The time for adult evening classes for Manx Gaelic in the North is round again and this year there will be classes in Ramsey and St Judes. The Ramsey-based beginners’ class starts on Tuesday 4th October at 7.30pm at the Mitre Hotel in Ramsey in the Captain’s Bar (the smaller private room away from the main public bar).
Paul Salmon, who leads the classes in Ramsey, says “ People learn Manx for a quite wide variety of reasons: there are younger parents, or parents to be, who are really keen to give their kids a good start by speaking Manx to them right from the beginning , others that want to keep up with their children as they learn in the primary schools around the North of the Island, older ones that want to catch up on something they missed, and some who would just like to know about the placenames and signs we see around us”.
These days we teach beginners to listen and to speak everyday Manx for day-to-day conversation and we only look at old-fashioned grammar with those who want it. People can of course go onto do their TCG (Manx GCSE) in time and quite a few adult learners from Ramsey and the North have done that will flying colours.
Classes tend to be quite light-hearted, but people need a little bit of dedication to really get their teeth into it. People surprise themselves. Some learners got nowhere at school but have learned plenty of Manx in evening classes and now use it regularly with their friends and families.
In the North there are also number of conversation groups and Manx Gaelic get-togethers which continue through the year in various locations both daytime and evening and at the weekend.
Details of Paul’s beginners’ class and other Manx classes and activities in the North can be found on the website:
www.ramseymanxclass.com
There are plenty of resources to help learn Manx, too, including some really good smart phone apps for the very young and childrens’ books through to stuff on Youtube, modern novels and even technical books for the academic types. You may also have noticed the various manx language programmes on the radio. Culture Vannin’s web-site, www.learnmanx.com, is a great place to find details.
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