{"id":6834,"date":"2019-10-18T16:21:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T16:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.utalk.com\/news\/?p=6834"},"modified":"2022-07-06T14:48:26","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T13:48:26","slug":"my-week-learning-scottish-gaelic-with-utalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/my-week-learning-scottish-gaelic-with-utalk\/","title":{"rendered":"My Week Learning Scottish Gaelic with uTalk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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With over 2,500 basic words and phrases in more than 150 languages, there\u2019s plenty the uTalk app offers for you to learn. But as we all find ourselves getting busier and busier, how much time do we realistically have to spend on language learning? We decided to find out by having Charlotte, our Marketing and Sales Coordinator, use the app for one week to see how much she could learn.<\/em>
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First things first, I\u2019ve got to choose a language. There\u2019s over 150 on there, which is a bit daunting at first, but once I discard the ones I\u2019ve studied at some time or another\u2014and the ones that are especially close to them\u2014I\u2019ve whittled the list down a little.
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I end up taking a look through the list of top-selling languages on the app and one immediately catches my eye: Scottish Gaelic. I\u2019m not from Scotland but half my family is, so it interests me; plus, it\u2019s the International Year of Indigenous Languages this year, so it seems like a good idea to take a look into one of the UK\u2019s ten indigenous languages.
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I spend the weekend prior to my challenge having a play around with the app and try out the free words. I\u2019m not sure what I\u2019m expecting at the end of this week. Hopefully I\u2019ll have learnt enough Scottish Gaelic that I can deal with a few situations, but I\u2019ve spent enough time on language learning to be realistic; I\u2019m not going to be fluent\u2014but who would be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day One: How<\/em> do you say that again?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I get on the bus to work and have every intention of starting my challenge\u2014except my headphone adapter is broken. Again. 
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Instead, I end up starting on my lunch break, where I let the First Words topic play through while I eat. Some of the words don\u2019t look too bad, but how exactly<\/em> am I supposed to pronounce na h-iuchraichean<\/em> (keys)? I slow down the audio and start to get it but I\u2019m definitely glad I\u2019m not going to have a spelling test at the end of this thing!
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I managed to do the Easy Game\u2014get full marks too!\u2014and have at least two words I definitely know: chan eil <\/em>(no) and hal\u00f2 <\/em>(you can guess this one, right?). I nip back to Phrase Practice to try and cement them all in a little better, then try the Hard Game\u2014full marks again.
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The Memory Game is the one game on the app I find the trickiest. It\u2019s kind of nerve-wracking, not just because I\u2019ve only just learnt the words but because I\u2019ve got to remember exactly<\/em> where up to six pictures are positioned. One moment of distraction and oops, that\u2019s it, I can kiss a perfect score goodbye. Still, it\u2019s a super effective way of learning because I\u2019ve got to remember the phrases in the language so I can tell where they are! Overall, it doesn\u2019t go too badly, either, apart from the bit where I mix up tr\u00ec<\/em> (three) and cl\u00ec<\/em> (left). They sound closer than they look! 
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What\u2019s interesting at this point is that I\u2019m already starting to learn structures. Not grammar, but phrases where I can swap out words, so even if it\u2019s not quite correct, it makes sense. C\u00e0ite bheil\u2026<\/em> clearly means \u2018where is\u2026\u2019, however that forms itself in Scottish Gaelic grammar, which makes a couple of phrases a lot easier to learn.
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Once home, I use the desktop version of the app and get right back into it. I didn\u2019t really want to play the Speaking Game in the office (I\u2019ll cite not wanting to disturb anyone but no one wants to hear me struggling my way through some of these consonants!), so I play that (and yay, it goes well!) and then try recall.
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Recall is hard. <\/em>It\u2019s taking what you\u2019ve learnt passively and making it active and, wow, I\u2019ve learnt to recognise a lot but not absorbed much. I just start laughing when na h-iuchraichean <\/em>(keys) pops up because that word is not<\/em> going to come out of my mouth anytime soon.
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After a half-successful attempt, I move onto Social Phrases; I need to be able to say what my name is, right? Well, this is a pretty difficult topic. There are lots of longer phrases and tha mi duilich gu bheil mi fadalach <\/em>(I\u2019m sorry I\u2019m late) has me absolutely stumped on the Hard Game. 
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I leave that one there and decide on something that just has<\/em> to be easier: Numbers up to Twenty. And, yes, I get a perfect score on everything but Recall (which I decide to leave for now). This has got to be mostly because, like with most languages, Scottish Gaelic has a pattern when it comes to numbers\u2014fifteen is five and ten, sixteen six and ten, etc., so it\u2019s like a quick cheat to learning more!
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End of Day One: 1h16m; 802 points.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Topics Tried: First Words, Social Phrases, Numbers up to Twenty.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day Two: Time for piotsa <\/em>and an etymological distraction.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Headphones are fixed, but I\u2019m too tired on the bus to learn anything\u2014I doze all the way to work and start with the app on my lunch break instead. I decide to try out the Social Phrases Memory Game first thing\u2014it\u2019s hard, sure, but I get 77\/100 points, so not bad!
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Since I\u2019ve eaten, I decide it might be a good time to try the Food and Drink topic and ooh, this one\u2019s fun. Words might not look the same but they sound very <\/em>similar, so t-seoclaid<\/em> is chocolate and piotsa<\/em> is pizza. Easy! I get full marks on the Easy and Hard Games even though I was worried about this topic when I first chose it, which is down to all those words that sound the same, even if they look totally different.
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One of the phrases in this topic is \u2018Could I have a bottle of water, please?\u2019 so I decide to take this phrase and try making some of my own\u2014because \u2018could I have\u2026 please\u2019 is always something that comes in handy.
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I try:<\/p>\n\n\n\n