The Best Way to Learn Irish – Our Top 5 Tips!
What’s the best way to learn Irish? Perhaps you want to take up the language, but you’re unsure of where to get started. Maybe learning Irish is a long-term ambition, or a fun challenge before your vacation to Ireland. Whatever your reasons, it’s natural you’ll want to learn Irish as efficiently, as effectively and as easily as possible.
The prospect of learning a new language can be overwhelming without some good advice and careful planning. It can be particularly difficult when focusing on an endangered or minority language such as Irish, where resources can be hard to find. What follows is a list of tips to guide you along on your Irish journey. We’ve considered the relevant research, as well as our teaching experience and student feedback since our first classes in 2009, to give you The Best Way to Learn Irish – Our Top 5 Tips!
1. Identify Your Goals
Do you want to be able to have a basic conversation, prepare for a trip to Ireland or simply connect with your heritage? Perhaps you want to read more Irish literature or gain a qualification? Acquiring a language is not necessarily easy, so having clarity in this respect means your course of action will be more focused, and you’re better prepared for the road ahead, be that weeks, months or years.
When identifying your goals for learning Irish, we recommend setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Choosing objectives within these parameters will ensure that your time is used efficiently and effectively, and that you’ll be more likely to stay motivated in learning Irish.
Check out this article for details on how to learn Irish the S.M.A.R.T. way.
2. Join A Community
Once you know what you want, the next step is to join a language community! In a supportive community, you’re not alone on your language journey; for example, you’ll find likeminded learners to converse and learn from, teachers who’ll clarify grammar or correct your speech, and you’ll access additional resources you won’t find on your own. From fellow learners and mentors you can learn new words and phrases, find interesting books, explore engaging podcasts and discover exciting new language opportunities. Learning Irish can be an adventure, and once you find your tribe, you can learn both on your own and by connecting with others.
The 3C’s Model for Online Language Communities, a model developed at the School of Education at the University of Galway, suggests that online Irish learners can be supported by structuring learning through ‘Connection, Communication & Collaboration’. This is what’s known as a sociolinguistic perspective, and it posits that Irish language development can be facilitated and enhanced within an interactive, social community of learners, practitioners and experts. In short, being a part of group will enhance your ability to learn the language, as well as make it more fun!
3. Attend A Course
One of the best ways to make tangible progress in language learning is to consistently attend a structured course. With a teacher, you can learn in real time and receive immediate feedback. You will practise your oral skills, as structured by the teacher, and also through communication with other students. Finding a range of differentiated courses means you can build on what you already know by joining at an appropriate language level. Mobile apps, videos and books can be very beneficial, especially for vocabulary-building, but there are few substitutes to spending time with a knowledgeable teacher.
An expert language teacher will employ a range of interesting and authentic learning materials, while also combining the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Teachers can explain how the language works and answer long-standing questions that learners may have. In a good class, your Irish teacher will select and sequence meaningful vocabulary and grammar depending on the needs of the class group, so that you are not overloaded with too much language at once. In professional classes, students are likely to learn dialectal variations, grammar points, regional phrases and cultural awareness from a teacher, which in turn increases learner motivation and broadens their outlook. A supportive teacher also helps us to develop our self-efficacy in Irish, giving us the confidence in our ability to stay motivated and believe that we can be successful at learning the language.
4. Complement Your Learning
This part is about taking responsibility for your learning outside of class time – it means reading over your class notes, watching class videos, reading Irish books and finding additional ways to implement and reinforce your learning.
All teachers will promote independent learning outside of classes. Self-learning through articles, books, videos, radio, podcasts and TV streaming all complement our learning and make our future interactions with teachers and fellow learners more substantive and beneficial. Rote learning on our own, from singing songs and reading stories to quoting proverbs and repeating prayers, can play an invaluable part in our language progress too. Study in short, frequent sessions. Test yourself regularly to find out what you’ve learned and what areas still need development. Perhaps change your device settings or label items in your home ‘trí Ghaeilge’? Display useful phrases and words in your study or workplace. Explore new sources of information that you can then share with your classmates and teacher. Revise, repeat and recycle the language that you read and hear as much as possible. Taking this time beyond your weekly class or study session will further complement your Irish learning!
You’ve identified your goals, you’ve joined a community, you’re attending a course and you’re practising your skills on your own. The final recommendation in our ‘Top 5 Tips for Learning Irish’ is to find opportunities to engage with others through the language, and put your learning into practise! This means getting out of your comfort zone and speaking with those who are better than you. It may also mean speaking Irish to those less advanced than you. Be consistent – keep turning up, engaging, interacting.
As is often said of language learning, “use it or lose it”. Enhancing your own communicative proficiency – the ability to independently use the language prompts in real situations – will emerge from input, interaction and enjoyment. Consider attending a weekly comhrá session to chat with others, participating in daily tasks on Instagram, or finding other Irish learners online to have a conversation with. The key here is to make language usage a part of your routine. As you challenge yourself to engage with other learners and with mentors, gather feedback for yourself. Indeed, engaging with others through Irish may also mean visiting the Gaeltacht in Ireland one day, which may in fact be your original goal for learning Irish!
And there you have it, the best way to learn Irish:
1. Identify your goals,
2. Join a community,
3. Attend a class,
4. Complement your learning, and
5. Engage with others!
There are so many interesting aspects to Irish, so many wonderful people to meet, and so many fascinating stories to discover. Learning Irish is an enjoyable adventure, and we wish you every success on your language journey – ádh mór (good luck), a chara!
Join the online Irish community for Cúrsaí, Comhrá & Ceardlanna,
and follow along on social media @LetsLearnIrish – beidh fáilte romhat!
