I sometimes think I should write a “gems from my bookshelf” series on this blog. I’ve collected language learning books for years, including the hardy stalwarts like the Teach Yourself and Colloquial series, as well as more off-the-beaten-track, lesser known courses. The latter type often deserve so much more recognition than the mainstream ones, and so it is with the excellent Progressive Gaelic series.
The author, Moray Watson, is a prominent figure in the field of Gaelic studies, serving as a Professor of Gaelic and Translation at the University of Aberdeen for over two decades. That shows in Progressive Gaelic – it comes across as a really comprehensive course that’s been designed to take students from zero to a high degree of competency. Spread across four books, it’s very well graded, too, with a real sense of progression.
One of the best touches is that Scottish history and culture is woven into the material throughout, in the vocabulary and reading passages. It’s certainly not a course that treats language in isolation, but uses a cross-disciplinary approach to set it in context. To back it all up, there’s also a nice set of workbooks to go alongside the course material.
Best of all, they’re really affordable, compared with other courses – you can pick up most of them for around a tenner brand new. And other learners have given their seal of approval – each of the volumes has almost five stars on Amazon. Give them a go – jump in at book 2 if you’re already on your Gaelic journey. They really do deserve some more attention and praise!
