How to learn Irish when you’re not living in Ireland?
Irish Learner Support Group 1
Fáilte - Welcome to the Irish Learner Support Group!
On the first Wednesday of every month, I will be diving into topics to help Irish learners on their journey! The rest of the month will continue to be my usual content.
This series is not intended to teach the language, but rather give you tools to help you learn the language.
I would love to hear from you and what topics you would like to see covered in the future!
To start us off…
How to learn Irish when you’re not living in Ireland?
I often hear people say, “I would love to learn Irish, but I live abroad,” or even see people assuming that I learned my Irish in Ireland. While I have had opportunities to use my Irish in Ireland, I only spent a week actually attending an Irish course in Ireland, and by that point, I was already quite conversational.
So how did I do it, and how can you?
There are so many tools and resources available online for learners all over the world to use. I go into more detail about the specific things I used to reach a high level of Irish in my Irish Learner’s Guide.
However, even more important than the tools we use is the mindset we adopt in our Irish language journey.
If we want to learn Irish abroad, we have to create our own Gaeltacht.
How do we do this?
The specifics will look different for different learners and at different points in our journey, but I recommend living your life through Irish as much as possible.
Education:
While some people love using self-guided online courses and textbooks, I personally prefer attending classes, online both individual and group. The obvious benefit is that you have a structure to your learning and a set time to be held accountable to use Irish each week. You can check out my masterlist of Irish resources to find classes that may be a good fit for you!
We all know from our days in school that studying can be an essential part of retaining what we learn in class. That said, it doesn’t need to be a tedious or boring part of our day. Find a habit you already have, like drinking your morning coffee, and spend five to ten minutes of that time reviewing what you learned in your last lesson. Not only does this help us retain what we’ve already learned, it can also help us feel more confident and prepared to attend class each week.
Though some form of formal education in Irish is essential to develop language skills abroad, especially as a beginner, it is only a small part of how we can live a life that allows us to effectively learn Irish.
Immersion:
The expectation is often that we can’t learn Irish abroad because we can not have adequate exposure to the language. The opposite couldn’t be further from the truth!
Thanks to the internet, we can spend our days listening to the radio and podcasts in Irish. We can watch TV and movies in Irish.
And of course, we can read in Irish!
Sometimes it can feel overwhelming to dive into doing these things in Irish, especially when we feel we hardly understand anything at all. However, as the seanfhocal says, is tús maith leath na hoibre - a good start is half the work.
When we feel overwhelmed or doubtful, it’s important to remember what immersion means. It means immersing ourselves in the language. Surrounding ourselves with it. It doesn’t mean understanding every word.
And the benefit to facilitating this immersion abroad is that we have complete control over it! We’re not suddenly relying on our skills to get by in daily life, we don’t have to keep using the language past the point of exhaustion. We can choose content that interests us, we can choose, what, where and when we immerse in it.
It will feel difficult at first. It will feel overwhelming. We will spend more time feeling like we’re being confronted by what we don’t know rather than by what we do know, but remember - if we were to spent months or years living in the Gaeltacht in the hopes of learning, we would face the same challenges. The challenge doesn’t mean it’s not possible, it just means we’re on the right path.
Community:
Another key part of creating our own Gaeltacht as well as creating a natural accountability and motivation to improve and use our skills in the language is forming connections with others in the language.
It can feel daunting to meet new people in general, especially when we’re not sure how to find them and we’re trying to connect with them in a new language, but in my experience, your language learning and life itself will be so much richer for having tried.
Where to meet new people?
If you take a group lesson, even if it’s online, send a message asking if anyone wants to practice outside of class or even create a group chat for the class between lessons. It can feel intimidating to ask people if they’d like to talk outside of class, but it’s important to remember that everyone attending a class online is their because they want to learn. It’s more than likely that they’ll be thrilled to have new Irish language friends to practice with!
Another great way to form connection is through conversation groups. There are many groups offered online, and even some offered in person all over the world! For example, I have attended weekly conversation groups in New York city!
On that note, Pop Up Gaeltachts take place all over the world, even in places you wouldn’t expect! A pop up Gaeltacht is typically a very laid back, informal night in a pub where Irish language speakers and learners from all levels are able to come together and talk!
In addition to these things, you can also join online groups and forums, connect with others on social media or attend Irish cultural events in your area.
It can be hard to get out of our comfort zone and try to meet new people, but the more we grow our community, the easier it becomes.
Through all of these things, I as able to learn Irish relatively quickly while living in America. I made Irish a part of my life that I used every single day, even when I was a complete beginner. A lot of these things get easier with time and now I couldn’t remove Irish from my life if I wanted to because there are so many situations where I naturally use and and encounter it.
Spending time in Ireland and in the Gaeltacht learning and using Irish is an invaluable experience where we can experience the language in a whole new way. However, for many of us, it’s simply not possible to spend our entire language learning journey’s there. But that doesn’t mean we are any less capable of reaching our goals in the language.
Still feel stuck?
I offer language coaching services where I will help you find the right resources, stay accountable, offer advice, and even create a custom study plan for you!
I hope you all enjoy this new series! Let me know what other topics you’d like to see covered in future months and be sure to subscribe to receive every article straight to your inbox!