Scottish Journalists – an Endangered Species?

‘Leave endangered languages to die in peace’

This is a response to an article by a Roxanne Sorooshian in the Sunday Herald 19 September 2010

http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/roxanne-sorooshian/leave-endangered-languages-to-die-in-peace-1.1055994

Those of us who don’t live around Glasgow have central belt dominated media rammed down our throats. Look no further than the Herald and Sunday Herald. Before I gave it up as a waste of paper and waste of my time, it served up the same diet of central belt news and arts again and again. Its journalists too lazy or indifferent to look for anything happening anywhere except their own backyards.

As for Gaelic, it is spoken by many in Glasgow because of the historical influx of West Highlanders into Glasgow for work and housing. It is a peculiar thing that some people are so ignorant of the history of the country they live in that they see what they don’t understand as a threat as well as irrelevance.

I am more offended by the thousands who flocked to Bellahouston to breath in the same air as the Pope than that railway signs are in Gaelic or that the Pope included one of Scotland’s languages in the nonsense he was talking. So the ‘pilgrims’ at Bellahouston might have been perplexed by the Pope’s Gaelic as Latin. What do you suggest, he speak parliamo Glesga?

By the way, it is not true to suggest Gaelic was only spoken in the Highlands. Again your ignorance of Scotland’s history is regrettable.

Schools are closing – and have been for years. They have also been very run down for years and years under Labour governments. Horrible places for children to learn in and for teachers and other staff to work in. The money spent on Gaelic education is not going to make any difference to the overall state of our schools, the problem of large class sizes or any of the countless problems which beset our schools and pupils.

It is a bizarre argument to complain that parents will send their kids to a Gaelic school to benefit from smaller class sizes. What do you think goes on in these schools? The kids do not just sit around speaking Gaelic. They are schools – have to stick to the same principles and regulations as other schools. Kids sit the same exams. Evidently logical thought isn’t one of your talents.

You chuck in a statement about preserving cultural heritage but that’s just tokenism – you don’t mean it. How can you? You’ve no idea what it means. What is all this about forcing everyone to speak Gaelic. I don’t. Equally I don’t mind the money spent on it. There are so many things that money is mis-spent on in this country, Gaelic is the least of them.

Garbage statements such as ‘Perhaps it’s healthier to leave well alone. After all, no-one ever forgot the dodo’ just sum up this silly piece of work. Where it is possible to preserve animals or languages or whatever then that should be done. It is amazing that anyone should think otherwise.

Where there are people in this country appreciate the language of their ancestors – a language which has a rich heritage in song and literature – should be encouraged. If we let our language slide, we will end up with accountants running every aspect of our lives. Perhaps you have missed your calling.

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