No Gaelic Speaking Parent

No matter what your ability is in speaking Gaelic the best thing you can do to help your child is to have a positive and supportive attitude towards their use of the language. As well as following advice in the previous section on creating a Gaelic environment in your home, you may also want to encourage your children by learning as much Gaelic as you can and using it with them. Even if you are less fluent than your children it will benefit them if you listen to them read and show an interest in other schoolwork.

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My partner and I are both Gaelic learners. We would like to make Gaelic the language of our home, but worry that it would be unnatural to do so as Gaelic is not our first language and there are no Gaelic speakers living near us.

Evidence shows that parents who have learned a second language can raise a family through the medium of that language. If parents speak Gaelic to the children from the beginning, they will not feel after a while that there is anything unnatural about it. Some parents who have learnt Gaelic feel that it is difficult to express affection for their new born baby in Gaelic and it is helpful if they can make contact with other parents who have Gaelic speaking children. Word lists and useful phrases are also available.