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Well, I thought I would share with you my experience of teaching at Latha na Gàidhlig/Gaelic Day, that was on the 1st of November, 2008.

A while ago when I decided to volunteer to teach people Gaidhlig (gaelic) at this I was like “yeah, why not!” and they keen for me to do it since I was Scottish and fluent in Gaelic. I have done this type of thing before so I kinda knew what to expect. I always opt for the beginners/ a few phrases group of learners as I find it more fun to teach than the fluent people – and plus I usually play different games with them whilst teaching, (makes it fun for me and more so for them!). I knew I had the beginners class but wasn’t sure if they had any Gaelic or not so wasn’t sure what to prepare. I decided to prepare some basics like, the weather, time, days of the weeks etc. I spent hours preparing notes that I could use hoping that they would have a little bit of Gaelic – but noooo, they had only learnt it that morning of Latha na Gàidhlig. They didn’t reach the numbers and colour part of Gaelic, oh no!!!

However, I had a rocky start with trying to figure out their level and what they had done but once I got into it, it was no bother; all my techniques came flooding back! Some grasped it better than others. The fun part was after I had done some work with them was playing a game of “hang-man” to test their knowledge and if they were listing to a word I said. Much to me surprise whilst playing the game with them I found out there was a teacher amongst them. Now I wasn’t expecting that, considering I’m not a teacher and had no training for this work – it made me wonder if what I was doing a good way or not.  But the game worked, they knew most of tha phrases I did with them, I was impressed! And I think they enjoyed it too, as I had mixed up some phrases together to make new ones and they got them and learnt something new. They were also surprised that even by playing a simple game they could learn more Gaelic.

Time just flew past and before I could move onto the next part f my class I was going to teach my time was up. The class lasted about and hour and 20mins, I wish I had longer as I really enjoyed it and the learners seem to as well. Later on that day one or two of them came up to me and thanked me for teaching them the stuff I did and said it was a n fun and interesting way to learn. One even asked me if I was training to be a teacher, I replied with “ haha no!”.  They replied with "oh!".

Maybe I’m studying the wrong degree...