Supposedly some sort of Celtic Studies blog

Today I finished chapter 2 of 'German for Musicians', and did the 'Plurals' section on LingoDeer. I now know: how to conjugate regular present-tense verbs for all pronouns, numbers up to 1 million, enough to read/answer questions about someone's background/their studies related to music, plurals, and some basic things about cases!

I read chapter 4 of 'Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction'. I'm planning to read the sociolinguistics book in the same series next, or maybe the languages one.

Also, I was looking at this table we were shown at university last year about time spent on learning Welsh:



This chart uses Dysgu Cymraeg's naming of language levels:
Mynediad/Entry = A1
Sylfaen/Foundation = A2
Canolradd/Intermediate = B1
Uwch/Higher = B2
Hyfedredd/Proficiency = C1

The 'intensive' study category is 4 hours a week and will get you to 'proficiency' in 5 years, and the 'leisurely' category is 2 hours a week and will get you to 'proficiency' in 10 years. I've decided to sort the languages I'm learning into these categories, plus make up 2 of my own: 'casual' which is 1 hour a week, and 'whenever I have time'.

Intensive: Irish and German. I want both of these to improve a lot before I start back at university again.

Leisurely: Welsh. I would have put this in 'intensive' too but I don't want to risk burning myself out. I just want to keep using some Welsh over the summer since my family don't speak it. When university starts again, I'll probably put this one in intensive (since I'm going to count university classes towards the total time). I'll probably re-do the other languages and their categories once I'm back at university too.

Casual: Cornish and Scots. I'm having an hour-long Cornish lesson each week online, and I look at the Open University Scots course when I get the chance.

Whenever I have time: this category is basically just going to be for anything that takes my fancy that I want to look at, or revisit if it's a language I looked at a while ago. So Old Irish, maybe some Breton, Chinese, etc. I should probably have at least a little look at Old Irish since I'm planning on continuing with it in the next academic year.

Seo iad mo phleananna le haighaidh foghlaim teangacha an bhliain seo agus an bhliain seo chugainn.


2025

An bhliain seo, thosaigh mé Sean-Ghaeilge i mí Eanáir, agus déanfaidh mé í an téarma seo (críochnóidh an téarma i mí Bealtaine). Is rang tosaitheoirí é, ach níl mé cinnte an féidir liom an meánrang a dhéanamh i mí Dheireadh Fómhair. Tá mé ag staidéar go páirtaimseartha anois, mar sin tá mé ag déanamh leath mo thríú bliana i 2024/2025, agus ansin tá mé ag déanamh an leath eile i 2025/2026. Níl a fhios agam an féidir liom an meánrang i 2025/2026 a dhéanamh, nó nach foláir dom a fanacht go dtí 2026/2027 (an chéad leath mo cheathrú bliana).

Tá mé ag déanamh Breatnaise agus Gaeilge fós. Tá mé ag déanamh ranganna Breatnaise san ollscoil, agus níl mé ag déanamh ranganna Gaeilge san ollscoil an téarma seo ach téim go ranganna mhic léinn eile. Bíonn mo mhúinteoirí ag múineadh i mBreatnais, mar sin is féidir liom mo Bhreatnais a chleachtadh i ngach rang. Ba mhaith liom rang aistriúchán Breatnaise a dhéanamh i mí Dheireadh Fómhair, agus beidh mé ag dul go na ranganna Gaeilge eile fós.

Tá mé ag déanamh Sínise an téarma seo, freisin. Críochnóidh na ranganna i mí Aibreáin. Ansin, i mí Bealtaine, ba mhaith liom ranganna Coirnise a thosú. Tá na ranganna ar líne. Ní maith liom ranganna ar líne a dhéanamh, ach is fearr liom a bheith ag foghlaim le rang agus múinteoir ná foghlaim i m'aonar. Tosóidh na ranganna i mí Bealtaine agus críochnóidh siad i mí Iúil.

I mí Lúnasa nó mí Mheán Fómhair, ba mhaith liom Albainis a thosú. Rinne mé beagán Albainise cheana féin, ach tá mé ag iarraidh foghlaim i gceart.


2026

Tá níos lú pleanna i 2026 agam, ach ba mhaith liom a bheith ag foghlaim Gearmáinise agus Jèrriais (Fraincis Geirsí).

Dydd prysur iawn heddi... Ma' gwersi Gwyddeleg Modern a Hen Wyddeleg 'da fi ac wedyn gwers Mandarin yn y nos. A rhywsut rhaid i fi gael yr amser i fwyta a phrynu trombôn.

So this year, I'm going to be switching to part-time study due to my declining health so I'm only going to be doing three classes this year (probably. I have to do a certain amount of credits each year, so if I'm splitting that number in half it should leave me with three classes). I'm definitely going to be doing an intermediate Irish class, and I'd like to try beginner Old Irish too. For my remaining class I'll probably do one of the intermediate/advanced Welsh ones, or I might not since my classes are taught through Welsh so I'll still be learning and practising Welsh even if I don't take a class for it.

In addition to those classes, I've been looking at the unviersity's optional night classes. They have a number of subjects, but I'm mostly interested in the languages, and I think I'll probably do Chinese. I've been interested in starting Chinese for a while since it's the second most widely-spoken language in the world, and the language with the most amount of native speakers. My high school taught Chinese, but unfortunately they stopped the literal year I joined so I could only do Welsh, French, and Spanish. Although I've forgotten most of my French and Spanish by now; Romance languages don't seem to click with me... Despite the fact I did two Italian classes at university last year. I also don't remember much of my Italian now, but maybe that had more to do with my bad health than the fact I can't grasp Romance languages. I also did look at French much more recently as I had a brief period when I thought I might study in Brittany in the future, but again, I've forgotten what I learned then too.

I was also looking at the Sign Language classes, but I think they might clash with one of my music groups' rehearsal evenings. I'd like to do it in the future hopefully. Also the night class will get me another qualification at the end of it! And I'm hoping then I can move on to the next stage of Chinese class in the next semester, and then on to the intermediate (and maybe the advanced) ones in future years at this university. It would be nice to have an additional qualification alongside my Celtic Studies degree. And I'm excited to study a non-Indo-European language too! I've looked a little at Finnish in the past, but I've never really properly tried to study a non-Indo-European language before, so I'm excited for that. As well as learning the script. I sort of know the Cyrillic alphabet from looking briefly at Ukrainian in the past, but I've never really tried to learn a script rather than just a new alphabet.

This summer, I'm mainly focusing on Welsh and Irish grammar. I aim to finish Intermediate Welsh: A Grammar And Workbook and Basic Irish: A Grammar And Workbook by the time I go back to university in September (and maybe even start on the Intermediate Irish too?). I know I need to listen to more music and watch more things in Welsh, and also in Irish too. I'm also trying to bits of Cornish this summer, as I have the Bora Brav book that I've started working through. But I'm not as focused on it as I don't do it at university, although I would at least like to be able to say some more things in it without constantly having to look back at my grammar notes and consult dictionaries by the end of the summer.

Hopefully by the end of the next academic year, I can get my Welsh firmly into the C1 range, and my Irish will be at B1. I'm not sure where I want my Cornish to be. A2 is probably fine, but more realistically it'll just be a higher A1. I'm not sure about my Old Irish, I'm not sure the CEFR levels are used for old languages? I assume my Chinese will be A1/A2-ish, since it's a beginners class.