Learning With Us

A chairidean chóir,

Tha sinn an dòchas gum bi samhradh math agaibh uile. (We hope you are all having a good summer.)

You can still register for the 2023 – 2024 academic year. Classes run from Tuesday, 5 September  through Friday 28 June 2024.  

Maybe you come across our Language Village at a festival. Maybe you participated in our Facing Our History: The North American Gael podcasts. Maybe you saw us online.  Maybe you know someone who is already learning with us.  However you found your way to this page, you are most welcome.  Will this be your year to join us?  We hope so.

Tòisicheamaid air slighe na Gàidhlig an-diugh!
Let’s Start Down the Gàidhlig Path Today!

To read about our faculty, click here.  To learn more about us as an institution, click here.  Please read more about our classes below. Scroll down for instructions on how to register.  We hope you will join us.

CLICK THE CALENDAR LINK BELOW FOR THE 2023-2024 SCHEDULE
Sgoil Gàidhlig Bhaile an Taigh Mhóir School Calendar 2023 – 2024

Our curriculum – Developing Gàidhlig Speaker and Gaelic Thinkers

Sgoil Gàidhlig is dedicated to cultivating new Gàidhlig speakers and thinkers using methods that honor and perpetuate Scottish Gaelic culture and language.

We started as a small study group in an Irish pub on North Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland. As interest grew, we pivoted to an online format.  We took that step because we believed it would lead to enhanced language learning in the context of a growing Gàidhlig language community in the Chesapeake region, and we are very excited about the Gàidhlig learning community growing here.  While most of our students are still within the Chesapeake watershed, we now have people learning with us from San Francisco to Vermont, and Halifax to Alabama. Even with that growth, we remain driven by the desire to maintain a warm, intimate approach to language learning that builds community.

Our curriculum is now divided into seven levels:

• New Beginners
• Advanced Beginners
• Intermediate 1
• Intermediate 2
• Advanced 1
• Advanced 2
• ‘Fluent’

Learning Gàidhlig with us

• Language lessons are provided once a week for 1 hour, using Zoom from Monday, 4 September  and run through Friday 28 June 2024.
• Replacing the individual classes in the last week of each month will be an all-school 1 1/2 hour Language Lab on the last Thursday of each month.  We started the Language Lab in the 2021 – 2022 academic year to foster a forum that allows learners to use their Gàidhlig in a casual, social setting. The Language Lab will divide learners by learning level, and a teacher will be assigned to the lab for each learning level.
• The units of the curriculum provide progressive, integrated, measurable content that prepares the student to move up levels with confidence. Each individual level requires about one calendar year to complete.
• The syllabus for each level is based primarily upon the Gàidhlig grammar lessons found on the Taic.me.uk website, enhanced by educational materials from Teach Yourself: Complete Gaelic, by Boyd Robertson and Iain Taylor, and other educational Gàidhlig material that Mr. Morrison has used over the years or has been developed within our school.

Our Approach: Developing Gàidhlig thinkers and speakers

Many language learning systems emphasize either fluency or literacy. While few, if any, are purely one or the other, most emphasize one or the other. A strict emphasis on fluency in spoken language might lead to faster conversational ability, while a strict influence on literacy might produce conversational ability at a slower pace while grammatical or theoretical understanding of the language develops faster.

The pedagogical approach of Sgoil Gàidhlig attempts to balance the two. While designed to foster conversational ability in Scottish Gaelic, the curriculum has at its core the principle that the worldview of the people is embedded in the language, and that familiarity with the culture permits a more nuanced and deeper understanding of the spoken tongue.

The program overall will strive to strengthen the student’s understanding of meanings behind the grammar and vocabulary. Each unit incorporates reading comprehension by using texts that are both of a conversational and, as the modules progress, a literary nature. Further, we incorporate historical and cultural material aimed at developing a deeper understanding of Scottish Gaelic heritage.

In all units we strive to immerse the students in the flavor, character, mindset, thinking processes, and worldview of Gàidhlig and the Gael. Hopefully the result will be that we produce Gàidhlig thinkers as well as Gàidhlig speakers.

Tuition & Registration

Payment Schedule

• $180 due upon acceptance of the registration
• $180 due by 15 November 2022
• $180 due by 15 February 2023

• To register, click on: Student Enrollment Application Form. Please include your name, physical address, email address, telephone number(s), and some information as to how you became interested in learning Gàidhlig, including prior study, if appropriate. Return the completed form to sgoilgaidhlig@gmail.com.  We will contact each person to arrange an interview with our head teacher, Scott Morrison.
• If you have questions about the program or which learning group is appropriate for you, or have problems with our enrollment form, please write to sgoilgaidhlig@gmail.com.
• If you cannot commit to the online sessions, but are interested in the conversations, céilidhean, or other activities we may host, please write to sgoilgaidhlig@gmail.com and we will include you on our mailing list.

Late Registrations

New students can be admitted during the course of the year, but integrating students into the classes once classes have started can be challenging.  Therefore, such admissions are made on a case-by-case basis following a telephone interview with the Head Teacher, Scott Morrison. If you would like to apply for admission during the year, or be placed on a waiting list, write to sgoilgaidhlig@gmail.com.

Policy Regarding Withdrawal of Registered Students From Classes

Students withdrawing from classes must submit a written statement outlining their reasons for withdrawing and the date of withdrawal. This must be sent by email to sgoilgaidhlig@gmail.com and copied to the student’s teacher.  If the student is on a payment plan for tuition, tuition will still be due if no formal written statement of withdrawal is received by the school because it will be assumed by the school that the absentee student will be keeping up with classes via the use of the video recordings.  No tuition forgiveness will be possible for any student withdrawing after 15 November 2023.

Mòran taing a h-uile duine.
Suas Leis a’ Ghàidhlig