The trouble with Gaelic
le Iain_Buthchanain
- BeurlaEnglish
- Gàidhlig ShìmplidhSimple Gaelic
- GàidhligGaelic
Why Gaelic isn't cool
People are always bemoaning the fact that young people don't want to learn Gaelic. Well I'll tell you why - it's because they're not seeing anything in Gaelic culture that they can connect with. And when the pinnacle of Gaelic popular culture is these guys, who can blame them? What is needed is something ultra-hip and trendy, that kids actually like. To this end I have decided to write and produce a Gaelic pop-trance tune in the style of All Around The World Records called "Cuan Eadarainn", have it sung by an attractive young lady and shoot a sexy video for it. The kids will lap it up! Is anybody interested in getting involved? To start with, my friends in my Gaelic class are going to give me some help in translating the lyrics (as my Gaelic isn't that great, I've written it in English first), and then I'll be looking for a vocalist.
posted by ctrnmorr
Dall ort ma tha and let us know how it goes.
posted by RoddyGVTR
cùm a' dol!
posted by AdhamhOBroin
Someone else who still believes the bulls@@t fed to him by the English-speaking world. If what you're proposing is what you really believe to be 'cool', away and do it in some shady club in Amsterdam where it will go down a storm.
Scotland doesn't need that kind of trash, what a shame you can't perceive Gaelic on her own terms, and that you think she needs to be made 'cool'.
This is exactly why we're in the state we're in with speakership. You and others like you are still judging Gaelic by a value system that is completely alien to her.
Tha i cho fior bhoidheach mar a tha i. Cha leag ise leas atharrachadh, 's tu fhèin a dh' fheumas atharrachadh a bhalaich! Fosgail do shùilean 's do chluasan....
posted by Iain_Buthchanain
Thanks for your measured and mature comments. Unfortunately, you seem to have completely misunderstood what it is that I’m trying to do. Firstly, let’s set the record straight. I have not swallowed anything “fed to me by the English-speaking world”. I am, in fact, a linguist. I’m a vociferous proponent of minority languages, and I’m diametrically opposed to the linguistic imperialism of English.
I have never tried to claim that there is anything wrong with traditional Gaelic music or culture; I love both of these things. Equally, there’s nothing wrong with pop-trance music. Sure it’s cheesy, but some of it is very, very good. Scotland may not “need that kind of trash” but like it or not, it’s the favoured musical genre of the majority of the nation’s youth population. Gaelic traditional music, no matter how beautiful or exciting – and by extension Gaelic itself – simply holds no interest for these young people. They see Gaelic as fusty and old-fashioned, and instead they want something that they consider relevant to their modern lives.
Let’s face hard facts. The speakership, and the learnership, of Gaelic are dwindling. The language is on its way to extinction. But Gaelic is not a relic of a bygone age; it is a vibrant, living language that has everything it needs to exist and function in the modern world. The problem is that young people – whom the language desperately needs as learners if it is to survive – don’t recognize this. What better way to attract them to Gaelic, to show them that it can be exciting and contemporary, than to present them with a great song, sung by a young attractive person, in a musical genre that they understand and admire?
Your unfortunate view is sadly shared by a great many people who are prepared to let Gaelic die, along with two thousand years of beautiful history and culture, rather than see it enter the twenty-first century.
posted by AdhamhOBroin
Acknowledged. And perhaps I'm on a bit of a gum-banger with that one....
....but I'll tell you how it is in Glasgow right now, in case you've been away for a good while:
Gaelic is, on it's own terms, so 'cool' I couldn't possibly describe it. The youth down here simply gasp if you tell them you've got Gaelic. And I mean that in a good way.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: there's only one thing backwards about the Gael, his refusal to speak his own language. It's the Gael that desperately needs to enter the 21st century, where Scotland is waking up to its identity after the cultural vacuum that has been the British Imperial nightmare, and her most ancient and salient badge of honour, Gaelic, is about to die, not because people in the Lowlands do not respect her, but because a good number of the people themselves who speak the language have yet to realise that the rest of Scotland stopped looking down on them long ago. Those that still do you can find on the corner with a bottle of Buckfast sharing round a brain-cell between them.
Why Gaelic has to be dragged from her roots without the slightest thought as to the appropriateness of such action I am at an absolute loss to understand. It is just crazy the amount of people who seem to believe that it's but another set of words, and that you can paint a coat of Gaelic onto any old English wall. You can't. You lose all sense of what was.
There is a 21st century to be lived in, but I will resist to my death the Anglo-American 21st century being shoved up the a**e of Scotland after the guts have been torn out so that it can be stuffed and sold to tourists. Scotland, and Gaelic, already have everything we need for life.
What can I say but that I pity those that feel they need to import in order to bolster their own cultural framework, while the building blocks for a strong native culture are already in place. If you want scantily-clad women and trance, there's plenty to be had through English, why does Gaelic need to be sexed up? Horses for courses sir!
I speak nothing but Gaelic to my three young children, who think nothing less of her than that she is THEIRS. they wouldn't part with her for anything. I think it's about time that some of the rest of the Gaelic-speaking world took a leaf out their book and dropped the slave-mentality -and the idea that they and their language must change to suit everyone else- that's kept them down since 1746....
posted by AdhamhOBroin
P.S: there is an element of that which could sound somewhat Facist.
To put that right, I have no issue whatsoever with the natural melting pot of cultures that most countries now are, in fact I find it a terrific thing that we are in closer contact with one another now -as a world- than we ever were.
But this comes with its own dangers. If you go anywhere in the world you'll find languages facing the same problems as Gaelic. But like I said, these are not just words, but markers of culture, and if the framework is dissolved, the words lose all meaning.
A strong culture like the German culture, for instance, can take in anything that is thrown at it and yet you can turn just about any corner in Berlin and find not only all sorts of cosmopolitan bars and cafès but a strong German undertone because it is pride that still underpins these people's perception of themselves.
This is not the case with Scotland. We're living under a cloud that is slowly lifting, but that needs a helping hand. This will not happen by selling out what we have, but by putting all our weight behind it. We must stop answering to cultural impetus from elsewhere.
Appreciate, wonder at, be thrilled by other cultures, but do not judge our own by the standards of others. It is simply not fair.
By Gaelic's own standards, she is dragging herself along an inch from her death. Do we lift her, and help her along while she regains her own dignity and strength, or do we doll her up in mainstream Saturday-night best to die?
The old bards'll be turning in their graves....
posted by Iain_Buthchanain
Your points are well-made and I appreciate what you're trying to say, but I think our disagreement is down to a difference in perspective. Perhaps because I lived abroad when I was a kid, have studied linguistics, have lived in London for so long and am a Eurocentric liberal, I tend to take a fairly international viewpoint on most things and naturally, that includes Gaelic. (Please do not take this to mean that I think your viewpoint is parochial.)
Yes, of course Gaelic history and tradition should be valued and fostered, but why should that be the end of it? I see Gaelic taking its first faltering steps onto the world stage. Why on earth should not Gaelic be used to do all manner of modern things? Why shouldn't there be Gaelic pop music in a diversity of genres, instead of a handful of dire indie bands who sound as much as twenty years out of date? There's already Gaelic TV, feature films and comic books. Why not this too? Why not a Gaelic video game? No idea is too outlandish, no option can be discounted. As far as I'm concerned, Gaelic needs all the help it can get.
You focus on persuading the Gael to speak his native language; I'll focus on promoting it to the rest of the world.
posted by AdhamhOBroin
Ceart a bhalaich, aontaichaidh sinn a bhith gun aontachadh, mar a chanas 'ad.... :)
posted by neilly71
To be honest Iain you didnt do yourself any favours with your title, as far as im concerned Gaidhlig is the coolest language on the planet, its a negative viewpoint to start from but aye, I have no problem with Gaidhlig being applied to any or all types of music.
posted by arasaig
Since I've been out of the country for some time (12 years), I don't know how things are in schools now, but I can tell you that growing up on the east coast of Scotland in the 70s, there was simply no options whatsoever to learn Gaelic in Primary of Secondary school, and I'll be honest with you that, at that age, I really didn't know any better, and perhaps that's still the problem.
Now, in my more (ahem!) mature years, I can appreciate it more, and I can tell you that I am kicking myself for not making the effort to learn sooner. I've had an on-and-off relationship with learning Gaelic, but lately I've been meeting with more success in spite of being in Baltimore, where outside opportunities to learn and meet people with Gaelic are thin on the ground, to say the least.
Just what IS the current situation in Scottish schools as regards the teaching of Gaelic. I have an awful feeling that not a lot has changed, especially on the east coast...
posted by IainBallygrant
Arasaig, my 15 year old and 12 year old are both taking Gaelic at school on the east coast, but it was not offered at the school until we pushed a bit. Progress, but still slow progress.
As for the above, we simply have to get the Gaels to speak Gaelic. We always seem to assume that conversations should be in english by default. Beats me why.
posted by IainBallygrant
Iain_Buthchanain, Gaelic is not taking its first steps on the world stage, far from it; english is in its infancy by comparison. As for your comments on our music, you have been gone to long. Try listening to Gunna Sound or Skerryvore for example.
posted by Iain_Buthchanain
English might be in its infancy by comparison, but there can be no doubt that it stands on the world stage, whereas Gaelic does not. As to the two bands you recommend, they are not performing in Gaelic and are therefore irrelevant to the discussion.