This month I’ll mainly be focusing on improving my Irish (Gaelic). This is mainly because I’m going to a summer school in Irish language and culture at Oideas Gael in Donegal at the end of this month, as I’ve done every year for the past six years, plus two years going there in June. I plan to write something in Irish every day on my other blog, Multilingual Musings, which I set up as a place to practise using my languages, and will make recordings of the posts. I will also listen to Raidió na Gaeltachta (Irish language radio) every day and maybe find things in Irish to read as well.
I think the writing practice will be most useful – I’ve been doing the listening and reading fairly regularly anyway, but rarely write in Irish and often have to check my spelling and grammar. Doing the recordings will be a good exercise as well.
At the end of August I’ll be going to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on Skye, to do a course in Skye Gaelic Songs and Traditions with Mary Ann Kennedy, so will be focusing on improving my Scottish Gaelic in August.
I will also be keeping my other languages ticking over and learning a bit more Breton and Russian every day.
Do you have any particular language projects or goals for this summer?
I’m trying to expand my Japanese vocabulary through reading some manga in the original language. Progress so far: slow, and thank heavens for furigana.
Taking a stab at Javanese because there’s someone who’s willing to teach me. Although by raw number of speakers it is one of the world’s top 15 languages, it is difficult to find materials for it in the U.S.
I have a week off, and have arranged some intensive one-on-one Japanese lessons. I’ve been pottering with the language quietly for a while, but I really don’t have time for a regular class; but of course without any teacher (or feedback, at least) there’s only so much you can do. I’m hoping to push myself up a notch so that it’ll be easier to press on with self-study when I can, and improve my confidence so I might occasionally get some practice.
I was hoping to return to daily Manx writing as well, but job complications have appeared that might make that difficult.
Wow, it seems that a lot of people are going to Oideas Gael. I was there last week (June 29th-July 6th) and had a great time.