Anyone else learning ghaidlig/gaelic?

[Firefightress1]

I live on a scottish island where there is still amazingly a gaelic community so I've decided out of respect that I'm going to learn.
The local college does courses but my shifts at work make it difficult so I've started online and with duolingo. If I get up to a level 2 standard I can take the zoom college classes so that's my goal.
There are loads of wee local lunch and coffee groups that meet and do conversational gaelic which I'm hoping to attend to.
My writing and listening are really good but my pronunciation is a work in progress.
I was just wondering if anyone else is learning and we can procrastinate together 😂

Did Duolingo for a couple of months and didn't get very far...

I am! Started learning Gaelic since September? I started from scratch. I’m on a 225 day streak now: section 2, unit 3.

Those zoom college lessons sound great, hope you can joint those soon. How far are you into the first section?

Me, but only on Duolingo. It's fascinating working it all out. Just doing it out of curiosity but am enjoying it. See also: Icelandic and Greek.

Have you tried watching TV to help with pronunciation ? Though similar to English different areas have different pronunciations. Well done for learning it though.

Fantastic! I'm at 18 days now. I'm so surprised that I'm able to pick it up, my pronunciation is definitely improving with all the listening exercises.
I bet you must be way up the leader board 😊 I'm in the gold level just now. I'm nit fussed about grading it's just good to see je improving. Its good to see so many people on there are learning too.

I started Duolingo a while ago so I could speak to my gran and mum in gaelic (both of their first languages) - but I stopped for some reason and forgot about it. So thanks for the reminder!

I am on section 2 unit 9 and finding it a lot more difficult now. My partner speaks garlic and I'd love to be able to have a conversation with him. Unfortunately, "they play shinty sometimes" doesn't come up much!

🤣 only reason I did gealic was so I could understand what my mam and Nanny where gossiping about.

I know exactly what you mean!
I had "father, who are you?" 😂
Bit of a random one and salted gannet is a delicacy I've not come across up here yet.

@Weedoormatnomore so many childhood car journeys spent sat in the back trying to figure out who/what they were talking about 😂 my granny has dementia now and reverts back to Gaelic a lot of the time!

@Firefightress1 I’ve never had guga either but not sure if I want to! Have you tried carageen? It’s like a milky pudding made with seaweed.

You’ll be surprised how far Duolingo can take you! I started in about June 2021.

Also, there are loads of free resources out there. I did an A1 level SpeakGaelic class over Zoom with a brilliant teacher. And I’ve just done a Nat5 course through e-sgoil, again with a brilliant teacher :

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=oyzTzM4Wj0KVQTctawUZKYQiP6fOA6hHr-fa7DR0fwdUMVVBMVIzOVI3REdZRjRGSFJKNUtTQlVSTS4u&fbclid=IwAR2VWHs6zLZPQcHd3KcppL7oi-u6mLpeRBTNNUz8291QGEGmYo6EezItZq0

It was very intense but started at the very beginning (though not everyone was a complete beginner). I’ve found learning Gaelic surprisingly enriching, and I started off a sceptic!

Thats great, thank you!

I'm up to 40 days now and still enjoying it! I live on Skye so it's great to understand the signs and posters that are up everywhere.

You've inspired me to pick my Duolingo Gaelic back up! I started in lockdown in an effort to chat with my native speaking MIL (from Skye) but found it hard going, as my brain struggled to match the groups of consonants to the pronunciation, especially when pronunciation on the app itself seemed to vary. MIL 'reassured' me that it varies widely across the islands but couldn't understand half of my brave attempts to ask for sugar in my tea/query the whereabouts of my shoes, etc. Which wasn't very motivating...

😂I know exactly what you mean!
I'm much better writing and reading it than speaking it.
I'm sick of bloody marsali feeling cold and so hot! And a funny goat.
I do like the wee bit of extra knowledge it's giving me, not sure if I'm brave enough to speak out loud to anyone yet.

Glé mhath! Rinn mi ghaidhlig anns an sgoil ach chan eil mi math a nis. Tha mi a’ deanamh Duolingo cuideachd. 🤗

*Gàidhlig 🤦🏽‍♀️

@Colinorpercy surprised I can still read and understand what you wrote. Going to have to try this duolingo.

Amazing!
I'll have a go!
Ciamar a tha thu? Tha mi mhath. Tha I gu math grianach an-duigh.

Should be Ciamar a tha sibh ? if to the group or if people are older than you !

I've been doing it on duolingo as well, 446 day streak. I dropped wordle etc so I could do something more worthwhile with my time each day. I'm better at reading/writing it, need to start concentrating on listening/speaking.

Tha mi ag ionnsachadh Gàidhlig le SMO air loidhne. Ach chan eil mi glè mhath.
'S e feasgar grianach a th' ann an seo cuideachd.

Feumaidh tu a dhol a Nis ann an Leòdhas airson guga - tha gaol aig m’ athair air!

Thanks , that the bit I struggle with!

As soon as I read it I heard my old teacher correcting me 🤣

Halo a huile duine. Tha beagan gaidhlig agam! Tha mo clann a dol ann an bun sgoil gaidhlig.

It's interesting how much I can understand as someone with reasonably good Irish.