What's this blog all about then?

In a word, procrastination. It's something else to distract me while I should be here studying Scottish Gaelic, or Gàidhlig to those of us in the know, and those of us who have the smug skill of knowing how to do accents on a UK keyboard.

But seriously folks...

If you are interested in Scottish Gaelic, your first port of call should be the fantastic online resource learngaelic.net.

On the 'beginners' page, the first question you click on might just be:

'How long will it take me to become fluent in Gaelic?' You'll get this answer:

"This depends on how much time you are able to spend learning the language; your level of immersion in Gaelic; and the learning style you have chosen."


Let me paraphrase this answer for you: 

"It'll take years and years and years of hard graft, sweat, tears, and frustration."


One question not on the 'Beginners' page at learngaelic.net, yet it's the most important one in my opinion, and the question that EVERYONE will want answered is: 

'Is learning Gaelic difficult?'

Now, I could be all PC and give an answer that politely skirts around the issue and cites learning style, location, hours spent, and so on. However, I will surmise the answer into just one word: 

'Yes.'


I've been on my Gaelic journey for two years now and can still barely string a sentence together. In contrast, I learnt Dutch (admittedly by immersion) in about 12 weeks. 

Yet I'm still here, and, maybe in a Masochistic way (or is it Sadistic? I can never remember which is which, which one day may prove problematic) I am still ASOLUTELY LOVING learning Gaelic. 

My love of Gaelic is not unconditional. I swear and curse at it, hate it sometimes, throw my hands up in despair, walk away from it, then like a sorrowful lover I return before you can say 'Genetive Case' and start soothing myself in the sheer poetry and deliciousness of it all. 

This blog is mainly aimed at being my sounding post during those many frustrating days. There are even good days I may share too. The last 'Good Day' was when I was up in Skye and bumped into the LOVELY Iain Urchardan. Everybody loves Iain. I had my first ever five minute conversation completely in Gaelic. It was probably very bad both in terms of grammar and vocabulary, and Iain is of course an expert in pitching his level of pronounciation and grammar to the student, but either way I came away from that walking on a cloud. 

That's enough procrastination for one day. Best I get on with a bit of course work. Tìoraidh an-dràsta, bye for now.