#100daysofGaeilge challenge: The first 25 days

It takes about 2 months, on average, to create a new habit…

I’m committed to using some Irish every day for 100 days

The idea for the #100DaysOfGaeilge challenge came from Twitter with people tweeting about their own #100DaysOfWalking. I used Twitter to conduct a poll asking if others would be interested in a #100DaysofGaeilge challenge. 82.6% of respondents chose ‘Count me in’ and 14.7% said ‘Maybe’.

I think Twitter is the ideal vehicle for a challenge like this as it facilitates learners of Irish in sharing their stories and experiences with the language – the successes and struggles. I also received a lot of messages on Twitter from people encouraging me to go for it, which was great.

The pledge: 100 days

I vowed to use some Irish every day from 7 May – 15 August. The minimum I pledged to use was 15 minutes made up of conversation, study, media, reading etc. Now, I appreciate that 15 minutes might seem like very little time, but I rationalised that even the busiest person can fit 15 minutes of Irish into their day. Furthermore, I think the challenge, for me, is more about re-establishing the habit of daily use that I had fallen out of in the previous couple of months – with a noticeable disimprovement in my Irish. Besides, 15 minutes is a minimum, and on some days I have used Irish for many hours. And, of course, we can all make a commitment that’s more focused, or for a shorter period: #MonthofGaeilge, #30DaysofGaeilge, during #SeachtainnaGaeilge or whatever works.

Habit-forming

One study suggested it can take anything from 18 days to several months to form a habit, but typically it can be around 2 months (66 days) to create automatic behaviour. So I thought if I could do 100 consecutive days of Irish I would be well along to the road to making it an automatic part of my daily routine. In my case, I speak English all day in work and none of my neighbours speak Irish. None of my family or original group of friends speak Irish – and I am still a learner myself – so on-going effort is required or I lose momentum and fall out of practice. The key is to get back into the game asap.

Starting the #100DaysofGaeilge challenge

I started the challenge on Saturday 7^th May 2022 with a conscious effort to speak more Irish with my children. Outside of school I am the only person who speaks any Irish with them usually, so I appreciate the importance of using Irish with them as much as possible. I had a nice surprise the first week of the challenge when I was at my youngest child’s GAA training and I was encouraging her in Irish. One of the other girls on the team started chatting back to me in Irish!  

That first week I was heavily dependent on TG4 for news, weather and bits of programmes. By day 10 I already noticed that vocabulary that I’d learned before was coming back to me. I think that’s worth repeating – I noticed an improvement within 10 days! From that point I started listening more to Irish-language radio in the car: RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and Raidió na Life. I’ve also put on Raidió Rí-Rá and Raidió Fáilte online.

An Lá Dearg, day 15

What a day I had in Belfast! I had marched at the Lá Mór na Gaeilge in Dublin in 2014 with one of my young kids, where Tomaí Ó Conghaile had lead the chants for our section on the megaphone. It had been a fantastic experience, so I didn’t want to miss Belfast having missed the Lá Dearg march in 2017. I wrote a piece on An Lá Dearg so I won’t repeat that all here, suffice to say that I will never forget the experience of that day in Belfast! I spoke Irish for most of the day and dreamed in Irish for the first time that I could recall. The experience really boosted my confidence in my spoken Irish and inspired me to push on with my own learning.

Interview with Seán T. Ó Dubhchon le Raidió Rí-Rá, day 19

It was fortunate that I had the experience of meeting a lot of people and speaking Irish all day at An Lá Dearg before I did my first radio interview in Irish with Seán. In fairness to Seán, he was very kind and encouraging and made it very easy for me. Having completed the interview I had to say to myself ‘You’ve got to an intermediate level now – push on to the next level!’ The next day I was able to use Irish almost exclusively with my children for the evening, which was great.

On day 21, the interview went out on Raidió Rí-Rá with Seán and I discussing my experience of An Lá Dearg, the work of Pobal Gaeilge 15 and my blog.

It was a pleasure to do the interview with Seán, and it was a novelty. However, for me the pay-off of my language journey is being part of the ‘Réimse Gaelach’, the Irish language sphere – being able to engage with Irish-medium TV and radio, and being able to understand, and communicate with others in, Irish. When I use Irish I feel more like me.

Irish language radio

On the days when I didn’t have the opportunity to speak any Irish, I tried to listen to Irish language radio. I found this really useful for improving my listening comprehension. I remember that when I first listened to Raidió na Gaeltachta, I could just hear a stream of sounds without being able to differentiate between the words. Now I think I can hear all the separate words, even if I don’t understand them all.

Support from the online community

I have to acknowledge the support of the community on Twitter. Since I joined Twitter I’ve been really impressed with the amount of online use of, and interest in, Irish. That includes communication and debate in Irish by speakers, the bilingual language journeys of learners, and general interest from people who want to know more about the language. I think everyone can have a role to play in the language movement, however small that role is. The important thing is to be part of it, and for all of us to take responsibility for learning, using and encouraging use of the language.  

I’ve had huge encouragement from the online community. Many people are on their own language journeys and have been sharing those stories online. Several Tweeters have adopted the #100DaysOfGaeilge hashtag themselves; some of these are learning and using Irish overseas. 

Lorna, Twitter user learning Irish in New Zealand

One Twitter user using the #100DaysOfGaeilge hashtag is Lorna (@moukenainzo) from New Zealand. Lorna discovered that she comes from a long line of Irish-speakers on her mother’s side. Her mother came from Dublin and moved to England where she met and married Lorna’s father. Lorna has lived in New Zealand for 20 years now but has only started learning Irish within the last 18 months – having never learned any Irish before. Lorna told me that it is an emotional experience for her to learn Irish, considering her family’s Gaelic connections.

Lorna started learning Irish with Duolingo, Future Learn and Youtube videos. A committed learner, she is setting aside at least an hour a day to work on Irish. She listens to podcasts, watches Irish-medium TV and has conversations ‘as Gaeilge’ on Zoom (there’s a community of active Irish speakers in New Zealand , as in many places). Despite not living in the Gaeltacht, or even in Ireland, Lorna estimates her proficiency as about B2 level (pretty good going after 18 months!). Lorna says that she gets huge support and encouragement from Irish speakers and learners online.

Stories like this should help us to realise we can all succeed in our language journeys – even against the odds! Irish isn’t too hard, and you don’t need to be surrounded by the language to learn and use it.  

If you’re on your own language journey, please do share the experience online ‘as Gaeilge nó Béarla’. You’ll encourage the rest of us, and you’ll be playing your part in the Irish language movement!

Tá obair againn le déanamh. Ar aghaidh linn le chéile!

-Foilsithe le Derek Hollingsworth, Meiteamh 2022

Buíochas le Lorna i Nua-Shéalainn.

If you wish to give something small towards the cost of running the site, my Revolut is @derekis3j