I didn’t want to learn Irish when I was growing up.

It wasn’t a thing.

I knew that my mother could speak some Gaelic, but I never really thought of it as another language.

I grew up in Quebec, so there was English and French.

Those were the languages on my horizon.

But when my mother died, I became more interested in my Irish heritage.

I bought a book on Irish. I even bought some language tapes.

But I never got very far with it.

I’d learn a couple of words.

Maybe spend a couple of days on it.

And then give up.

Today, I started some Irish lessons on Duolingo.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I thought Portuguese was difficult…!

Irish is even more challenging.

The sentence structure…

The spelling…

The pronunciation…

It’s interesting.

I don’t know how far I’ll get with it.

In just one day, I feel like I’ve gone further than ever before.

It’s a testament to Duolingo, for sure.

But so many of the words are so different.

With English and French, there’s some cross over.

But not with Irish.

It’s fascinating because it’s so disorientating.

It reminds me of when I was in Greece, and I looked at the signs.

Not only were they in a different language. They were in a different alphabet.

There was no way of even guessing what the signs meant.

It’s good to get your brain stretched in that way every now and then.

To be a real beginner.

To have a tabula rasa.

I’m not sure how far I’ll get with my Irish lessons.

There aren’t a lot of opportunities to practice it.

But I’m enjoying the brain stretching that I’m getting from trying it.