How do you get back to learning after a long break – and what is it like?

A lot of people are intensely frustrated because they started learning Gaelic and then life got in the way. They missed a couple of evening classes and then it felt awkward to go back, because the other people had moved on. Or maybe they did a course and then couldn’t quite work out what to do next and the time went by and then they just lost motivation. Or maybe they had a bit (or a lot) of Gaelic in school, but then there were no opportunities to use it, and now they think they’ve lost it all.

There is good news and bad news here.

I can write about this with quite a lot of personal experience, because learning languages has been a lifelong hobby (obsession?) of mine. Sometimes, I have managed to pursue a language from scratch all the way to relative fluency (say, CEFR B2 to C2 levels or something vaguely similar). When this happens, I can be confident enough to know that the language is always just there somewhere. I know that I will get rusty if I leave it for a long time, but that it will just spring back more or less to its former level after a bit of regular use. Therefore, if you once had a really strong grasp of Gaelic and you haven’t used it in years, just use it. Read some novels, watch some programmes, talk to some people, listen to some music. It will come back. I’ll say a bit more on this later.

What about those times I didn’t quite get to the higher levels before I was distracted by other things? Then it’s more complicated. With some of these languages, I go back to them after a few years, and it almost feels like I’ve never looked at them before. Everything is practically as unfamiliar and alien as it was the first time I picked it up. Sometimes, this is because the language is very dissimilar to any of the ones I know well. Other times, I get the impression it’s just to do with what kind of connection or interest I had when I first tried to learn it.

Then again, there are other languages that I’ve previously tried to learn, got distracted/derailed, forgotten about, and yet I go back and find they are still there, much like those ‘fluent’ ones I mentioned above. Most recently, I’ve had this experience with Italian, which I first studied the year after graduating with my undergraduate degree. I was full of confidence that I knew how to learn languages – after all, I had just done a degree in one! Moreover, Italian should be a cinch for me, right? Hadn’t I studied Latin for six years in school and then done a year of Spanish at university? Surely all of these things would stand me in great stead to master Italian subito. Well, yes and no. I certainly found it fairly easy to pick up the concepts, and the vocabulary made sense at once. But unfortunately I soon got caught up in other projects and let Italian lie dormant for many years. From time to time, I would do some listening or reading, but I otherwise left it alone. Just a few months ago, I decided to make a serious effort to master the language and, unsurprisingly, it was just like I had never left it. Within a few days, I had already surpassed the standard I once reached. Within weeks, I was well on the way to being conversationally confident.

What does this tell us for you and your dormant Gaelic, then?

Well, the first thing it tells us is that there is probably not one single, simple answer to the question of what happens if you leave the language for a long time and then go back to it. It’s going to depend on various factors. Probably the main thing is the level you got your Gaelic to before you lost touch with it. Were you already conversing fluently? Could you read novels, news articles, specialist literature, work reports? Were you writing it? If you answer yes to any of these questions, the chances are that your Gaelic will come back very quickly once you start to engage with it again. Not only that, but I suspect it will soon be even stronger than it was before.

If your answers were more in the ‘no’ side of things, all is not necessarily lost. I’ve had a lot of success with going back and picking languages up as what is sometimes called a ‘false beginner’: i.e. someone who starts from scratch despite having some previous knowledge. The fun for the false beginner comes from the joy of rediscovery and from the even greater joy of working things out that seemed opaque to you before. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone “Oohhh, so that’s what that’s all about!” after having been stumped by a thing the first time I tried to learn it. In fact, this became such a big deal for me that I even started deliberately setting up the false beginner thing: I would take up a new language, spend three months on it, and then leave it for a year. I’ve had a lot of enjoyment from that method, and the other benefit of it is that it let me ‘try out’ languages and see if they were for me or not.

So how do I get back into Gaelic after this long pause?

As you know by now, if you’ve been reading your way through this blog, I’m a huge fan of content-based learning for languages. In other words, learn a language by using it. After all, you don’t want to spend hours and hours studying Gaelic and never get to the fun stuff, do you? Well, maybe the hours and hours of studying is the fun stuff for some of you... But most people want to learn Gaelic because they have a goal in mind: (1) being able to chat to an elderly relative whose first language was Gaelic, (2) being able to listen to their favourite music and understand the words, (3) being able to help their GME children with homework and other activities, (4) being able to read some outstanding poetry and stories, (5) being able to go to a cèilidh, fèis or mòd and take a full part in the whole event, (6) and fill in your own motivations here. What if I was to tell you that the best and most effective way to get to any of 1-6 is simply to do any of 1-6?

I realise you may well feel shy or awkward about striking up a conversation with someone more fluent than yourself. But bear in mind that the majority of Gaelic speakers are encouraging of people who are trying to use the language. Some of them grew up in the shadow of oppression, still living with the tail end of a centuries-long campaign to stamp out the use of the language, being actively discouraged from using it or passing it on to their children: the ‘pound of sausages’ generation, if you will. Many of these people are now delighted that you are out there, making an effort to learn the language that society tried to beat out of them. Try speaking to them: you may make a friend for life. Then again, some of the fluent speakers are themselves people who learned Gaelic as a deliberate act of will, in their teenage or adult years. Those people remember going through exactly what you are going through. Try speaking to them: they’ll know how to support you. Of course, not everyone is going to be helpful: Gaelic speakers are, after all, people, and we know there are always some people who would rather be left alone.

Similarly, if you enjoy listening to Gaelic music, why not try getting hold of the lyrics of three or four of your favourite songs? Sit with the lyrics one day and work out what they mean (bear in mind that lyrics will not always mean something – or at least, not necessarily something that seems to make sense). Consider learning them off by heart, or at least the chorus. Then, the next time that song comes on, you could sing along with it. Or, if you don’t want to inflict your voice on the peace of the land, sing it in your head.

If you are restoring your Gaelic because your children are in GME, why not ‘borrow’ their homework for a few days and simply work your way through it, on your own, away from the pressure and embarrassment of doing it in front of them? By the time you’ve done that half a dozen times or so, your Gaelic will start to come streaming back to you.

And the advice is the same no matter what you intend to do with your Gaelic. You want to read novels? Maybe start by setting the goal of reading a short story, or a single chapter of a book. Or you could pick up a book you’ve already read a few years ago and ease your way back in that way.

The most important thing to bear in mind is that the only thing stopping you is the fear of getting started. It is quite likely that you have put yourself off by convincing yourself that your Gaelic is lost, gone forever, consigned to the dustbin of old reminiscence. I’m convinced it isn’t. Give it some time, be patient, and be prepared to be delighted when it starts to come back.