About this journal

My main aim with this journal is to share my thoughts, experiences, and interesting things I've learned while I do my Celtic Studies degree. Celtic Studies is the study of Celtic languages, both modern and extinct, with focus on the six Celtic languages spoken today (Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Breton, Manx, and Cornish) and their associated histories, literatures, cultures, folklores, politics, etc.

As well as my Celtic Studies BA, I am also working on a Certificate of Higher Education in Modern Languages. I'm one of the Cornish Language Officers for the Association of Celtic Students. At the moment I'm planning on doing an MA in anthropology or historical linguistics or a related field, and I'd like to do a PhD in something eventually!

I've been interested in Celtic languages and Celtic nations my whole life, although I only started to seriously learn the languages/history/etc when I was a teenager. I'm from Wales, one side of my family is Cornish, and the other side is Scottish and Irish, so the Celtic nations and languages have always been very near and dear to my heart. I'm a second-language Welsh speaker, and I grew up with a little bit of Cornish, Irish, and Scots (the Germanic language) from my family.

I would also like to try and aid in combatting the misinformation, ignorance, and bigotry against the Celtic nations, both online and in my daily life. I'd love to read comments and talk, as long as you're not looking for an argument or a "debate". I'm very aware that the Celtic Studies sphere can attract all sorts of alt-right/white supremacist types looking to distort and use our cultures and peoples to fuel their own bigoted agendas, and I will not tolerate that at all here.

I'm also transgender, multiply disabled, a multimedia artist, and a musician, so those are also likely to make themselves known in this journal from time to time.

Images are hosted on Postimages.

Languages I know:( Read more... )

I want to learn:( Read more... )

My long-term language-learning goals are to:( Read more... )

Frustrating point in language learning

I've reached a point with my Irish where i feel like I need to get rid of everything I know in it and start again from scratch. Does anyone else ever feel like this? I remember a couple of years ago i felt like this with Welsh, but I don't remember what I did to get over it. I guess this is just how I feel once I get to the B1 stage in language-learning...? I feel like there's so much I know and I keep forgetting it all. There's so many grammatical things and idioms that I keep learning and keep forgetting, and it all feels hopelessly complicated in my head. Frustrating. I don't think it helps that I've been feeling low in regards to language-learning in general recently.