Saturday Gaelic Club

Yesterday was our first visit to Glasgow’s Saturday Gaelic Club – hopefully the first of many. My husband finally uttered his first Gaelic words and can now introduce himself, tell you where he’s from and where he lives, ask how you’re feeling and answer the question, tell you he likes football, and he can also introduce someone else!* Not bad for a morning’s work. I was quite pleased because most of the work we covered today I’ve been working on with my CD so it gave me the confidence to try it out, and it also gave me something on which to build the new vocabulary. I think we should feel particularly proud of ourselves because our one year old daughter was running around the room, distracting us, for the whole lesson as there is nowhere for the under 2s to go, sadly.

Our son was downstairs in the children’s club where they can draw pictures, play games and sing songs in Gaelic. We were worried he would feel swamped by the language and left out as everyone already had friends, but we needn’t have worried as there were other children who have only just started and will be going to school after the summer, too. And I think children are a lot more adaptable than we give them credit for. At the end of the day, it’s nice to know that we’re building up some friendships for him before he gets there.

The club takes place in the Glasgow Gaelic School and today was the first time our son has ever seen the building where he will be spending so much of his future. By going at the weekends he can grow more used to the gym/assembly hall where his group plays, and he got a snack in the lunch hall. All of this is good preparation for him, particularly as there are some concerns he may have Asperger’s/dyspraxia/something else unknown to us just now, and so he can find new places and routines more challenging. Hopefully in August he’ll be used to the school and will be able to behave appropriately when he’s there because sadly that wasn’t the case today.

I explained to the play leader that our son has some additional challenges and that when he gets stressed or excited he will run everywhere. I think that after a good start to his session, he became rather more challenging than I think they were prepared for though, so we’ll need to think about the best way to deal with it for next week, because as stressful as it is worrying about how he’s coping, today has been beneficial for all of us and we will be going back. He enjoyed telling us in the car on the way home that he’d played “What’s the time Mr Wolf” in Gaelic and was able to practise some of his numbers. He had pictures he’d drawn to bring home and put on his wall, and daddy was able to speak a little Gaelic with him for the first time which both of them enjoyed.

As for me, it was great to actually speak some Gaelic out loud rather than just holding wonderful (if limited) conversations in my head. I’ve also met other parents in exactly my position so I can speak with them about some of the issues that crop up rather than just writing them here and sending them out into the great unknown.

There’s so much more that I could say about our 2 hours yesterday morning (well, just under because parking is a nightmare!) but for now I’ll simply say mòran taing (thank you very much) to our tutor, Josie.



*Some of this week's vocabulary. (Please correct me if I’ve got anything wrong – so many accents and grammar points to learn!)

Is mise…. My name is….
Cò às a tha sibh? – Where are you from? (NOT where do you live.)
‘S ann às An Eaglais Bhric à tha mi. I am from Falkirk
A bheil sibh a’ fuireach? Where do you live?
Tha mi a’ fuireach ann an Glaschu. I live in Glasgow.
Ciamar a tha sibh? How are you?
Ha gu math – I’m good.

There was lots more but you can find most of it here.