Each month, Culture Vannin’s Manx language development officer, Ruth Keggin Gell, contributes a column to Island Life.

I recently spent three days completely off-grid – no internet, no phone signal, nothing – and it was GLORIOUS.

‘So what?!’, you might be thinking. But these days, where so many of us are constantly connected via digital devices, beholden to their electronic beeps, pings and rings, it can feel – and for some people, be – almost impossible to get away from.

And then there’s the addictive doomscrolling – the compulsion to scroll through videos, photos and posts on social media. You don’t mean for it to take up so much time, but it somehow does.

I don’t know about you, but the more that I spend time on apps that are supposed to connect us, the emptier I feel, and clashing political views (both big ‘P’ and little ‘p’) seem to rile people to wage war with their words in a way that they just wouldn’t do if they weren’t protected by their keyboards.

The status quo can sometimes be a bitter pill to swallow… so what can we do to make it just that bit sweeter, and try and bring people together via the world-wide-web?

Unsurprisingly I’m going to go in with a Manx language slant (how on brand!) and recommend following social media beacons of positivity, such as @un_ockle – where Jen Thistle encourages daily use of very simple Manx – or @ceol_eoin_macuilleam where Owen Williams gives brilliant breakdowns of Manx place names, words and phrases.

If you’re keen to connect more with Manx, and can’t reach in-person classes, there are a myriad of online resources, but also online in-person classes to help you be part of a community of Manx speakers, wherever you are in the world.

In fact, in January this year, Culture Vannin launched a 16-week beginner Manx course, ‘Global Gaelg’, aimed particularly at people in vastly different time zones to Mannin, such as North America and the Southern Hemisphere.

Delivered online via Zoom, the classes were devised and led by Dr. Lauren Collister, a linguist based in Pennsylvania who first began learning Manx in 2021 after discovering our online opportunities during lockdown.

Supported through a Treisht26 grant from Culture Vannin for the Year of the Manx Language, the course welcomed learners from a wide range of countries and backgrounds.

Some students have family connections to the Isle of Man and the course was a way to reconnect with their heritage and identity. Others were simply fascinated by minority languages and the story of Manx revitalisation.

UNESCO describes languages as essential to ‘peace, tolerance and respect for difference’. In a world where people are often encouraged to retreat into narrow identities or online echo chambers, language learning teaches us to do the opposite: to be curious, to be more empathetic, and to remember that there are many different ways to see things.

Wherever someone joins in a Manx class from – be it Ballasalla, Baltimore or Brisbane – they become part of the Manx language community, and that’s a beautiful thing.