As you may know, if you are completing the Irish Language requirement, you will have to attend the Gaeltacht for 3 weeks. If you are just beginning your Irish Language Requirement journey then be sure to check out this post for more information: How to complete your Irish Language Requirement
Before you book and pay for any course, do check if you are eligible for any exemptions first of all. For instance, if you studied Irish in College and attended the Gaeltacht then, you may be eligible to be exempt from a week or so of the Gaeltacht requirement. Find more information on this here: Exemption Policy.
For the past week, I completed my week with Coláiste Naomh Éanna and have had a great experience with them. This post will relate to my experience with this Gaeltacht, so bare that in mind that other Gaeltacht courses will differ slightly.
What to expect from the Gaeltacht as an OCG student.
Having just completed a week in the Gaeltacht, I will list below some of content covered and things that I noticed throughout the week.
- The main focus of this week at the Gaeltacht is the written exam, the oral exam and the aural exam. If you have these exams to do then attending the Gaeltacht in the lead up to your exams would be beyond helpful to you.
- The teachers are helpful and dedicated to delivering the content simply and effectively. They go through each part of the exam in detail, providing you with excellent notes to help you when studying for these exams further.
- You don’t have to have fluent Irish to attend these weeks at the Gaeltacht. The teachers are extremely patient and often translate some of the tricky concepts into English. I know this is a concern of many who are attending the Gaeltacht, but from what I saw this week, all abilities attend.
- Comprehensive, detailed notes are given before each Oral Irish practice. As well as that, the teachers do help you along too if you’re struggling to string a sentence together.
- You are provided to a link to a Dropbox, jam-packed full of sample written questions and oral answers, which is invaluable to anyone completing their exams for the OCG/SCG. More details below:
What if you are exempt from the exams?
If, like me, you are exempt from the written, oral and aural exams, then the content mentioned above may seem irrelevant to you. Coláiste Naomh Éanna have many teachers on board, some of which offer content more like what is mentioned below:
When can I complete my weeks at the Gaeltacht?
This year, the Gaeltacht courses are on line as a result of Covid-19. The course is 400 euro per week and run during the school holidays.
If you have completed the exams at Easter time, then the Gaeltacht course that you attend in the Summer will be more focused on using Gaeilge in the classroom. The weeks in which they will run this year are available here or in the image below.
Before you sign up, give them a ring and discuss what stage of the OCG/SCG you are at. They will advise you as a result which class will be of most use to you, ensuring value for money and purposeful content.
If you have any other questions, feel free to leave them below or send an email to Coláiste Naomh Éanna for further information.
Other posts that might be of interest to you:
Settling Back into life in Ireland- Car Insurance, Garda Vetting and Money talks.
Applying for Jobs in Ireland: What I’ve Learned
Primary Language Curriculum: What I have learned.
