#learning gaelic

I'm wondering if I should just plug into some Gaelic music and start there as far as enjoying the music and then translating lyrics as I grow curious. Something slow and simple in that regard that applies to simply daily interests. 'Cause I know an actual language learning program is just not going to happen for me.

My first thought is to say to indeed start listening to Gaelic any way you can--Gaelic music (I'll put a list below of different styles!), Gaelic podcasts, Gaelic media. Let your ears learn its rhythms.

Our brains are built to learn language by immersion; we're not actually born with the infrastructure for Duolingo. ;) But we've all learned a language from absolute zero to fluency with our first languages, and that engineering of brain structure in there doesn't vanish, just gets inhibited by our adult fear of sounding daft.

There are also a few really good podcasts for learners. An Litir Bheag is a great one, and Speak Gaelic is also a great resource for just hearing the language spoken with some English explanation, but music and conversational listening are great ways to give your brain's scaffolding something to build on. And do it a lot, as much as you can. Just as much as you can bear it, honestly. ADHD brains are excellent with pattern recognition; you very well might start picking out meanings and phrases when you least expect it.

As far as lyrics translations go, I'd look for ones the artists themselves (or other actual speakers have translated). My other big piece of advice is to never, ever, EVER trust Google translate or--god forbid--AI. It's crap. It will set you wrong every time.

Also, one thing I did when I was learning was get children's books. Many of them have audio editions available online on SoundCloud, and they're excellent for grasping sentence structure and flow.

Another method I used was Gabriel Wyner's Fluent Forever method, which may or may not be useful for you, but it is a method of learning a language without translating it through your native language, using the inbuilt language acquisition structure we have already.

I hope that's helpful at all! Lists below!

Music:

Traditional

Sian, a trio of women who sing songs written by women

Mànran, a full band that does some instrumental, some Gaelic songs, and a handful of songs in English

Julie Fowlis, an absolute legend in Gaelic song you might have heard on the soundtrack to Brave (singing in English, though!)

Maighread Stiùbhart, another absolute legend and one of the first Gaelic singers whose music I listened to

Gillebrìde MacIlleMhaoil, a wonderful bàrd and singer from Uist who both writes his own songs and sings traditional songs

Dàimh, trad tunes and Gaelic singing

Gaelictronica

Inyal, somewhat low-key electronic music, really lovely (they also are finishing up their second album; I happen to be working on a project with one of their members as we speak)

Elephant Sessions, heavy on the electronica, little less heavy on the Gaelic but a lot of fun

Niteworks, pure craic, upbeat, lots of pipes and electronica and lots of Gaelic

WHYTE, one of my close friend's and a pal's band, ambient and full of emotion, combo of traditional songs and ones written by my friend

Rock and Other

Runrig, an absolute staple who skyrocketed to fame from Uist in the 80s and are never far from the playlist even now

Tidelines, trad rock ish? They sing in both English and Gaelic

Trail West, similar and with an absolutely rabid following. Seonaidh's great craic, too--I got to sing with him recently at a charity gig

Capercaille, another classic, just celebrated forty years (!!!) and Karen Matheson's voice is just an absolute belter

Joy Dunlop, another legend of Gaelic song and close pal of mine, mostly sings traditional style songs but with a modern twist at times!

Resources:

LearnGaelic.scot: lots of resources for learners at all levels, including a mahoosive dictionary that has sound files for over 70,000 words and phrases

Speak Gaelic: heaps of resources here as well, also my friend Joy's face front and centre, since she's the main presenter, heh

An Litir Bheag podcast: excellent stuff meant for learners at beginner to intermediate levels

Tha sin na fhaireachdainn iomlan, an-sin.

I woke up from a dream where I was compelled to step dance to Dúlamán... so I woke up with that song stuck in my head. But I don’t know the words or what it means - just the sounds - but in my dream I did. this is not the first time this song has been in my head upon awaking. 

The first words I learned in Gaelic is probably Fàilte, Alba, and the phrase Alba gu bràth, probably because they’re plastered all over the Highlands.

Fàilte means ‘Welcome’.  

Alba is the Gaelic word for ‘Scotland’.