also think the Gaelic course there is the best version of a community-constructed course, and a high quality one. I finished the Gaelic tree a long time back, so I mostly just do revision. It’s great for reminding me of vocab, spelling, and a few odd things here and there.

Glossika: Is another spaced repetition learning system, with sentences and audio. The Gaelic course is (a) free due to being a minority language, (b) done by Moray Watson, an academic and author (and language course writer). It has a lot of idiomatic phrases, and things I wouldn’t guess at, say, or come across otherwise. I use this for mass listening practice.

Speed-running learning materials

I have more than a few Gaelic learning books and materials that I’ve accumulated. So one of my tricks is to ‘speed-run’ my way through things. That includes Progressive Gaelic (the textbook series by Moray Watson mentioned above), as well as working with other resources I have. Perhaps one of the best things that I’m using is the Speak Gaelic materials launched in 2021. Also probably one of  the best actual initiatives the government has thrown money at. It encompasses television episodes (available on YouTube), Podcasts, course notes, and a web interface with learning activities, and it attempts to align with the CEFR and covers A1 through to B2.

So, each day I keep a learning journal, and mark down what I’ve done, which is at least 1hr of listening and often 1hr of other work as well. I also supplement the specific learning materials with reading, listening, and watching Gaelic content, learner-directed or not. And then I’m also working on my writing skills as well.

For the classically minded

What lessons might we learn for Latin and Greek from this approach? It’s much harder to attempt to go ‘all-in’ like this for Latin or Greek, if only because you have far fewer resources to turn to, especially geared towards learners, and far less in the audio and visual realm. On the plus side, because there is less, you can “do it all” if you’re prepare to dedicate your time to it. Though I have my doubts about the so-called Roberts-Ranieri approach, if you want to buy every beginner textbook and use them all simultaneously, and then listen to all the ancient Greek audio you can get your hands on, this will be some kind of effective self-immersion. I can’t tell you how far this will get you, but it will get you somewhere. And I do keep encountering people, students who turn up to my classes, who have a wealth of Greek and a decent spoken ability. For Latin, I dare say, it’s easier – there’s more to read, far more to listen to, and some quality youtube content.

One thing that I would note is this – often when I hear spoken Gaelic I have trouble processing it because, as I said above, variations in dialect, speed of speech, accent, etc. I don’t find the same with Ancient Greek and Latin speakers. I think because (i) most of us aren’t that fluent, (ii) so we don’t speak very fast, elide everything, and roll thoughts of our tongues the way native speakers might, (iii) the content-creators of classical languages tend to be consciously making their speech understandable (thanks!), articulating words clearly, recording with good quality sound, and helping you as a listener. That makes a big difference.

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little reflection. Check back in with me around May to see if I’ve been discovered as an imposter, how my Gaelic has grown, and what I’ve learnt to apply to Greek, Latin, and beyond.

 

 

 

[1] So, people get very worked up about what you call these two languages, Gaelic and Irish. Americans, generally, seem to call Irish Gaelic ‘Gaelic’, and Scottish Gaelic ‘Scots Gaelic’ or similar. People in other places speaking English tend to call Scottish Gaelic ‘Gaelic’, and Irish Gaelic ‘Irish’. In Gaelic, we call the one Gàidhlig na h-Alba, and the other Gàidhlig na h-Èireann. Honestly, there are more important things to fight over.