Alison Curtis: My daughter is teaching me the best life lessons... and a little bit of Gaeilge

Alison Curtis 

Needless to say, when I moved to Ireland in 1999 as a Canadian citizen I had zero Irish. When I first stumbled across TG4 I was so confused as it sounded like nothing I had ever heard before.

Very quickly I realised Ireland is a bilingual nation and everyone I met had learned it in school. Much in the same way French was part of our school curriculum in Ontario from the age of 4 until the end of secondary school. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean I am fluent by any stretch of the imagination and most of us feel how it was taught didn’t entice us to speak it outside of school.

Fast forward to having my own child in school in Ireland and Irish is very much one of the main subjects. During Joan’s first few years of school, I got a kick out of learning as she was learning. All the colours (corcra being my favourite to say!), all the numbers and animals. I really felt at Senior Infants level I was on top of my Irish. Now that she is in 4th class, Irish has kicked up a notch and it is wonderful to watch her learn it and enjoy learning it.

I think a big part of her enjoyment comes from flipping our roles and she becomes the teacher.

Just this past week at homework time I had to get her to explain what the Irish homework actually was as it was written in Irish. 

Which lead her on to the idea of getting me to use one of her spare copy books and do the homework myself.

We were reading a story about Oisin who had to go to the dentist, or the fiaclóir, I should say. The homework was to learn the many ways to say that you have a pain somewhere in your body. I honestly feel you could quiz me now and I would ace it. Tá cos tinn agam. Tá lámh tinn agam and so on!

Joan was in her element and made me repeat the words over and over again until I heard them and said them correctly. It shifted the mood and lifted it. I felt she was retaining more and more by helping me to learn.

It just reminded me of how much we can learn from our children, something we know but at times we forget. They ground us and reaffirm the most important lessons in life through us just simply watching them be who they are. They are good, they are kind and they have a world view that perhaps many of us have outgrown as we grew up.

But as Joan gets older and travels through school she is also teaching me so much that I may have forgotten (my nine times tables) and bringing so many new pieces of information and concepts to me too, like Irish.

I really worried that I wouldn't be able to help Joan at all with Irish at all when she started school. I was looking forward to playing a big part in helping her with English, History, Geography and Science. But Math and Irish I was planning on leaving solely to my husband to help her with.

However, it turns out I was completely wrong in assuming I would be of absolutely no use to her with Irish as she went through school, it turns out I think I am an asset. She learns by having to teach her mother and she takes great pride in it!