Gaeilge Gaeilge, Irish, or “Irish Gaelic” is the national and first official language of Ireland, as well as one of the official languages of the European Union. Although everyone in Ireland speaks English, there are regions known as the Gaeltacht that use Irish as the main language of communication, both in businesses and in families. When we say Irish (the language) we don’t mean our accent in English (i.e. Hiberno English – I’ve got a different post for that coming up!) – we mean a language on a completely different branch of the European.. || Continue Reading →

What an experience!! This “dipping my toes” in my first Asian language has helped me see so many things I hadn’t realised before, despite the extremely little amount of time that I actually put into it, i.e. about 15 hours in the first month exclusively to be able to read the symbols and understand the tone rules, and the time around making the video just before leaving. What I really learned was in the many other hours I had of interactions with other learners and English speakers. You’ll be surprised to see what I have taken away as the most important.. || Continue Reading →

Travel update – no language tips in this (long) post My experience in Thailand has ended and I’m already back in Europe (in Paris for the weekend, Ireland for the next 3 weeks and then starting the next 3-month mission). I’ve learned quite a lot in terms of general life lessons, as well as for learning languages of course, but first I’ll give a travel summary to continue from my first impressions. Ko Phi Phi – my favourite island Just after my last travel update (in Phuket), I made my way to Ko Phi Phi (pronounced gaw pee-pee; yes, romanisation.. || Continue Reading →

My 8 weeks in Thailand are up – I had made some great progress in reading Thai symbols and tone rules in the first month, but for nearly all of the last 3 weeks in Bangkok I’ve have to work double time and have, unfortunately, barely been out of my apartment! This meant that the speaking part of my Thai mission hadn’t even begun. On Friday (3 days ago at the time of writing), I could not speak Thai. I had never gone beyond saying please, thank you, hello, and excuse me, and learning some vocabulary that I had never even used. I just “didn’t have.. || Continue Reading →

When you take on any major project like learn a language, get out of debt, lose weight etc., out of all the things that can hold you back from reaching your goal, there is one that stands out above all the rest: Motivation You clearly want it; it could even be one of the major priorities in your life. But despite that, the monstrous size of the task ahead can get intimidating and you can lose the momentum that you had when you started it. The list of reasons why it’s “impossible” start to raise their ugly head and you become deflated and distract yourself.. || Continue Reading →

When considering where to move to in a country, there seems to be this general consensus that you’ll have a greater feeling of immersion, both cultural and linguistic, if you choose a small town / village over a major city. I disagree. If you happen to like villages for their serenity, pace of life etc., then by all means it’s the place for you! But if you think your experience will be any more authentic than someone in a major city, or if you think this will provide you with a superior way of linguistic immersion for speaking the language, you’re kidding.. || Continue Reading →

Over the last month, I’ve changed my ways of trying to communicate in the local language, and I’ve been living the life of a typical English-speaking tourist. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve tried this, as I almost always work on linguistic immersion as a means of getting to know a culture. The results of this experiment have been eye-opening for me, especially since I can compare it to the alternative through years of experience. So, enough talk of learning other languages. How can that possibly enrich your life if you are already a native.. || Continue Reading →

Here I am, at the starting stages of speaking a language once again, and I’m reminded of how it felt taking a similar first step into playing the piano and other instruments I’ve learned. Since my feelings would likely be shared by others, I asked my friends on twitter how learning a language is like learning a musical instrument and I got the following interesting replies: Both are about listening carefully and learning how to reproduce the sounds you hear. Then you add your own style (@pocketcultures) You need persistence at first, and the rewards increase the.. || Continue Reading →