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When I started this blog, I had secretly hoped that my learning would be filled with weekly or even daily discoveries of new and exciting vocabulary and grammatical epiphanies. I'd read blogs by other friends and acquaintances who tracked their progress in learning a new language and I'd hoped to do the same. BUT... there's one problem in my case - tha mi glè glè leisg. Seriously lazy. I spend the large majority of the twenty-four hours of the day in a horizontal position. Work does take up a lot of my time and so the last thing I feel like doing afterwards is stare at a screen* browsing Learngaelic.scot or struggling with the silly sound files on Taic.
When I first started learning German and French properly during high school, I really went at it. My zeal back then amazes me even now! I would memorise endless vocab lists and read aloud passage after passage just because I loved hearing the nasal sounds of French or the back-of-throat German sounds come out of my mouth. When I couldn't sleep, I would have conversations in my head between a French person and a German person (with the occasional Italian rudely interrupting) to pass the time and hopefully send me to sleep. Sometimes, though, I didn't know a word and just HAD to look it up. So three small dictionaries lay on the floor next to my bunk bed for about three years.
But I don't do any of this now. I don't need to for French or German. But maybe I should start up night-time Gaelic conversations to help me sleep. If I'm honest, though, despite all that effort, my French and German really progressed when I visited France and Germany. Speaking the language with speakers of that language really is the best way to learn it. By far. And I don't do that in Gaelic. So that's my #goal for the next few months. Speak more. Listen more too. Learn all these words ending in -adh. I'll need to start torturing Tormod with my super-slow mangled Gaelic more regularly. Friendships need testing every now and then anyway ;-)
And then maybe by the next Latha na Gàidhlig I'll feel sufficiently justified to add Scottish Gaelic to my list of languages on Facebook. Cuz that's what matters, right?
P.S. Really getting into Beag Air Bheag le Iain Urchardan. It's not super easy but they speak slowly enough that I can note down words I dinnae ken.
* yes, yes, I know a smartphone has a screen. Pipe down! No more questions or comments! (Jokes! Please comment if you take the notion)
A mistake we (adults) all do : trying to be focused.
ReplyDeleteWe forget that being inefficient is part of the learning process.
My suggestion : put Gaelic in the background all the time (as much as possible), even if you're not in the mood for learning - turn on the Gaelic radio or the gaelic TV, at home, in the car, on the smartphone, or even at work (if possible). It does not matter if you're not in the mood or if it feels like your brain is not switched on, it does not matter if you're not 'receptive'. Turn the volume down as low background noise if it’s getting annoying, but leave it on. It still counts as immersive time, just like when you were a baby and learned your 'mother' tongue - when people talked, you were not necessarily listening but your brain was.
I'm not saying this is the key, I'm just saying it maximizes your exposure and helps building up that immersive time you benefited from when you visited France and Germany.
Top tips, A Buidheag! You're absolutely right - part of the "immersion" process is that the language is always there in the background to some extent. I had plenty of English-speaking friends when in France and Germany but the constant exposure to French and German in the background still helped massively.
DeleteAs it happens, I spend most of yesterday with Radio nan Gàidheal on in the background. I enjoy it especially when cooking :D
PS - I'm learning Gaelic too and I'm a translator too, so I know how you feel ;)
ReplyDelete