Gaelic resumed

[vivdunstan]

Back to Gaelic study, and restarting from the beginning with Moray Watson's books. Hoping to get a bit more of the vocabulary to stick this time, despite my severe memory problems from my progressive neurological disease! Which really really doesn't help, and eg stops me using things like Duolingo. Also conversational teaching doesn't suit me. On plus much grammar has stuck over the years. I'm surprised how much has stuck. But I need to make a more conscious effort re learning new vocabulary. And increasingly so as my neurological disease progresses. I love Gaelic and its sounds. And was given a Gaelic middle name at birth. Will persevere!

Comments

[vivdunstan]

My husband and I have both loved Gaelic music since our teens - him after he came to university in Scotland, me a bit earlier at school when I discovered Runrig. We adore the music of Runrig, Capercaillie and so many others. We have tickets to see Capercaillie in concert next year. Quite a brave outing for long term shielding us! We last saw them on stage in 1997 ...

Radio Nan Gaidheal is fab to listen to! We often tune into it on long car journeys, and have it tuned in on one of our 6 main pretuned car radio station buttons. Glad you enjoy it too :)

I'm back to learning about Sorley MacLean too. The other day - sitting in the health centre, waiting for an appointment - I was stunned to read in a book about him that he taught for some months in my home town Hawick, in 1939/40. Mind blown.

[greenwoodside]

I was also into Runrig and Capercaillie in my teens! There are probably still some CDs knocking around my mother's house somewhere. Looking at my folder of MP3s, these days I've got Billy Ross, Daimh, Griogair Labhruidh, Kathleen McInnes and Julie Fowlis saved to my harddrive, plus there's whatever I catch through online sources. YouTube has a copy of the six-part Highland Sessions which I love to pieces. I wish the BBC would do a Highland Sessions Part 2. The Transatlantic Sessions were more hit and miss for me.

My parents apparently saw Sorley MacLean give a reading when they were holidaying (maybe in Argyll or the Hebrides?) before I was born. I think it was a bit lost on them since they knew no Gaelic, though were aware enough of the poems to be familiar with the line 'time, the deer, is in the wood of Hallaig'. I think they saw him as rather a stern figure, though that may have been an impression compounded from their experience of the highlands and islands at the time in the 70s/80s, a different world then for a couple from Liverpool.