Political revival of Scots Gaelic
After the nationalist politicians in Wales have been desperately reviving the Welsh language, Scotland's nationalist politicians have also started along a track to the detriment of the citizens who elected them as well. The Scottish Parliament passed the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act back in 2005, establishing a quango called "Bòrd na Gàidhlig" to push Scots Gaelic back into Education and Scottish life from it's defunct position.
It's a sorry day for the students who could otherwise be spending those 4-6 hours a week learning another popular language to give them an advantage in life.
At least Scotland isn't trying to mandate school lessons in Gaelic... yet.. See Wikipedia's Language revival and Languages of the United Kingdom articles for further information.
posted by Jon Grant, 東京 @ 23:04
6 Comments
6 Comments:
1. The Gaelic Language Act was passed by a Labour administration in Scotland, not a nationalist one.
2. While learning foreign languages is useful, one should start off by learning the native ones. In Scotland, these are English and Gaelic.
3. A bheil sibhse a' bruidhinn Gàidhlig - or have you ever made any attempt to learn Gaelic?
By the way, there is cross-party support for Welsh language policies in Wales. Only a few old-Labourites are hanging on to old-fashioned anti-Welsh attitudes.
Get with the program, Jon!
Gone are the days when the Welsh language was a nationalist issue, and the same goes in Scotland.
Do you not actually see that there are people (both Gaelic speakers and otherwise) that want to see the Gaelic language supported in some way?
You seem to think that one world of a handful of languages (or one?) is utopic? Do you not understand that language is one of the carriers of a culture, and without that richness and diversity of culture (which you see mto appreciate in other languages), might we just as well return to being unthinking amoeba floating about. Communicating freely, but communicating what exactly?
Hi Seonaidh, thanks for your reply.
Re (2), is there a benefit to learning a declining language like Scots Gaelic? It fell by 11% to 58,650 between the last census.
As article explains, revival have met with limited success. Why not invest the effort into something which will help the populace? A language they are likely to encounter regularly is better than one they will encounter rarely.
I've personally not made an attempt at learning Gaelic (Scots, Irish or Manx). Personally my focus is on French and Japanese.
Thanks for your post!
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nwdls,
I can definitely see there are people demanding their Gaelic language is perpetuated and supported in Education (like requiring schools to teach in Gaelic as has come about in Wales). Also there are people who don't speak Gaelic but are also supporting it's revival and persistence over a more useful second language.
You make a good point about culture, language does hold some culture, but culture crosses language barriers. Christmas being the best example I can think of.
I definitely don't think humanity should reduce to a single language. The multitude of common langues in the world are what makes life interesting. The issue is.. do we educate the next generation in something which will be genuinely useful (not a 2% of the country language, dropping by a further 11% over the last 10 yr census period). There is limited time in school, "wasting" it on a hobby language isn't a good use of the opportunity to learn in school.
I don't personally support Labour, however in this instance they propose a couple of good idea: English is 'priority' says Blears. Notable quotes:
"local authorities should "think carefully" about whether documents needed to be translated."
"If you want to get on, if you want to get a job, if you want to look after your family, the ability to speak the language is fundamental."
"We're saying to local authorities in particular - don't go translating all the documents that you used to in the past."
"Think very carefully about how you can bring people together."
This is all with reference to migrants to the UK, but it's all good planning.
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