You've started Irish before. Here's why it didn't stick.
You've started Irish before. Here's why it didn't stick.
Sick of apps, courses, and confidence that never comes? Here is the layer every one of them missed, and where to start (or restart) so this is the last time you start.
You've started Irish more than once. You did thirteen years of it at school, maybe even honours. Or you've had a go at Duolingo, maybe a long streak. Maybe you've even done a night class, or bought a book, or saved a load of Irish videos you were going to get back to.
But let me ask you this. This morning, could you have said "I'm wrecked," or "is there any milk?", or "I'd love a cup of tea" in Irish, out loud?
I can tell you that that's not a motivation problem. You've proven that. You keep coming back to it.
What you did actually worked, up to a point
I want to be clear about this, because I think a lot of people blame themselves, and school, here.
School Irish gave you something (albeit not fluency). You can read a bit. You recognise words. You know tá and bí exist even if you're not sure what they're doing. You know a hell of a lot more about pronunciation than you realise. (Can you say Seán, Róisín, Saoirse, scoil?)
Duolingo gave you something too: vocabulary, a habit, a bit of listening, a fun streak. Irish classes might have given you a verb table for the present tense of bí and a set of sentences about how many people are in your family and where you are from.
You did all of that correctly. You learnt what you were given. And it got you to exactly where it was always going to get you: you know things about Irish and you still can't say the normal stuff.
I speak Irish every single day at home and I don't go around saying half of that stuff, because it's not the everyday of the language.
The bit every one of them missed
Think about what you said out loud today before you left the house. I'm tired. It's freezing. Where are my keys? Thanks a million. Normal stuff, the stuff everyone says, every day.
Every course you've done started with the structure of the language and worked towards speaking. Verb tables first, then sentences built to show off the verb table, then at some point, supposedly, conversation. That's the layer they all cover, and they cover it fine.
The layer none of them touched is the one you actually needed: the small phrases you say every single day, learnt as whole phrases, said out loud the same day, and repeated until they move from short term memory into long term memory. Nobody handed you those.
So you had some grammar of a language and none of the sentences, and a language you can't say anything in doesn't get spoken.
I'll say that again:
A language you can't say anything in doesn't get spoken.
That's why it feels like it never sticks, because there's not a whole lot worth sticking when it isn't useful.
I know this because school Irish didn't work on me either. I left with honours Irish and couldn't hold a conversation. The day after my Leaving Cert I moved to the Aran Islands, where everyone around me spoke Irish as their first language, and I scrapped everything from school. I used to write down whatever I'd needed to say that day and couldn't. I'm wrecked. We need milk. Then I asked someone how they'd say it, wrote it down the way it sounded, and used it as soon as I could, and as often as I could.
This is what makes a language stick:
- Learn phrases you can use (learning pronunciation, grammar and sentence structure with them is a bonus and can help with remembering)
- Use them often
- Learn more
Why the phrases teach you the grammar anyway
If you learn Tá sé fuar (It is cold), you'll probably be able to use it tonight, and tomorrow (about the cup of tea, the weather, the temperature of the room). If you learn "I have five brothers," you'll say it once in class and maybe once or twice in the year (if you're lucky).
Say Tá mé tuirseach (I'm tired), Tá mé fuar (I'm cold), Tá mé ceart go leor (I'm okay) for a week and you've learned how tá works. You didn't need an hour on a verb chart for that. When someone does explain the verb chart later, you'll get it, because you know it from real life phrases.
That's also where the confidence you felt you were missing comes from. From knowing what to say and being able to say it over and over.
How do I know this works for people like you?
I built Irish for Beginners around exactly this. Everyday phrases first, said out loud the same day, with a short plain explanation at the end of each lesson for anyone who wants to know what's going on underneath (pronunciation, sentence structure, grammar etc).
Names altered below, but testimonials in their own words.
Mary had done classes before:
"I have taken classes previously that had left me with lots of verb charts, pronoun charts, and some phrases that I couldn't really string together into sentences. Your class has given me an actual foundation and understanding of how the sentences work!"Mary, Irish for Beginners student
Margaret had been on Duolingo for a while:
"The big difference is that I'm actually using the phrases! As you say, they are relevant to everyday life so easy to say aloud."Margaret, Irish for Beginners student
Séamus has been studying Irish for over ten years. He said he'd always been held back by "an inadequate beginning," and that this was "by far the best base of any Irish course."
None of them were starting from zero. Every one of them had already put in the time and the effort, and had the verb charts to show for it. What changed wasn't how hard they were working. It was what they were given in lesson one.
Where to actually start (or restart) learning Irish
Irish for Beginners is for anyone who wants to start learning Irish from scratch, or just wants a fresh start. It is full of both kinds: people abroad connecting with their heritage through the language, and Irish people who want a fair chance at knowing and speaking their language. What you need now is a starting point that sticks, so this is the last time you start.
The first three lessons are free. No card, no catch. You sign up, you watch lesson one, and by the end of it you'll have real Irish you can say in the kitchen this evening. You'll know by lesson three whether this is the one.
Le dea-ghuí,
Jenny
Founder of Gaelscoil Online
Know someone who's been "meaning to get back to their Irish" for about a decade? Send them this. Lesson one is free and it takes about ten minutes.
