Child wants to learn Irish

[Wristfolds]

My DD is 8 and has Irish grandparents (resident in England) on her dad’s side (no one in the family speaks any Irish, though her older cousins have some basic Irish from school)

We live in the midlands and don’t encounter much Irish day to day.

For brownies she did Irish as her language badge and was v proud of herself. She’s since done a Duolingo style app to learn more. Quite impressed how far she’s got very much solo with tricky to find resources.

She has a maths tutor, I was wondering about getting her an Irish one over the summer. I think learning a language would be a huge confidence boost. My only reservation is I guess I’d have preferred French/Spanish/German (ie one she’ll encounter in secondary school)

In your opinion, should I be led by her and go with Irish or try to encourage her to learn a more mainstream language?

Totally aware Irish is an important facet of a rich culture, that is not my point here: if I’m spending money on a tutor is any language a good language or should I be thinking ahead to more practical applications in your bog standard English secondary school (though aware Irish speakers can make good careers in translation)

I’d just let her enjoy Duolingo at 8. It’s a great way to learn.

I think if she's very keen on Irish in particular then support it and see it as a hobby like art for example that is enriching without necessarily being useful? But if she is in any way interested in languages more generally definitely encourage one that she might get some use from in the future. And I say that as an Irish person - it doesn't have a lot of wider use, particularly if she doesn't even have any remaining Irish family links in the country that would allow her to get some practice in.

I think learning any additional language at her age would introduce skills that will be really useful in learning other languages in the future. Right now, I'd choose whatever she has a passion for and it sounds as though that is Irish so yes, I'd go for it. I wouldn't be worrying about future applications yet.

Is the TG4 app available in the U.K.? They’ve recently launched a children’s channel so all programming will be as Gaeilge.

Definitely go with the language she wants! It doesn't sound as if she wants to learn "a language" as such, but Irish specifically. Personally I'd support her, and be pleased she'd developed such an interesting and constructive hobby. There are loads of resources out there. BBC Northern Ireland have free resources for basic Irish, and an Irish cultural centre or similar (googling brought up this Birmingham charity for e.g. would be well placed to point you towards language courses, cultural days etc. I'd treat it like any other constructive hobby (which for me means I'd be willing to pay for it if DC was fully engaged and working away at it, but wouldn't pay any more if they lost interest). It sounds as if your DD has proved her interest for now.

Ah this is so helpful Thankyou! I was worried I was being grossly insensitive to that side of her heritage by even questioning this but I suppose I’d feel the same if it was Icelandic (at least she is half Irish!)

will defo be pointing her at the tv things :)

I think learning any language helps you to learn others and learn about grammar. Also just following a child's interests is good in itself I think.

I'd let her do what she likes. If she can master Irish she can probably master anything!! I am Irish and lived here all my life and while lots of kids go to gaelscoil (Irish speaking school, pronounced gwale skull) it's never used unless you live in a handful if tiny communities. It is however a requirement for entering any sort of 3rd level education and also for some jobs particularly teaching so for most people it's just an academic thing forgotten once you begin adulthood.

If she keeps it up when she is a teenager you should consider sending her to Irish college, it's a rite of passage for Irish teenagers. It's a summer camp where everything is done through Irish but great fun!

Yes, as others have said, learning any language is v beneficial for language learning in general. I'm Irish and speak it every day (primary teacher). I have two other languages, one to degree level and I've never used them apart from holidays.

Irish is a beautiful language & not necessarily one that’s easy to learn. I’d encourage her to follow her passions. If she masters Irish she’ll find other languages easier.

Have a search and see if there is a branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann located near you. They promote learning of Irish music, dance, language in Ireland and abroad. Link below. Even if your local branch doesn't offer Irish language classes there may be something else to interest her in the line of an instrument or dance class. Learning Irish will help to learn other foreign languages.https://comhaltas.ie/locations/

It’s a funny thing about languages but every one you learn makes the next one a bit easier.youd think you’d get more muddled but it doesn’t work like that.

Irish is indo european and has a lot of words that are cognate with other European languages, genitive cases and a noun-adjective structure. All of which will help when she’s learning other European languages.

And if she wants to, in the future, there are opportunities for Irish speakers both in Irelandcand the EU.

I should say, I speak Spanish and DP speaks German (including professionally) which I suppose is partly why I was hoping she’d pick one we could help with- obviously Irish is a completely different root!

im v much on board with the value of languages- I suppose I just think where we are it’s so tricky for her to practice compared to our ones.

I’ll have a hunt for Irish primary school worksheets too, and see if I can find a primary tutor for the school hols.

That college camp sounds great! I did a week in Malaga when I was 17 and had an absolute ball (although perhaps dissuading myself now I remember what we got up to!)

I think there is some sort of compulsion for a child NOT to learn a language that their parents speak. My DC have/had to learn Irish but also had to do another modern language and both of them picked Spanish which I have no clue about despite me encouraging them to go for German or French which I could at least have given basic help for.

Futurelearn has some Irish courses, but they are aimed at adults, so not sure how suitable they will be for a primary school child. Worth a look though.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/irish-language

PS the courses are free, you just pay for the certificate

I would say give her an enrolement on duolingo and show her the Irish course and that there are many other courses there as well, She might well dabble a bit in some of the other too while she is there

I would definitely get her an Irish tutor if she’s keen to learn that beautiful language.
I am learning an East Asian language at the moment and I’ve really needed a person as opposed to a computer to explain things. Sometimes I’ve puzzled for ages over something and trying unsuccessfully to understand from reading an online textbook only for it to all become clear when my teacher explains it.

Dia duit!

There are lots of books you can get aimed at children, although she'd need baby books to start with. I have a bunch for my kids as my Irish side are from the gaeltacht and that used to actually mean something, I learned Irish on my grandmother's knee. The Baba Béag range are all baby-level books that a beginner could work on.

I found Duolingo to no substitute for a structured course/book, because it's just loads of words with no structured course or learning outcomes really. It's great for practice but not as the sole way to learn Irish.

The complicated thing with Irish is there are 3 dialects (Ulster, Connaught and Munster) and then there's "standard" Irish which is closest to Connaught. So in addition to learning all the grammar for a language you have to learn to "listen with three ears".

Queen's University Belfast had an exceptionally good online (free) Lockdown Languages 6 week course in Irish (Ulster Irish of course) which was really well structured, I'd keep an eye on their website for any others that pop up.

Most Irish courses in Ireland that I have attended (a few) are very dated and old-fashioned and focus on hours and hours of rote-learning long lists of verbs in various tenses which isn't really the way to enthrall people with a language.

The best-recommended course is Gaelige lá go lá which is a course with a disc. You will almost certainly need to import it from Ireland but the Culturlann in Belfast used to sell it as well. https://www.culturlann.ie/en

Aside from that I recommend the Youtube channel Gaelige i mo Chroí which is a young woman who is passionate about Irish and your DD might find it more interesting than a textbook:

https://cnag.ie/en/
worth checking out Conradh na Gaeilge for online courses too

For kids, if you go to TG4's website you can watch Irish-language children's shows. We managed to get it to load in Belfast so I think you'll be grand with it in England. https://www.tg4.ie/en/player/categories/childrens-tv-shows/

Twinkl.ie have Irish language resources for all primary classes.

Thanks! Importing resources from Ireland is certainly not impossible via a network of aunties :)

She might enjoy this YouTube Channel. I wouldn't be getting her a tutor. The summer school that made this video looks like great fun, but I would only have sent my dd with a cousin. Keep it fun!

The language gym ( conti ) have an Irish language book . “ Conti “ sentence builder books is the method of language learning used in a lot of uk schools now. It’s a good starting point for a workbook . There’s a website . Conti books