Gaelic

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Reply 20

NDGAARONDI

Voboj

My point is that the resources are being directed so as to remedy a condition before it becomes irremediable.

Fair enough. :smile:

Reply 21

Voboj

Acaila

My point is that we shouldn't live in the past. Preserving culture is a good thing, but is language really that much a part of culture?

Language is in my opinion a vital part of culture. Culture is a way of understanding the world, a set of common assumptions and descriptions, which forms the basis for the transmission of knowledge between generations, and is a sine qua non without which human society is impossible. Humans do not communicate with each other by exchanging data like computers, but allude, imply and assume on the basis of a shared cultural inheritance. I feel it is natural to see language as central to this.

Therefore, when one's cultural inheritance is denigrated and eroded, and even explicitly condemned as irrelevant, it can be experienced as profoundly disempowering. I would draw your attention to the social problems that seem to inevitably arise in every instance I can think of where rapid cultural change is enforced - the so-called "culture shock".

I would suggest that although certain components of your cultural inheritance may not seem relevant to you right now, you might miss them in the future if they are gone. Or do you feel some utilitarian purpose is served by the imposition of a uniform culture and language? I would assert that we should embrace rather than marginalise Gaelic as providing us with a rich cultural inheritance. There are enough forces already atomising society and narrowing our vision.

Acaila

Blame it on the English seems to be the message of almost all of it. Wheras studying a language like French or German gives you an insight into a different culture - promoting tolerance rather than fostering resentment.

Personally I feel Scots themselves are entirely responsible for the current plight of Gaelic. I would not agree with what I see as the implication that to be interested in Gaelic is to be intolerant. Perhaps you are running the risk of appearing intolerant yourself if you accuse people of intolerance entirely on the basis of their cultural or ethnic identity.

Reply 22

Voboj

I would suggest that it falls to Scotland to allocate resources to support the development of Gaelic. I wouldn't expect a French or German school to allocate resources to teaching Gaelic, but I would expect them to allocate a lot of resources to teaching French and German language respectively.

If we were to concede that the different responsibilities for supporting the development of different elements of the world's diverse cultural inheritance fall to different people according to what aspects of this cultural diversity they participate most fully in, it seems reasonable to say that the Germans have a responsibility to the world to allocate resources to German culture and language, similarly the French have a responsibility towards French language and culture. It would be unreasonable for us to expect them to take any special interest in Gaelic. If Scotland does not allocate resources to support the development of Gaelic language and culture, no-one else will, and I would maintain that Scotland actually has a responsibility to the rest of the world to do so.