Five Years Learning
Five years ago I went to my first Irish language class. It was a secret at first. No one knew where I was that night. I was embarrassed of what people would think if they found out.
Me? Learning a language? I didn’t stand a chance.
But I was there.
I was in a classroom waiting for my first class to start.
Even though I doubted my ability, I was there.
I was there, listening to the low voice in the back of my head telling me that there was a chance I would be able to learn.
A lot of times, it’s difficult for us to accomplish things no matter how hard we work because somewhere deep inside we believe we inherently can not do it. Even though I didn’t have any confidence in my ability to succeed at the time, I made a decision.
I would ignore the doubt for the length of the course. I would attend every class. I would study every day.
After that, I would know if I could learn a language or not.
The course was eight weeks long, but after the seventh week, New York City went into lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was an uncertain time, but I was certain about one thing:
I would continue to learn Irish.
I was working in the theatre industry at the time. Broadway was shut down, and as a result, I didn’t have very much work. Of course, I didn’t have much of a social life either, so I spent every minute studying Irish.
At the time, a lot of people talked about how they were loosing a year of their lives. Trips had been canceled, plans had been changed, but I never felt like I was missing anything at all. I didn’t loose a year of my life, I gained a language.
By the time I was returning to the office, I spoke Irish relatively fluently. I had spent over three hours a day learning while at home.
I’m thankful that I had Irish in my life during that time. It gave me hope during a time when everything felt hopeless. Even though I did enjoy learning it, Irish caused me a lot of stress as well. I spent the entire first year I was learning worried that I would never be able to reach my goal of fluency. I was learning, but I couldn’t understand how some day I would go from struggling to find the right words to speaking effortlessly.
I probably spent more time worrying about how to learn a language than the amount of time I spent actually learning one. Slowly, I found my confidence and I started to believe that I would reach fluency someday.
Irish was something I learned for the first two years. I attended conversation groups online and a ton of classes on Zoom, but it was still just a hobby for me.
That changed in 2022. I attended events and my first few Pop-Up Gaeltachts (Irish language meet-ups.) I had the opportunity to speak Irish in person for the first time. I started to make friends because of the language. On top of that, I spent my thirtieth birthday in Ireland attending an immersion course with Oideas Gael.
After that year, Irish wasn’t a language I studied. It wasn’t a hobby.
It was a big part of my life.
Much of my social life happens through the Irish language. I’ve traveled around Ireland and my own country because of the language. I work in Irish. I write in Irish. I feel in Irish. I gained confidence through the language. I gained friends through the language. I gained hope through the language. Many of my fondest memories have happened in the Irish language.
I made one decision and it changed my life. My Irish isn’t perfect but I no longer feel pressure to chase perfection. I learned Irish. Moreover, I learned that life isn’t about perfection. It’s about happiness. The Irish language and the ways it has changed my life make me happy.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh - thank you all very much for giving me a space to reflect on and share my journey thus far. Looking forward to seeing what the next five years have in store. ✨
More from Foghlaimeoir:
Irish translation of this article
Mistakes
tá sé faoin áthas :)
Wela l’in mlgignewinu Nitap. Thank you for this, you are very strong, my friend, in Mi’kmaq.