Category: Language learning

Back in Bangor

By Simon

I’m now back in Bangor after a very enjoyable and interesting week at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. We learnt 15 songs during the week, so the course wasn’t as intensive as the one I did last year when we learnt twice as many songs, and we learnt about the background of the songs, and even saw some of the places about which they were written, or which are mentioned in them.

There wasn’t much Gaelic spoken in the class, which was mainly in English, but I spoke Gaelic with various other people and feel more confident about speaking it now. As well as Gaelic, I also got to speak some Japanese, French, German, Irish and Manx, which was fun. When I’m speaking Scottish Gaelic and I can’t think of words I often use Irish ones, which are usually very similar as the two languages are very close. I even had one conversation in a mixture of Irish and Scottish Gaelic with an Irish man who speaks both, which was a little confusing.

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

By Simon

This week I am doing a course in Scottish Gaelic songs with Mary Ann Kennedy at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye. This is my third visit to the college and each time my Gaelic gets a bit better. Even though I’m not doing a course in Gaelic language, I have opportunities to speak Gaelic with other students and with members of staff, and occasionally even with local people, and this really helps me to improve my speaking and listening abilities.

There are fourteen of us in the class from various countries, including Scotland, Ireland, Austria, the USA, Canada and Japan, so I have some opportunities to use my other languages. There’s one lad who’s fluent in Gaelic, and quite a few of the others have studied it at least a little, though I think I’m the only other who’s conversational in the language. The teaching is in English with only odd bits here and there in Gaelic. There are no other courses in the main college this week but there is a Gaelic language course running at Flodigarry (Flòdaigearraidh) in the north end of the island – we are in the south, and we will meet those students at a cèilidh on Thursday night.

Russian

By Simon

I spoke a bit of Russian with the couch surfers yesterday and today, but we spoke mostly in English. They said that my Russian pronunciation is good and they could understand what I was saying, which is encouraging. I can talk about myself and my family in Russian now – those were the things I was focusing on yesterday morning, but can’t say much in Russian about other things. I also learned some Russian words and phrases from them, and quite a lot about Russia and Russian culture, which was very interesting.

I think that focusing on learning language for specific situations is a useful thing to do, and if you write down and/or record the things you learn, you’re more likely to remember them. However I like to talk about a wide range of subjects, so it would take quite a while to learn the relevant language. One subject/topic at a time might be the way to go.

Русский язык

By Simon

I have a couple of Russian couchsurfers coming to stay with me today, so this morning I am focusing on Russian. They both speak English, but I’d like to speak at least some Russian with them. I’m trying to think of things I might say – particularly about myself, my family and my work, and asking them about those kinds of things – and working out how to say them in Russian. I’m also listening to Голос России (The Voice of Russia) to get tuned in to the language.

Do you use this technique of focusing on learning the words and phrases you might need for particular situations? Does it work for you?

I haven’t studied much Russian recently as I’ve been focusing on other languages, and when I got to the test section at the end of lesson eight in my Russian textbook I realised that though I can understand most of the language used, I’m not so good at producing it as my grammatical knowledge is somewhat shaky. I need to go back and learn the noun declensions and verb conjugations.

Gàidhlig

By Simon

This month I am focusing mainly on improving my Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig). I’ve been listening to Gaelic radio, reading various things in Gaelic, writing and recording things every day in Gaelic on my other blog, and speaking and singing to myself in the language. I plan to make another animation in Gaelic sometime this month (you can see the first one I made on YouTube), and will make one in Irish soon as well. I might even try to write a song in Gaelic. I have yet to meet with any other Gaelic speakers or learners round here, but hope to find some who are willing to chat with me.

I’m really enjoying it and I think that Gaelic is one of my favourite languages at the moment – I particularly like the sounds of the language, and the more I learn it, the more I like it. I have no practical reasons for learning it, and this doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I would like to become as fluent in Scottish Gaelic as I am with Irish and Welsh, and if this takes longer than a month, I will continue with it and not switch my focus to another language at the end of this month.

Are you learning, or have you learned, any languages just because you like the sound of them, or because you find them interesting?

Learning by doing

By Simon

Today is the last day I focus on Irish after doing so for a whole month. That may not sound like much, but for me it is – I tend to flit from language to language and rarely spend very long on any one of them. Every day, with only a few exceptions, I’ve written something in Irish on my other blog and recorded it. There were a few days last week when I didn’t find time to write something, but I caught up later. I’ve also been listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta (Irish language radio) every day, and spent last week in Ireland speaking a lot of Irish. My ability to speak and write Irish has improved, and I think that the practice of writing in it every day made a big contribution to that. My listening has also improved. From tomorrow I will be focusing on Scottish Gaelic, and might continue writing in Irish, as well as Scottish Gaelic and English, on my blog, so that I keep it ticking over.

I know other people have probably had these thoughts, but I have come to the conclusion that regular use of a language you’re learning in writing and speech is possibly the best way to improve. When learning languages I tend to spend a lot of time listening to and reading, so I am usually a lot better at those skills than at speaking and writing. The way I’ve done it also gives me chances to practise speaking, or at least reading aloud.

Do you try to actively use languages you’re learning as you learn them? Does this help?

Summer schools

By Simon

I had a wonderful time in Ireland last week, which is why I keep going back every summer. This year was my ninth visit to Oideas Gael and my seventh time at the summer school. Gleann Cholm Cille is beautiful, the people are great, and there’s a lovely, friendly, helpful, supportive atmosphere there. Everyone is happy to help one another with the Irish language, with music and with whatever else is needed. People from many different countries go there, so I have opportunities to use a variety of languages – this year I got to speak not just Irish and English, but also French, German and Japanese, and a bit of Czech and Portuguese.

With many local and visiting musicians, singers and dancers musical mayhem can break out anywhere at any time – in pubs, in restaurants and cafés, in car parks, and on the beach – I even played a few tunes on my low whistle at the bus stop while waiting for the bus on Saturday morning. I’ll certainly go back next year, and maybe will spend two weeks there, as there’s a harp week before the summer school, and I’ve wanted to learn the harp for a long time.

There are a few similar summer schools in Ireland and Scotland, and I’ve been looking for others in other countries. I know that some language schools offer combinations of language courses and cultural activities, like dancing, cooking, etc., but I haven’t found any like Oideas Gael. Do you know of, or have you been on, any similar ones? Are there any other places where spontaneous musical mayhem is likely?

Focus

By Simon

This month I’ll mainly be focusing on improving my Irish (Gaelic). This is mainly because I’m going to a summer school in Irish language and culture at Oideas Gael in Donegal at the end of this month, as I’ve done every year for the past six years, plus two years going there in June. I plan to write something in Irish every day on my other blog, Multilingual Musings, which I set up as a place to practise using my languages, and will make recordings of the posts. I will also listen to Raidió na Gaeltachta (Irish language radio) every day and maybe find things in Irish to read as well.

I think the writing practice will be most useful – I’ve been doing the listening and reading fairly regularly anyway, but rarely write in Irish and often have to check my spelling and grammar. Doing the recordings will be a good exercise as well.

At the end of August I’ll be going to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on Skye, to do a course in Skye Gaelic Songs and Traditions with Mary Ann Kennedy, so will be focusing on improving my Scottish Gaelic in August.

I will also be keeping my other languages ticking over and learning a bit more Breton and Russian every day.

Do you have any particular language projects or goals for this summer?

Are you a hare or a tortoise?

By Simon

Hare and tortoise

When learning a language do you try to learn it as quickly as possible? Like a hare you hurry through the language ignoring anything that might slow you down, like good grammar and pronunciation, perhaps thinking that you can go back later and tidy them up.

Or maybe you take your time like a tortoise, trying to learn every aspect of the language thoroughly.

There are parallels with learning music – the other day a friend who is learning the violin said that she tends to focus on getting the notes of new tunes right at first, then goes back and pays attention dynamics, bowing and so on. She realised that maybe it would be better to learn those things from the beginning. I certainly try to do this when learning tunes on my various instruments.

With languages I like to take things easy and try to learn things quite thoroughly, though might ignore seems aspects of language that don’t seem relevant.