How to learn Irish from scratch as an adult

(De réir mar a cheapfainnse)

A first edition of one of the earliest Irish-English dictionaries, written by Conchubhar Ó Beaglaoich and Aodh Buí Mac Cruitín

Disclaimer: I am not a native speaker. Nor did I teach myself Irish from scratch. Like most people in the Republic, I took it for fourteen years in school. We’re always complaining that it’s badly taught, but unless you were literally unconscious during the lessons — and I don’t want to make assumptions about anyone’s learning style — you probably absorbed more Irish than many in the North who didn’t have that chance.

I’m not talking completely out of my arse, though, since I was functioning in German within six months and Italian in three without taking any classes. I have now been studying Swedish for a couple of weeks and I already understand Dagens Nyheter articles. It would have taken me much longer with Irish; English helped me with German, French and Spanish helped with Italian, and now both German and English are helping with Swedish. Celtic languages are significantly more challenging for anglophones than Romance or Germanic ones. Still, I’ll combine everything I know about Irish with everything I know about language-learning to outline a potential approach from zero.

I’ll divide this into four parts:

1. Why I start with comprehension and worry about production later

2. Getting from beginner to intermediate

3. Getting from intermediate to advanced

4. Resources (skip here if that’s all you want)

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1. Comprehension first

I don’t obsess about speaking any language until I understand it well.

What holds back a conversation more than anything is when native speakers have to deliberately modify their language for you. They’ll inevitably make unconscious adjustments — humans instinctively gravitate towards our interlocutors — but most people hate consciously simplifying their speech. I have found this to be true in all my languages: native speakers are far more tolerant of a learner’s errors than of having to water themselves down.

(This is true of me in English. I try to be patient when learners want to practice — since I am definitely a net drawer from this particular karmic well — but I’m terrible at slowing down. I don’t care how anyone else uses/abuses this imperialist shitshow of a language. But as someone considered a fast talker in Ireland, I struggle to put the brakes on my own stream of consciousness. That’s one reason why, when possible, I prefer doing events in foreign languages rather than being translated from English. Of course some nuance is lost, but less than when a poor interpreter must remember everything I just said, half of which I myself have already forgotten. ‘Remind me what you said after that?’ a Slovak interpreter once asked me mid-translation, since he knew I understand the language well enough to follow, though not fluently enough to do interviews. ‘No idea’, I replied. ‘Something about Beckett?’)

Prioritising comprehension also has knock-on benefits for accuracy once you do start speaking. When you’re used to hearing the correct version of a phrase, it’s far less likely that an incorrect formulation will even occur to you — whereas when you produce the language before you’ve been widely exposed to it, you crystallise mistakes that can prove stubborn to iron out. To this day when I’m tired I say ‘di questa maniera’ in Italian, a calque from French and Spanish that my muscle memory refuses to expel.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice speaking when you can. The benefits to confidence and motivation probably outweigh the drawbacks re: fossilising dodgy grammar. I’d have taken longer to start conversing in Italian if I’d waited until ‘in questa maniera’ rolled effortlessly off my tongue. But don’t stress if it takes a while for your active production to catch up with your understanding. It doesn’t mean you’re not learning.

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2. Beginner to intermediate

First off, you’ll need to decide what kind of Irish to learn: one of the three main dialects (Ulster, Munster or Connacht) or the Connacht-leaning Standard Irish. If you don’t have any regional preferences or ties, Connacht has the most media available. Fluent speakers understand all four varieties, so choose the one that’s best for you.

Next, find a textbook or series of textbooks based on your chosen dialect that will take you from zero to around B1 level. I am not super well-versed in the options available, but I got Complete Irish by Diarmuid Ó Sé for a friend a few years ago and I was quite impressed with the chapters I skimmed before buying it: it explicitly outlines features of spoken Irish that I only figured out very gradually from listening, e.g. that you rarely pronounce the ‘g’ in ‘ag’ before consonants. Don’t stress too much about which textbook, though, as long as it has audio.

If anything in the book confuses you, google alternative explanations. It’s difficult to describe Irish grammar through English, so sometimes you’ll need to see a few iterations of a given concept before it clicks. It’s not you; you’re not thick; it’s just the nature of learning a Celtic language through a Germanic one.

Do not neglect the audio. Try to understand how it connects to the words. Irish spelling is far more consistent and predictable than English orthography, so you just need to invest some time at the start. Like French, it appears more intimidating than it is. There are lots of rules but few exceptions.

If you find an exercise boring, skip it. You’ll learn more Irish by enjoying yourself than by treating it like schoolwork.

As you work through your textbook, look for pockets of dead time in your day where you can smuggle in more casual practice. Listen to textbook audio and Raidió na Gaeltachta while cleaning the house and on your commute, and don’t freak out if you don’t catch everything; learning to listen without anxiety is worth practicing in itself, since we understand less when panicking. Your advantage here over school-taught Irish speakers is freedom from Leaving Cert trauma. Your longed-for place in medical school will never depend on catching the name of a random Galway town.

You can, however, use the Leaving Cert as a free resource. The past papers are here. Start with Junior Cert Ordinary Level, then Junior Cert Higher Level, then Leaving Cert Ordinary Level. Once you’re comfortable with the reading and listening comprehensions at Leaving Cert Ordinary Level, you are most likely understanding Irish at a low-intermediate level. You can move on to the Leaving Cert Higher Level papers at this point if you like, but it will probably be more interesting to just jump into proper immersion.

It’s never too early to practice speaking. If you know anyone with Irish who is patient, ná bí faiteach. Go along to pop-up Gaeltacht or one of the ciorcail chomhrá nationwide; even if you say very little, fellow learners are often easier to follow than native speakers, so it’s still a good listening opportunity. If you can find a friend who’s also trying to learn, that’s ideal: send each other quick voice notes now and then.

Most people educated in the Republic have more Irish than they think, and might be less bashful using it with a learner than with native speakers. (The fear of making a holy show of oneself weighing cumbrously as it does in the national psyche.) If you start mentioning casually that you want to practice, you’ll be surprised how many will take you up on it.

Dropping hints to random Hibernians works well outside Ireland, too. Wherever you are, you’ll find Irish people; we’re as ubiquitous as microplastics.

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3. Intermediate to advanced

Here you will encounter an unfortunate hurdle: there’s hardly any Irish-language content pitched at that vast grey area between beginner and advanced.

Take TG4, the Irish-language TV station. An intermediate learner is probably best off watching with subtitles in Irish, but most programmes give you the option of English or none at all. You get the odd rusty speaker on Raidió na Gaeltachta who serves in practice as graded content, but there’s not the same availability of dedicated easy news in Irish that you can get in most widely spoken languages. Very little popular or genre fiction gets published in Irish; mostly it’s literary fiction and poetry, which is beautiful if you have the vocabulary for it but I’d imagine frustrating if you don’t.

Below under resources, I’ve listed some exceptions to this rule. But when engaging with ungraded content, there are still a few things you can do to bridge the gap.

Reading

Parallel texts: find an Irish text (Tuairisc is the best source online), open another window beside it and translate it into English there, and read them side by side. Machine translation still can’t really deal with Irish, but in a way that’s good: it alerts you to idiosyncracies of the language that a better translation service would whitewash over.

Translating individual words and phrases: get a browser extension, e.g. the Google Translate one on Chrome, and translate the odd bit as you read. Irish is a highly idiomatic language, so try highlighting the whole phrase if the word doesn’t make sense in the context.

Just keep going even if you don’t understand things: this is what I tend to do when reading at intermediate level in a foreign language. I figure if the word is important, I will see it enough times to eventually figure it out from context, and if it’s not important it’s not important. In English I read Dickens and Austen without a dictionary aged twelve, and to the best of my knowledge I did not die. Actually, your childhood preferences in your native language are probably a good predictor of what to do as an adult. If you enjoyed stopping to look up new words, you’ll probably enjoy it now. But if, like me, you instinctively prefer the fuck-around-and-find-out method, then roll with that.

Listening

Pick the right topic. It’s always easier to follow audio on things you’re actually interested in.

Walk/move: My tolerance at the ‘not understanding everything’ stage of podcasts in a foreign language goes way up when I keep moving. It feels almost like meditation to keep drawing my attention back to the audio when I notice I’m drifting.

Gamify listening: There are two ways to do this. If you’re only understanding the odd thing, the game is to keep listening until you’ve written X number of recognised phrases. If you’re understanding the majority of it, then aim to look up X new phrases gleaned from the audio. The next day, you must transcribe X+1 recognised phrases/look up X+1 new phrases, then X+2 the day after, etc etc etc. It is ridiculous how well we respond to competition, even when entirely self-contrived. (You can combine this transcription game with walking by using your phone. It’s dire for one’s posture but you probably do it anyway and at least this way you’re learning Irish.)

TV

Speed-read TG4 with English subtitles: Skim each subtitle as fast as you humanly can, then look up and focus on the audio until the next line appears. If you’ve decent reading speed in English then this will still result in catching a fair amount of Irish. For fun, I did this recently watching a film in Norwegian with English subtitles; I tested periodically whether I was really listening to the Norwegian by repeating the odd phrase to myself in my head. (‘Jeg elsker deg!’)

If you just read the subtitles without actively and continuously redirecting your attention to the audio, it’s better than having no Irish at all in your life but you’ll learn a lot less. Consider the millions of nerds worldwide who have watched lifetimes’ worth of subtitled anime and still can’t order a beer in Japanese.

TG4 with Irish subtitles: The odd show does have them. It’s not as good as no subtitles for pure listening practice, but for overall language skills it might actually be better.

TG4 without subtitles: Documentaries and the news will be easier than dramas and reality shows because presenters speak more precisely with fewer idioms. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing: you could alternate between challenging yourself by turning off subtitles, then rewarding yourself by turning them back on. Whatever you do, the more consciously you focus on the Irish, the better the results will be.

Grammar

Unless you’re hugely interested in grammar — and certain deviants are — I would recommend only studying things you’re genuinely curious about. Don’t say, ‘Right, I’m going to study an modh foshuiteach, whatever that is’; instead go: ‘I wonder why you say go n-éirí leat, what’s the “go” doing there?’ This way your grammatical awareness will naturally keep pace with your needs. If you’re happy to just say ‘Go n-éirí leat’ without any soul-searching, then there’s no particular reason to do a deep dive on the mechanics of it so long as you’re reproducing the structure correctly. For those who need a ‘why’, I’m not stopping you from seeking one (I have no legal power to).

Study Irish grammar through the language itself if you’re able to (or perhaps through another Celtic language if you’re, I don’t know, Welsh). I’d recommend the textbook Gramadach gan Stró. You can also read the Caighdeán online for free, though it’s not as user-friendly.

The key to advancing past intermediate is patience. Your language acquisition will not feel as rapid past the beginner stage because of 1. the Pareto principle and 2. Dunning-Kruger. That’s why it’s supremely important to find things you will actually enjoy doing. If you can make engaging with Irish intrinsically rewarding, it will propel you through the limbo period where you can’t see the progress you’re making.

The official Teastas Eorpach Gaeilge estimate is that it takes around 2,000 hours of study for an English native speaker to reach C1 level in Irish. This probably excludes homework and immersion outside the classroom. Each hour of exposure brings you closer to speaking Irish. It’s just that a lot of hours are needed.

Speaking practice methods remain the same as before. You could also keep a diary if you enjoy writing. It’s the chief way I've maintained any Irish after nearly a decade abroad.

Whether or not you ‘speak’ Irish, or any language, is not a binary thing. You never stop learning. Adult native speakers of English continue to learn almost one new word a day until middle age. There will never come a point where you truly stop working on your Irish. But you will find that over time it feels less like a special project, and more simply part of your life.

Go n-éirí leat, whether you’re modh-curious or not.

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4. Resources

Reading

Tuairisc offers online news in Irish. You can also get An Páipéar in print or read the articles online.

Libraries Ireland have a range of Irish-language materials. Not as many as they should when it’s literally our national language, but enough to keep you occupied for a good while. There are eBooks available in the BorrowBox app under the somewhat unfortunate heading of ‘Seachtain na Gaeilge’ — ‘Saol na Gaeilge’ is probably better aligned with what anyone bothering to learn this beautiful but impractical language is actually hoping for — and you can even find children’s books and simplified novels for learners if you don’t feel ready for general fiction. There are audiobooks of the fantastic New Island translated novella series: you can listen to accessible work from the likes of Marian Keyes, Roddy Doyle and Maeve Binchy translated into Irish.

In Dublin, An Siopa Leabhar offers a thoughtful curation of new books and a second-hand section at the back that’s great craic sifting through; you’ll find the odd tome in the seanchló (the ornate old lettering from before Irish typesetting was fully reformed). Their online shop is worth perusing from abroad. Hodges Figgis also has a small but well-curated Irish section on the first floor. I can’t vouch personally for Irish-language bookshops outside Dublin, but see if there’s one in your area.

TV/radio

TG4 and Raidió na Gaeltachta, obviously.

Raidió Fáilte and Raidió na Life are community stations broadcast, respectively, from Belfast and Dublin. There’s also Raidió Rí-Rá if you like to learn through music. Beo ar Éigean is on pause just now, but go through the archives for fun, lively conversations between three women with different canúintí. Splanc on Newstalk offers diverse topics you can browse by title.

The RTÉ Gaeilge section mixes Irish content with stuff in English about the language. The Irish Times and Irish Independent have small Irish sections, too.

The Conradh na Gaeilge i Londain has a nuacht mhall programme if you’re not ready for full-speed Irish.

The BBC has Blas on Radio Ulster, some programmes i nGaeilge and ‘bitesized Irish’ articles intended for GCSE students (roughly Junior Cert equivalent).

Other

I used the spaced repetition flashcard app Anki a lot while learning German; any time I had to look something up, I turned it into a flashcard and regularly reviewed it. I used it much less with Italian and am not using it at all with Swedish, because I’ve found with experience that important words and concepts will reappear anyway if I keep engaging with the language in its authentic form. But if you prefer to explicitly study, do give Anki a go.

Teanglann offers a few online dictionaries with accurate pronunciations from all three main dialects and contextual usage examples. Should you wish to be gay through Irish, this short foclóir aiteach has your back.

Duolingo offers Irish, but tread carefully. Since they switched to using AI voices, there have been many complaints about mispronounced audio; the speakers don’t properly distinguish between broad and slender consonants, for instance. (This is also a frequent problem on the adverts i nGaeilge on English-language stations.) It is cheaper for AI companies to train their audio with any old Irish person and assume they’ll have a good accent, depriving learners of the chance to hear key phonemes as pronounced by actual native speakers. There have also been many complaints about grammar and inconsistency re: dialects. Maintain healthy skepticism — but if Duolingo keeps you practicing daily, that’s the main thing.

Foras na Gaeilge has a longer list of resources here, though some links are outdated. Both the Foras and your nearest Conradh na Gaeilge will always be good sources of news and events. The Dublin Conradh headquarters on Harcourt St is presently closed for redevelopment, but follow them on Instagram for pop-up opportunities.

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This was long! I haven’t listed all conceivable resources or every single aspect of learning Irish. Instead I have tried to sketch out a potential approach without too much overwhelming detail. I hope it helps someone out there. Most of it is probably applicable to learning any language.

As a reward for making it through, please enjoy this clip of Stephen Fry guest-starring on Ros na Rún. He gives it fair socks with the old fuaimniú!

Till next time,

N