learning gaelic

[OC Richard]

I was lucky in that the University I attended offered a course in Scots Gaelic.

Not that one can attain any semblance of fluency from such, but it served as a great introduction.

We used Speaking Our Language.

Our teacher wasn't a Native Speaker. He was a Welsh speaker who subsequently learned both Irish and Scots Gaelic. He evidently was fluent enough- many's the time I heard him conversing with Native Gaelic Speakers.

In any case it seems to me that given enough hard work and motivation one can become pretty good.

Case in point was the enthusiastic young man who came to me for uilleann pipe lessons. While he was doing that he was Skyping regularly with a Native Irish Speaker in Connemara. As soon as he finished school here he moved to Ireland, to the Gaeltacht, and AFAIK has been there ever since. According to his Skype teacher he was fluent when he arrived.

Yes both Irish and Scots Gaelic are plagued (if that's the right word) with numerous dialects, and hard (arbitrary?) choices have to be made as to which dialect will be taught.

English certainly suffers from this. I've known a number of foreigners who learned British English back home, moved here to the USA, and often found themselves having a hard time understanding what we were saying.