Tha deasbad tighinn às mar as àbhaist; seo beagan bho na beachdan aig an Albannach:
16
Masterpiece,
09/10/2010 11:18:37
Have been on holiday for a few weeks and come back to this story. How could Bord na Gaidhlig through the Scottish Government do this to any Gaelic organisation working with children and parents? Joshua Fishman the world expert on endangered language cannot be easily brushed aside.Report Unsuitable17
Sgithman,
Ross-shire 09/10/2010 11:52:43
Taic has dabbled in too many things and ignored what it was set up to support, leaving cròileagan groups high and dry.
If Leanne Hinton (yesterday's Scotsman) and Joshua Fishman rate Taic so highly, perhaps they should explain why, and on what basis this information has come to them. Just because Finlay tells them what he is doing, doesn't mean that he is doing it, or that people want to hear it. In my experience Finlay is great in theory but rotten in practice and I write as someone involved in a local Gaelic playgroup that was supposed to have been getting support from Taic.
The Taic organisation has had its day and it's time to do something better.Report Unsuitable18
Masterpiece,
09/10/2010 11:53:24
Had a great holiday in Canada and the USA and went to visit a number of the First Nation Communities while there.
I was very surprised that many were asking about the situation with Gaelic in Scotland and just many were well versed about the problems we share with all other communities who have used Canadian style French immersion education.
The topic on how the Scottish Government as opposed to the English Government (as they see it) was helping the Gaelic language and culture since it coming into office was never far away. Report Unsuitable19
Sgithman,
Ross-shire 09/10/2010 12:01:54
Yes indeed, Masterpiece. The Scottish Government has been supportive, and there is a heightened awareness of Gaelic across the world where minority languages exist.
But don't confuse the Scottish Government support with a decision taken by Bord na Gaidhlig to withdraw funding from an organisation that is not delivering. That is their right and so long as they put sufficient and efficient support in place, we could live without Taic, and perhaps some others not doing what they are supposed to do.Report Unsuitable20
Grumbleguts,
Aberdeen 09/10/2010 13:51:29
A language won't die out if it's spoken at home.
Why do they need organisations and teachers?
The language you choose to speak is free to learn from native speakers.
It's how I've learned to speak 4 languages.
Gaelic was never a native Scots language -it was brought here as Irish Gaelic by the invading Scots (from Ireland) who brought it with them.
They didn't need organisations to spread the language around - they simply spoke it.
Report Unsuitable21
Calum Crubag,
09/10/2010 15:11:03
#20 - so, no English language in schools then?
As to the Gaels invading? Have you got evidence? The most recent archaeological evidence (in BBC Scotland's Scotland's History a few years back) points to Dal Riata being settled up 500 years earlier than previously thought. Hence its possible the Ireland and Alba were settled by the Gaels at roughly the same time.
Though, if you have evidence, show us.Report Unsuitable22
Calum Crubag,
09/10/2010 15:11:49
A language won't die out if it's spoken at home.
So, Hebrew? Faroese? Latin? - Are they all 'dead'?Report Unsuitable23
Masterpiece,
09/10/2010 15:35:00
Sgithman.
When my family was young few people spoke about anything other than Gaelic playgroups, Finlay Macleod and CNSA and as there were no Gaelic mother and toddlers in my area at the time, we kept our children at home to preserve their Gaelic which we had passed on to them.
Today, these things are as you say old hat for in almost every tribe and first nation people I visited they say this is far to late as the child must learn their tribal/first nation language from birth for it to have any chance of survival.
The immersion style system in now Europe we learned came from English parents in Canada who wanted their children to learn French but only to work in the Canadian Government and had nothing whatsoever to do with language revitalisation, revival or sustainability.
Many of the First Nations who embarked upon French immersion pre-school or primary or high schools programmmes are now ditching them because often 95% plus children lose their immersion language within a short time of leaving school.
They are embarking on an education system which started in New Zealand and then Hawaii, combined with
work done with pre-birth Gaelic courses in Scotland.
No mention was made of Gaelic or any other playschool groups in North America other than the European system did not work for them.Report Unsuitable24
Statesman,
Edinburgh 09/10/2010 15:35:47
Finlay is not a good advert for Gaelic, more an empire builder and constant whinger/complainer. He is a loose cannon who is so hardline that he cannot even bring himself to give a nod of appreciation to those who give up their time to learn the language. If you're not born into it, you don't count in his book. What a negative attitude. Funding should have been cut off years ago. No one knows where he is or what he is doing !! Utter waste.Report Unsuitable25
Masterpiece,
09/10/2010 16:03:38
24
While I am not here to defend Finlay Macleod. The Pre-school group I went to only had one other parent who spoke Gaelic plus a Gaelic leader. I heard him recently talk about the fact that over 30 pre-school groups did not have a single Gaelic speaker among the parents.
Come on, I know some of you seem very jealous about the work he has done over the years but present the correct facts.
tuilleadh an seo:
http://news.scotsman.com/gaelic/Anger-a ... 6572977.jp