If you don’t know what “dia duit” means, it means “hello” in Irish. I have been learning Irish for a little over a week using Duo Lingo and, so far, I find it has been a much more natural process than I anticipated it would be. I’ve always had trouble learning other languages, not quite understanding the sentence structures, being able to roll Rs or remember tenses and genders of words. Fortunately for me, this program is dumbed down enough so even I can make sense of it. That’s not to say I’m not still stumbling over “siad” (they), “sí” (she) and “sé” (he), however.

I’ve wanted to learn Irish for a long time, years even, as I love everything about the culture and its history. From its mythology to its language, I find all of it incredibly interesting and aspire to at least visit Ireland in my lifetime.

So, while others made New Year’s resolutions that were probably more practical, I set my sights on learning Irish. I’m not typically one for resolutions for the New Year, so it was more coincidence than anything. My mentality around it is that you can start bettering yourself any day, it doesn’t have to the beginning of the year – starting anything before you’re ready usually doesn’t have any lasting power.

I don’t think learning Irish is something which will serve me in any kind of meaningful way besides enrichment, but I’m fine with that. It’s rewarding to make progress and feel like I’m retaining some of it, even if a few of the words are maddeningly similar – or so dissimilar you don’t have much recognizable context or syntax to help guide you.

I was intimidated by the prospect of learning Irish because of those obstacles, but I’ve been finding it easy to keep coming back to the metaphorical table and continue to try even when I struggle. Things I found difficult on day one have become easier with just a few days’ practice. It probably helps that there’s a widget on my phone’s home screen with the Duo Lingo owl in various states of anger or distress to encourage (read: guilt trip) me into picking up the day’s lesson. I can’t let the owl down, obviously - they’re counting on me.

All the recent snow days have given me ample time to carve out a daily session for practicing and I hope that is the kick start I needed to continue applying myself and create a positive habit. I’m excited to see how proficient I am by this time next year, should I keep up this momentum. My goal is pretty simple and attainable, in my opinion: I want to learn whatever I can. Ideally, I want to be able to read Irish and understand general conversation by ear or in written format. It will be even better if I can manage to read books in the language – but I believe I will need much more in-depth understanding of the language for such a lofty goal. In the meantime, I will be happy to count my accomplishments where I can, even if it’s just a one-week streak of taking my daily lessons to keep the green owl happy.

Until my next column, slán (goodbye)!

Standard reporter Nikki Childers can be contacted at design@southernstandard.com