Woo-hoo

[urocyon]

I just remembered to check my local mail, and found a reply about tuition. It appears that I can, indeed, enroll in classes somewhere and just be charged the resident rate now, since I'm officially the family member of an EEA national--no three-year residency requirement applies. At least someone in CityLit's admissions thinks so, which is good enough for now. I think I am going to look into a language course, no matter what else I decide to do now that things are OK with La Migra. With any luck, the Gaelic courses won't fill up too soon, so I can kickstart my lazy* self. :)

* Scattered, lazy--the results have been the same! I keep picking up some working vocabulary in languages--collecting words and phrases like a magpie, really--but not concentrating well enough to be sure actual speakers wouldn't roar at the pronunciation. It's silly.

Comments

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Irish or Scots Gaelic? I have tape courses for both, and used to be very fluent in Scots Gaelic once (learnt it at age 8). I can still ask if someone wants tea or coffee, and say I'm thinking; and I can sing in either.

I'm also slowly building up my vocabulary in Welsh, too.

I'm not as fluent conversationally as I'd like to be, but it's one of those things that comes with practice - and I'm good enough to be able to correct pronounciation. So if you want someone to practice conversation with, I'm not adverse to visiting for Celtic conversation and coffee!

[urocyon-c.livejournal.com]

Yes, probably should have specified Gàidhlig. Oddly enough, I don't think they're offering Irish Gaelic at all (may have made me less likely to specify), though there's Cornish and Welsh. I have done more dabbling than anything else so far, but have spent more time on Scottish Gaelic. I did consider trying Welsh, since I've actually found it a bit intimidating so far. Trying to fit the orthographic system to the sounds would surely come with practice.

Cool. :) I may take you up on a chat at some point.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

r.e. Welsh - how much french do you speak? Because Welsh and Breton French have the same roots. If you're familiar with the sentance structure of French you'll find Welsh much easier.

Irish Gaelic and Scots Gaelic are moderately similar - if you can speak one, you'll be able to understand the gist of the other, much as if you can speak Portuguese you'll have a rough idea of what someone is saying in Spanish.

I've never studied Cornish at all; there are no native speakers alive any more, so it's most definitely a language being kept artificially alive - unlike Gaelic and Welsh; Irish Gaelic is spoken natively on the West coast of Ireland, and Scots Gaelic is still spoken in the Outer Hebrides and some parts of the Highlands; and children in Wales are taught in both Welsh and English. Indeed, in certain areas of Wales (Carmarthenshire for example), you'll hear Welsh spoken more than English in every day life - though the shopkeepers will switch to English for a non-native, even if you try asking for something in Welsh!