Language benefits
Alan Thomson’s fury that his grandson will be“indoctrinated” and disadvantaged by being required to learn Gaelic may be misplaced (Letters, 2 May). My experience suggests otherwise.
My family moved from London to Dublin when I was nine. The peer group I joined had already had four years of compulsory tuition in Irish, command of which would later be required to enter university or government service at any level.
My sister and I grappled with this difficult language of baffling vocabulary, strange orthography and mysterious dots over consonants. In case one ancient language wasn’t enough we later took Latin and also studied French.
Most challenging of all was that English was taught as if it were itself a foreign language in a way that wasn’t the case in England. Little Irish girls expected spelling to be rigorously tested and rules of grammar mastered. “Decline”, “parse”, “analyse”, “conjugate” were language skills to be acquired in English as well as for Latin and Irish.
Aged 12, I knew what the words subject, predicate and object meant as applied to grammar, what prepositions, pronouns, adverbs and subordinate clauses were and how to use them, in four languages.
At 18, I embarked on a degree in Modern Languages before acquiring other degrees in less traditional fields.
Not once in over 50 years has it ever crossed my mind to think that learning a difficult language as a child was the “limitation” that Mr Thomson thinks it is, nor have I ever thought I was being “indoctrinated”.
All children should be aware that studying the language, culture and society that they inhabit is a right, not a“parochial” oblig at ion.Un for tunately, worldwide millions of children including countless girls are denied access to any form of schooling.
They might well envy as a privileged dream the learning opportunity that Highland Council is offering. It is a cultural good whose benefits can have a very long reach indeed and is one to be treasured. (DR) GERALDINE PRINCE Victoria Road, North Berwick
I’m sorry Alan Thomson is furious , but I think it’s him who is missing the point (Letters, 4 May). I was actually talking issue with his use of intemperate language in describing Gaelic as parochial and his description of Scottish Studies as political indoctrination.
On the subject of choice, pupils are not routinely compelled to retain Gaelic, but the situation is different where the parents (as opposed to grandparents) have chosen to enrol their children in a school providing Gaelic medium education.
As those of us who teach will verify, more and more par - ents are choosing this option because they are aware of the educational benefits of being bi or trilingual. To describe the promotion of an integral part of Scottish heritage as a Nationalist plot fuelled by ideology as Mr Thomson and Douglas Hamilton( Letters same day) say is frankly ludicrous.
It also flies in the face of fact in that the protection and promotion of Gaelic was enshrined in legislation by the Labour/lib Dem administration in 2005, two years before the SNP came to power.
Mr Hamilton describes Scottish Studies as “narrow”. I’m not sure what his exp er tise in this field is, but it doesn’ t appear to be high, and writing from the Isle of Arran (Eilean Arainn) he says Gaelic has no practical application outside the Highlands.
He maybe interested to hear that on other islands the uptake of Gaelic medium education is highest in the Eilean Siar authority with 27.16 per cent of pupils enrolled in GME.
GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburgh