Learning With Us

A chairidean chóir,

Registration is open for the 2025 – 2026 academic year. Classes run from Tuesday, 2 September 2025 through Friday 26 June 2025.  All classes are live online via Zoom.

Maybe you came across our Language Village at a festival. Maybe you attended The Chesapeake Mòd.  Maybe you listened to 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.

We invite you to explore and discover the richness of Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic). You’ll enjoy a vibrant community of learners in interactive live online lessons, and intimate, traditional cèilidhean learning to speak, read, write, and most importantly, think freely in Gàidhlig.

‘S e do dhualchas a th’ ann! | It’s your heritage!

Sgoil Gàidhlig Bhaile an Taigh Mhóir teaches Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) in its contemporary and historical context, but to learn, to speak, Gàidhlig is more than to learn a language. It opens the door to a way of life, deeply rooted in the land, history, and traditions of its people. 

Sgoil Gàidhlig Bhaile an Taigh Mhóir is a gateway to immersing yourself in the Gàidhlig tradition. We are building a community more than just a classroom, a way of developing bonds with each other and both the land where we came from and the lands where we live, and a network of learners that includes people from across North America. We invite you to become part of this community and to experience the beauty of Gàidhlig culture. You’ll gain more than language skills. You’ll join a community dedicated to preserving and celebrating the Scottish Gaelic way of life and what that means for us in North America.

Gàidhlig ann an Ameireaga a Tuath

While those of us outside of Scotland and Nova Scotia are not in Gàidhlig communities with deep roots or living on the land that gave birth to our tradition, we drink from wells that followed our families here and open new wells of heritage through learning Gàidhlig.  As James Oliver (Seumas Chatriona Dhomhnuill Aonghais Bhig) wrote in Time and our moving wells of culture, “ . . .the wells of culture will be found popping up with all their potential, anywhere and everywhere, carried through the voices and relationships we nurture and come to know. . . . this can activate new dialogues, experiences, and gestures of cèilidh, and to embrace these for all in our communities, our futures, wherever the wells emerge.”

We also have been shaped by the history of colonization, both in our homeland and in the colonization of North America. We explore that in the podcast we hosted for two years, and see in our tradition a lens for examining that history and contributing to the future.

“I’ve long believed languages are more than mere codes, they’re constructs that help us view and understand the world and how to live in it. The concepts of dùthchas or dualchas both were used by the Gaels to express how a right life should be lived.

“What Gaelic can give us here, in North America, is a better understanding of how we could view the land and live on it and with it. What dùthchas and dualchas get at, in my opinion, is how we behave toward each other, and the land, which is as alive as we are, with its own history that is our history, not just a commodity to be continually developed and redeveloped. This is a gift that Gàidhlig can give us, the ability to see our world through a different lens, from a different, perhaps better, perspective.”

~ Liam Cassidy / Ó Caiside, Board Member of Sgoil Gàidhlig Bhaile an Taigh Mhóir

Will this be your year to join us?  We hope so.

• To read about our current faculty, click here.
• To learn more about us as an institution, click here.
• Scroll down for information on our classes and instructions on how to register.
  
• For the school calendar, click here.

Our curriculum – Developing Gàidhlig Speakers and Gaelic Thinkers

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

Our curriculum is 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 Tuesday, 2 September 2025 and run through Friday 26 June 2026.
• Replacing the individual classes in the last week of each month will be an all-school 1 1/2 hour Language Lab.  The Language Lab  allows our learners to mreet each other across classes and to use their Gàidhlig in a casual, social setting.
• 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 2025
• $180 due by 15 February 2026

• 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 of School, 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 2025.

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