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PeopleYou are in: Isle of Man > People > Learning Manx Remotely  House of the School Learning Manx RemotelyBy Martin Wade Manxman, Martin Wade is determined to master his native tongue, despite having no direct access to Manx language classes in South Wales. Why would you learn a language? To talk to the locals while on holiday? To be part of a group of like-minded people? I decided to learn a language hundreds of miles from where the limited number of speakers live. Even when I did visit there, I could happily speak in English and know I'd be understood. Even at the time, it seemed slightly perverse or mad, but two years ago I began to teach myself Manx.
My brother had started Manx evening classes in St Johns and his (then) 6-year old twins were learning a smattering at school. I'd learnt Welsh some years before, so the Celtic languages with their mutations seemed less terrifying. With age and distance, where I came from was more important to me; and what greater symbol of belonging than speaking the language of your home? (If not the language of all the people). I’d bought Abbyr Shen (an audio Manx course) and took it with me on holiday one July in Mid-Wales. I sat with the rain drumming on the roof of our static caravan while Douglas Faragher's dulcet tones got me started with the language. The course was peppered with his asides. To explain the use of 'who', he recalled the old native speaker, with whom he'd go to practice his Manx, would shout 'Quoi shen?' (Who's there?) when you knocked at his door. These were flickers of light among the dusk of verb tables and tenses, insights into a time when Manx was commonly used. I felt the thrill of knowing our language, something unique to the island that didn't exist anywhere else.  Many people now use Manx every day Back home, I'd print out a lesson a day from Brian Stowell's Yn Bun Choorse and complete it on the bus to work. These tight little exercises would take exactly 20 minutes - the length of my journey and to which I owe much of my knowledge of Manx, particularly the word for seat-belt. Two years on, I admit my Manx is rusty. I used to be able to get through ‘Fockle ayns dty chleaysh ' the Gaelic column in The Examiner with only 5 or 6 glances at the dictionary. Now, I glance from word list to article and back again like a Wimbledon umpire.  Why not join your local conversational Manx class? One thing which keeps my interest in Manx is the sense of discovering something hidden about my country. The language had once been widely spoken and even more amazingly had been brought back from the brink by devotees like the late Douglas Faragher. So I must say 'Gura mie mooar ayd' (thank you very much) to him for this and for inspiring me to learn Gaelic. last updated: 04/04/2008 at 12:07 Have Your SayDoes the Manx language need more promotion? If not, why not?
Daniel Olivé
Gemma
Diarmuid Ó Raghallaigh
Jim Morrison
Irish speaker
adrian cain
Voirrey
Wendy Hurst
Bob
Chris
Noreen
hugo rau You are in: Isle of Man > People > Learning Manx Remotely 
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