Fiona Smith (Fionnghal Nic a’ Ghobhainn) was born and raised among the islands off the west coast of Canada and learned her Gaelic when she was a teenager. She began teaching it at the age of twenty-one and has been teaching Gaelic in various formats since 2012 — online college and continuing education courses, in-person intensive classes, and since the pandemic, she and her friend and mentor Angus MacLeod have been experimenting with a large variety of online teaching methods. She has written dozens of her own lessons and small courses on various aspects of the Gaelic language and brings to her teaching a deep knowledge of the history and development of Gaelic and also its cultural and historical context. But she is also a strong believer that learning should be fun and that laughter is a great aid to the memory!

She currently teaches online for the Gaelic College, which is based in Cape Breton, and also teaches her own independent online classes through Explore Gaelic, a small family-and-friends business.