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. :)
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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?
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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.
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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!
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AuthorsCaroline has been involved with Gaelic for more than 18 years. She has degrees in Celtic Studies and Gaelic Medium Teaching. Archives
March 2021
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