dìreach rud beag just a little thing

5/2/2014

A chionns gur e toiseach Mìos na Gàidhlig a th' ann tha mi airson bruidhinn air tòiseachaidhean. Dè an sgeulachd agaibhse? Seo an tè agamsa.
It seems to me that so many people I talk to have begun their interest in Gaelic with one small thing.
For me it was when I found a copy of "Teach Yourself Gaelic" in my local bookstore when I was in high school. There was only one copy and that was the only time they ever had it or any other book about Scottish Gaelic ( I was in there every week checking out their language section). There were a few other things that happened which helped me on my road to learning Gaelic but it was that one small thing that got me started.
Many people have similar stories, a throw away comment that caught their interest, a sound clip in a computer program, a few lines in a book. All these little things that in a moment sparked interest, brought Gaelic to the forefront of peoples minds and changed the course of their life.
What are the little things that brought you to Gaelic? Please share your stories in the comments. :)

3 Comments

Sìle link

5/2/2014 03:36:03 am

My story starts with my first visit to Scotland, and a place called Ullapool. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it, and my affections grew as I spent time there. I loved the people, the views, Loch Broom, and it had culture with several music venues, a book festival and so much more than what might be expected from a so-called "fishing village". I loved it. I resolved to move there one day, but what I would I do for work?

Then I realised I knew very little about Scotland, or its people and I know the easiest way to access a culture is through its language, which provides insight into how people think. So, I decided to learn Scottish Gaelic (even though the majority of my heritage is Irish). I started, stopped, and now I'm on a roll. I'm enjoying it, even though it's not easy, and I love that I can now understand bits and pieces of whole conversations. I've already learned from the language construction how the Gaels view certain aspects the world, and I look forward to learning more.

Aside from the beauty of the language itself, the best thing is the richness of the art it produces - music, song and poetry - unique, at times haunting, but absolutely gorgeous.

Gayle Weatherson

5/26/2014 03:46:49 am

Many things brought me to the study of Scottich Gaelic. When I was in my late twenties and inspired by my dad's interest (in the early 1980s...long ago now, as I'm less than a month from 60), I bought Roderick Mackinnon's Teach Yourself Gaelic. My kids were just little then, but I made an attempt to get through some lessons just the same, having never heard Gaelic spoken in my life.

Enter a divorce, going back to university, moving to where I could get a job after, and letting the Gaelic go for some 30 years. All I had was the old blue book (tattered beyond repair now but still much loved), Malcolm MacLennan's dictionary, and the cassette course Gaidhlig Bheo that I inherited upon my father's death (which ended up lost in storage for many, many years). I could say a few things from the book about Mary and Calum being busy in the field with a black dog and seeing an eagle at the window, but I was busy with life and kids and school, and the excuse was that I didn't have time to study Gaelic while developing curriculum and being an artist.

Fast forward many years. In 2009 I discovered a renewed interest in learning the language that went beyond my initial curiosity. I also discovered that Slighe nan Gaidheal in Seattle, some 354 miles distant, holds Gaelic Intensive Days about once a month 5 or 6 times a year. I decided to plunge in again since I have family in that area. For five years have been going up--weather permitting--to participate in these day-long Gaelic study sessions, and have attended the Feis Seattle twice.

That first year, while searching around the web for spoken Gaelic, I discovered Runrig (my favorite band of all time forever), and then Arthur Cormack, Julie Fowlis, James Graham, and later, Manran, and a host of other people making new Gaelic music and keeping up the tradition of the old. In 2010 I went to Scotland for the first time. It was amazing, although I still didn't know very much Gaelic.

In 2013, I went again, this time to see and hear Runrig play for their 40th Anniversary near Inbhir Nis.That was an amazing experience as well. Now, there's a bit more Gaelic rattling around in my head than there was five years ago. I still don't use it nearly enough (except to mutter to myself things like "Cait a'bheil mo spaid?" or "Chi mi thu a-maireach, mo charaid." I still have trouble with prepositional pronouns, irregular verbs, and a whole host of other issues, and have not really been able to stick with a single course of study despite the resources available now.

But I retired last year from teaching, and am ready again to learn and practice. It's not as easy as it used to be when my mind was young and I could remember things..."Na'm b'e an diugh an de".

Gwyn

6/5/2014 02:02:10 am

I also came to the language in large part through music. The peculiar part is that the band I discovered was Albannach, whose touring repertoire, unlike their first album, now includes exactly zero songs sung in Gàidhlig. However, it was the song "Kishmul's Galley" that got me searching. I felt a yearning, every time they played it, to return to a homeland I've never set foot on in this life. But for a while, I made the mistake of thinking that because that particular band plays it as an instrumental, that it didn't have lyrics. It does, of course, quite old ones, and comparing the Gàidhlig to the various English translations quickly showed me how different the sentence structure was. I've always loved languages, so I was hooked right then -- the song IS about homecoming, albeit laden with pirated treasure, but I wasn't wrong about the sense of returning to a beloved home!

Authors

Caroline has been involved with Gaelic for more than 18 years. She has degrees in Celtic Studies and Gaelic Medium Teaching.

Marine lives in the french-speaking part of Switzerland. She has been learning Gaelic with Caroline since 2013 and has just completed An Cùrsa Adhartais at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

dìreach rud beag just a little thing

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