1. Make your language learning goal attainable : It goes without saying that most New Year's resolutions are easier announced than done-but if you set the bar too high, you're doomed from the start. Instead of a sweeping declaration like "I will learn to speak Spanish this year’’, try something more attainable such as ‘’ I will book a course in Spanish so that I can order a meal in a restaurant in Madrid.’’ In 2012 make it your aim to be able to read a simple book. By taking small attainable steps in language learning, you are less likely to become disheartened by the process.
2. Don't overburden yourself: It's difficult enough for the average person to follow through on one ambitious New Year's resolution; why on earth would you saddle yourself with five or six? If learning a language is just one of five resolutions, it might remain an unfulfilled ambition rather than a planned goal. Try to keep your resolution list short. If you do have other goals, such as weight loss, why not combine goal planning for the two? For example, combine 10 minutes running with listening to your language learning CD.
3 Share your goals: There’s an old adage that a problem shared is a problem halved, and the same can be true of New Year’s Resolutions. The more people to whom you announce your resolution, the more people there'll be to prod you along if you fall behind. There's no shame in seeking help if you can't accomplish your resolution on your own. Equally, by telling people about your plans, the more people will help you achieve your goal. Why would your Aunt buy that German book in the bric-a-brac sale if she does not know you are learning German?
4 Reward yourself: Following through on a New Year's resolution is rarely easy, so a little reward here and there along the way can provide motivation. For many language learners, actually speaking the language is the greatest reward. So why not plan a trip abroad, if only for a short weekend break to give a boost to your language learning? If money doesn’t stretch to a weekend break, why not visit a local restaurant specialising in the gastronomy of your target language? The waiters may even speak your target language and could be a great source of practice!
5 Language learning is a fun process, not a calendar driven task: Sometimes the best way to accomplish a New Year's resolution is to make it at a time of year of your choosing, rather than the one dictated by the calendar. This is especially true of language learning. You might want to kick start your learning with a holiday to your target language destination or perhaps your evening course only starts in Spring? Don’t forget however, that language learning is a continual process that you can enjoy throughout your lifetime. Learning a few words every day is better than a couple of weeks intensive learning in January merely to fulfil a New Year’s Resolution
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Happy New Year!
A very Happy New Year from us all here at RA Languages. We hope that 2011 will be a big year for us and that you will be part of it!
A very Happy, prosperous and linguistically enriching 2011 to you all!
A very Happy, prosperous and linguistically enriching 2011 to you all!
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Sri Lanka drops minority language version of National Anthem
Sri Lanka scrapped its national anthem's minority Tamil language version yesterday, a move that may add to the country's ethnic tensions after a bloody decades-long civil war.
Public Administration Minister John Seneviratne said Monday the Cabinet decided only the original Sinhalese-language version of the song should be sung publicly.
Sri Lanka's constitution recognizes the version sung in Sinhala, the language spoken by the country's ethnic majority. But it is ambiguous about the Tamil version.
"There is only one national anthem which is constitutionally recognized," Seneviratne said.
The decision could further divide a nation that has just emerged from a 25-year civil war that claimed at least 80,000 lives.
The Tamil-language anthem has been sung in Tamil schools and public offices in Tamil-majority areas for nearly 60 years, constitutional lawyer Jayampathy Wickramaratne said.
Suresh Premachandran, a lawmaker from the Tamil National Alliance party, said the decision imposes an unfamiliar language on the Tamil people.
"This will only widen the gap between the Tamil and Sinhala people," he said. "We are urging the government to withdraw this (decision)."
Public Administration Minister John Seneviratne said Monday the Cabinet decided only the original Sinhalese-language version of the song should be sung publicly.
Sri Lanka's constitution recognizes the version sung in Sinhala, the language spoken by the country's ethnic majority. But it is ambiguous about the Tamil version.
"There is only one national anthem which is constitutionally recognized," Seneviratne said.
The decision could further divide a nation that has just emerged from a 25-year civil war that claimed at least 80,000 lives.
The Tamil-language anthem has been sung in Tamil schools and public offices in Tamil-majority areas for nearly 60 years, constitutional lawyer Jayampathy Wickramaratne said.
Suresh Premachandran, a lawmaker from the Tamil National Alliance party, said the decision imposes an unfamiliar language on the Tamil people.
"This will only widen the gap between the Tamil and Sinhala people," he said. "We are urging the government to withdraw this (decision)."
Monday, 25 October 2010
Minority Languages in the majority and dead languages come alive on Wikipedia
Language usage is difficult to measure. One indicator could be to what extent languages are used online.
Wikipedia produces statistics of how many articles are produced per language. It is thereofre useful to show how many articles are produced in European minority languages (shown in red), against European official languages (shown in bold, and world languages (shown in italics). Heritage languages and constructed languages are also shown in red.
There are some surprising results! Catalan is ranked number 13 and beats many state languages such as Turkish and Finnish.
Esperanto (25) and Volapük (29) show that constructed languages are still being widely used online. 'Dead' languages such as Latin and Anglo-Saxon are also very much alive on Wikipedia.
Another 'big winner' on Wikipedia is Aromanian. Little known as a language outside Eastern Europe, it ranks at 43 with some 65,000 articles, ahead of Basque, Hindi and Greek.
Surprisingly for European official languages, Irish ranks at just 93, Maltese at 149 and Moldovan at just 222.
Of course the results are not entirely scientific as Wikipedia will be more popular in some countries than others.
The results in full:
The top 100
1 English en 3,447,222
2 German Deutsch de 1,137,965
3 French Français fr 1,020,886
4 Italian Italiano it 738,618
5 Polish Polski pl 738,514
6 Japanese 日本語 ja 711,033
7 Spanish Español es 661,490
8 Dutch Nederlands nl 647,194
9 Portuguese Português pt 618,534
10 Russian Русский ru 607,251
11 Swedish Svenska sv 372,863
12 Chinese 中文 zh 329,711
13 Catalan Català ca 289,303
14 Norwegian (Bokmål) Norsk (Bokmål) no 278,192
15 Finnish Suomi fi 252,091
16 Ukrainian Українська uk 236,556
17 Hungarian Magyar hu 178,204
18 Czech Čeština cs 175,871
19 Romanian Română ro 151,504
20 Turkish Türkçe tr 151,045
21 Korean 한국어 ko 145,649
22 Vietnamese Tiếng Việt vi 137,443
23 Danish Dansk da 136,944
24 Arabic العربية ar 136,310
25 Esperanto Esperanto eo 135,854
26 Serbian Српски / Srpski sr 134,781
27 Indonesian Bahasa Indonesia id 133,650
28 Lithuanian Lietuvių lt 119,963
29 Volapük Volapük vo 118,833
30 Slovak Slovenčina sk 118,157
31 Hebrew עברית he 110,036
32 Bulgarian Български bg 107,524
33 Persian فارسی fa 107,259
34 Slovenian Slovenščina sl 101,688
35 Waray-Waray Winaray war 100,446
36 Croatian Hrvatski hr 88,575
37 Estonian Eesti et 78,877
38 Malay Bahasa Melayu ms 74,374
39 Newar / Nepal Bhasa new 69,558
40 Simple English Simple English simple 65,148
41 Galician Galego gl 63,770
42 Thai ไทย th 63,468
43 Aromanian Armãneashce roa-rup 61,286
44 Norwegian (Nynorsk) Nynorsk nn 60,365
45 Basque Euskara eu 59,355
46 Hindi हिन्दी hi 57,126
47 Greek Ελληνικά el 56,557
48 Haitian Krèyol ayisyen ht 53,044
49 Latin Latina la 45,808
50 Telugu te 45,788
51 Georgian ქართული ka 43,319
53 Macedonian Македонски mk 42,134
54 Azeri Azərbaycan az 38,267
55 Tagalog Tagalog tl 36,998
56 Breton Brezhoneg br 35,644
59 Luxembourgish Lëtzebuergesch lb 31,213
61 Latvian Latviešu lv 30,470
62 Bosnian Bosanski bs 29,854
63 Icelandic Íslenska is 29,758
64 Welsh Cymraeg cy 29,052
65 Belarusian (Taraškievica) Беларуская (тарашкевіца) be-x-old 28,646
66 Piedmontese Piemontèis pms 28,623
67 Albanian Shqip sq 28,283
68 Tamil தமிழ் ta 25,476
70 Belarusian Беларуская be 24,615
71 Aragonese Aragonés an 22,863
72 Occitan Occitan oc 22,520
73 Bengali বাংলা bn 21,852
74 Swahili Kiswahili sw 21,025
76 Ripuarian Ripoarisch ksh 18,205
77 Lombard Lumbaart lmo 17,878
78 West Frisian Frysk fy 17,745
80 Low Saxon Plattdüütsch nds 16,516
81 Afrikaans Afrikaans af 16,316
82 Sicilian Sicilianu scn 16,075
83 Quechua Runa Simi qu 16,069
84 Kurdish Kurdî / كوردی ku 15,219
85 Urdu اردو ur 14,863
86 Sundanese Basa Sunda su 14,684
87 Malayalam മലയാളം ml 14,676
88 Cantonese 粵語 zh-yue 14,421
89 Asturian Asturianu ast 13,862
90 Neapolitan Nnapulitano nap 13,154
91 Samogitian Žemaitėška bat-smg 12,594
92 Walloon Walon wa 11,789
93 Irish Gaeilge ga 11,601
94 Chuvash Чăваш cv 11,601
95 Armenian Հայերեն hy 11,092
96 Yoruba Yorùbá yo 10,155
97 Kannada ಕನ್ನಡ kn 9,446
98 Tajik Тоҷикӣ tg 9,144
99 Tarantino Tarandíne roa-tara 8,842
100 Venetian Vèneto vec 8,754
Other rankings
103 Scottish Gaelic Gàidhlig gd 8,031
106 Tatar Tatarça / Татарча tt 7,495
107 Uzbek O‘zbek uz 7,490
109 Ossetian Иронау os 7,321
114 Kazakh Қазақша kk 6,547
116 Limburgian Limburgs li 6,257
117 Upper Sorbian Hornjoserbsce hsb 6,141
119 Corsican Corsu co 5,902
121 Amharic am 5,395
122 Mongolian Монгол mn 5,342
123 Interlingua Interlingua ia 5,333
125 Võro Võro fiu-vro 4,399
126 Dutch Low Saxon Nedersaksisch nds-nl 4,320
127 Faroese Føroyskt fo 4,309
128 Turkmen تركمن / Туркмен tk 4,215
129 West Flemish West-Vlams vls 4,183
130 Scots sco 4,180
131 Sinhalese si 4,032
132 Sanskrit sa 3,961
133 Bavarian Boarisch bar 3,687
134 Burmese my 3,660
135 Manx Gaelg gv 3,572
137 Norman Nouormand/Normaund nrm 3,451
139 Romansh Rumantsch rm 3,354
143 Northern Sami Sámegiella se 3,004
147 Friulian Furlan fur 2,868
148 Ligurian Líguru lij 2,805
149 Maltese Malti mt 2,736
153 Kashubian Kaszëbsczi csb 2,497
155 Sardinian Sardu sc 2,433
156 Classical Chinese 古文 / 文言文 zh-classical 2,385
157 Khmer km 2,379
158 Ladino Dzhudezmo lad 2,353
160 Anglo-Saxon Englisc ang 2,255
162 Tibetan bo 2,188
164 Franco-Provençal/Arpitan Arpitan frp 2,131
166 Cornish Kernewek/Karnuack kw 1,960
167 Punjabi pa 1,931
170 Silesian Ślůnski szl 1,801
173 Saterland Frisian Seeltersk stq 1,646
176 Crimean Tatar Qırımtatarca crh 1,545
190 Emilian-Romagnol Emiliàn e rumagnòl eml 1,114
192 Picard Picard pcd 1,087
198 North Frisian Frasch frr 884
206 Chechen Нохчийн ce 661
210 Lower Sorbian Dolnoserbski dsb 632
215 Romani romani - रोमानी rmy 501
218 Old Church Slavonic Словѣньскъ cu 471
222 Moldovan Молдовеняскэ mo 401
252 Xhosa isiXhosa xh 115
253 Sesotho Sesotho st 112
261 Twi Twi tw 69
262 Shona chiShona sn 64
Wikipedia produces statistics of how many articles are produced per language. It is thereofre useful to show how many articles are produced in European minority languages (shown in red), against European official languages (shown in bold, and world languages (shown in italics). Heritage languages and constructed languages are also shown in red.
There are some surprising results! Catalan is ranked number 13 and beats many state languages such as Turkish and Finnish.
Esperanto (25) and Volapük (29) show that constructed languages are still being widely used online. 'Dead' languages such as Latin and Anglo-Saxon are also very much alive on Wikipedia.
Another 'big winner' on Wikipedia is Aromanian. Little known as a language outside Eastern Europe, it ranks at 43 with some 65,000 articles, ahead of Basque, Hindi and Greek.
Surprisingly for European official languages, Irish ranks at just 93, Maltese at 149 and Moldovan at just 222.
Of course the results are not entirely scientific as Wikipedia will be more popular in some countries than others.
The results in full:
The top 100
1 English en 3,447,222
2 German Deutsch de 1,137,965
3 French Français fr 1,020,886
4 Italian Italiano it 738,618
5 Polish Polski pl 738,514
6 Japanese 日本語 ja 711,033
7 Spanish Español es 661,490
8 Dutch Nederlands nl 647,194
9 Portuguese Português pt 618,534
10 Russian Русский ru 607,251
11 Swedish Svenska sv 372,863
12 Chinese 中文 zh 329,711
13 Catalan Català ca 289,303
14 Norwegian (Bokmål) Norsk (Bokmål) no 278,192
15 Finnish Suomi fi 252,091
16 Ukrainian Українська uk 236,556
17 Hungarian Magyar hu 178,204
18 Czech Čeština cs 175,871
19 Romanian Română ro 151,504
20 Turkish Türkçe tr 151,045
21 Korean 한국어 ko 145,649
22 Vietnamese Tiếng Việt vi 137,443
23 Danish Dansk da 136,944
24 Arabic العربية ar 136,310
25 Esperanto Esperanto eo 135,854
26 Serbian Српски / Srpski sr 134,781
27 Indonesian Bahasa Indonesia id 133,650
28 Lithuanian Lietuvių lt 119,963
29 Volapük Volapük vo 118,833
30 Slovak Slovenčina sk 118,157
31 Hebrew עברית he 110,036
32 Bulgarian Български bg 107,524
33 Persian فارسی fa 107,259
34 Slovenian Slovenščina sl 101,688
35 Waray-Waray Winaray war 100,446
36 Croatian Hrvatski hr 88,575
37 Estonian Eesti et 78,877
38 Malay Bahasa Melayu ms 74,374
39 Newar / Nepal Bhasa new 69,558
40 Simple English Simple English simple 65,148
41 Galician Galego gl 63,770
42 Thai ไทย th 63,468
43 Aromanian Armãneashce roa-rup 61,286
44 Norwegian (Nynorsk) Nynorsk nn 60,365
45 Basque Euskara eu 59,355
46 Hindi हिन्दी hi 57,126
47 Greek Ελληνικά el 56,557
48 Haitian Krèyol ayisyen ht 53,044
49 Latin Latina la 45,808
50 Telugu te 45,788
51 Georgian ქართული ka 43,319
53 Macedonian Македонски mk 42,134
54 Azeri Azərbaycan az 38,267
55 Tagalog Tagalog tl 36,998
56 Breton Brezhoneg br 35,644
59 Luxembourgish Lëtzebuergesch lb 31,213
61 Latvian Latviešu lv 30,470
62 Bosnian Bosanski bs 29,854
63 Icelandic Íslenska is 29,758
64 Welsh Cymraeg cy 29,052
65 Belarusian (Taraškievica) Беларуская (тарашкевіца) be-x-old 28,646
66 Piedmontese Piemontèis pms 28,623
67 Albanian Shqip sq 28,283
68 Tamil தமிழ் ta 25,476
70 Belarusian Беларуская be 24,615
71 Aragonese Aragonés an 22,863
72 Occitan Occitan oc 22,520
73 Bengali বাংলা bn 21,852
74 Swahili Kiswahili sw 21,025
76 Ripuarian Ripoarisch ksh 18,205
77 Lombard Lumbaart lmo 17,878
78 West Frisian Frysk fy 17,745
80 Low Saxon Plattdüütsch nds 16,516
81 Afrikaans Afrikaans af 16,316
82 Sicilian Sicilianu scn 16,075
83 Quechua Runa Simi qu 16,069
84 Kurdish Kurdî / كوردی ku 15,219
85 Urdu اردو ur 14,863
86 Sundanese Basa Sunda su 14,684
87 Malayalam മലയാളം ml 14,676
88 Cantonese 粵語 zh-yue 14,421
89 Asturian Asturianu ast 13,862
90 Neapolitan Nnapulitano nap 13,154
91 Samogitian Žemaitėška bat-smg 12,594
92 Walloon Walon wa 11,789
93 Irish Gaeilge ga 11,601
94 Chuvash Чăваш cv 11,601
95 Armenian Հայերեն hy 11,092
96 Yoruba Yorùbá yo 10,155
97 Kannada ಕನ್ನಡ kn 9,446
98 Tajik Тоҷикӣ tg 9,144
99 Tarantino Tarandíne roa-tara 8,842
100 Venetian Vèneto vec 8,754
Other rankings
103 Scottish Gaelic Gàidhlig gd 8,031
106 Tatar Tatarça / Татарча tt 7,495
107 Uzbek O‘zbek uz 7,490
109 Ossetian Иронау os 7,321
114 Kazakh Қазақша kk 6,547
116 Limburgian Limburgs li 6,257
117 Upper Sorbian Hornjoserbsce hsb 6,141
119 Corsican Corsu co 5,902
121 Amharic am 5,395
122 Mongolian Монгол mn 5,342
123 Interlingua Interlingua ia 5,333
125 Võro Võro fiu-vro 4,399
126 Dutch Low Saxon Nedersaksisch nds-nl 4,320
127 Faroese Føroyskt fo 4,309
128 Turkmen تركمن / Туркмен tk 4,215
129 West Flemish West-Vlams vls 4,183
130 Scots sco 4,180
131 Sinhalese si 4,032
132 Sanskrit sa 3,961
133 Bavarian Boarisch bar 3,687
134 Burmese my 3,660
135 Manx Gaelg gv 3,572
137 Norman Nouormand/Normaund nrm 3,451
139 Romansh Rumantsch rm 3,354
143 Northern Sami Sámegiella se 3,004
147 Friulian Furlan fur 2,868
148 Ligurian Líguru lij 2,805
149 Maltese Malti mt 2,736
153 Kashubian Kaszëbsczi csb 2,497
155 Sardinian Sardu sc 2,433
156 Classical Chinese 古文 / 文言文 zh-classical 2,385
157 Khmer km 2,379
158 Ladino Dzhudezmo lad 2,353
160 Anglo-Saxon Englisc ang 2,255
162 Tibetan bo 2,188
164 Franco-Provençal/Arpitan Arpitan frp 2,131
166 Cornish Kernewek/Karnuack kw 1,960
167 Punjabi pa 1,931
170 Silesian Ślůnski szl 1,801
173 Saterland Frisian Seeltersk stq 1,646
176 Crimean Tatar Qırımtatarca crh 1,545
190 Emilian-Romagnol Emiliàn e rumagnòl eml 1,114
192 Picard Picard pcd 1,087
198 North Frisian Frasch frr 884
206 Chechen Нохчийн ce 661
210 Lower Sorbian Dolnoserbski dsb 632
215 Romani romani - रोमानी rmy 501
218 Old Church Slavonic Словѣньскъ cu 471
222 Moldovan Молдовеняскэ mo 401
252 Xhosa isiXhosa xh 115
253 Sesotho Sesotho st 112
261 Twi Twi tw 69
262 Shona chiShona sn 64
Monday, 11 October 2010
Dialects to Languages - a study of Võro from Estonia
Estonian Public Broadcasting took a look this week at the status of minority languages in Estonia and in particular the language of Võro.
From the Estonian Public Broadcasting Company ERR:
''Another European group has highlighted the issue of legal status for other languages in Estonia – but this time the focus is on the Finno-Ugric languages in the country's south.
The European Language Diversity for All research group, a three-year project that started in March involving eight universities, says that local languages such as Võro and Seto should also be protected to contribute to preservation of linguistic diversity in Europe.
A research project symposium on minority languages was recently held in Võru, the capital of a region with two local language varieties that are spoken by thousands. Estonia's linguistic diversity is considered less than in a number of other European countries, according to the news program Aktuaalne Kaamera.
But the Estonian state has not used all the available options for preserving linguistic diversity. For years there has been a running dispute about recognition of the southern Estonian varieties Võro and Seto as regional languages.
The result is that the southern Estonian languages are still not governed by law, so language inspectors – if Estonia had such officious oversight – could in theory fine hospitality and travel companies that use signs in the local language without a translation into Estonian.
"Actually it's part of the Tartu literary language that has remained extant," explains linguist and professor Mart Rannut. "How to formulate this in Europe's legal space is a question that requires expert analysis."
Former politician and local activist Kaido Kama has a clear position on the matter. "It is a value […] that is worth maintaining, preserving and developing," said Kama, the vice chairman of the Võro Institute's research council.
Europe has several examples of new languages that were considered dialects not so long ago, such as Frisian. Kama says other dialects are seeing the same trend of acceptance as full-fledged languages.''
If you would like to know more about Võro, the Võro Institute have a great website in English, Estonian, and Võro
http://www.wi.ee/index.php/welcome?lang=en-GB
From the Estonian Public Broadcasting Company ERR:
''Another European group has highlighted the issue of legal status for other languages in Estonia – but this time the focus is on the Finno-Ugric languages in the country's south.
The European Language Diversity for All research group, a three-year project that started in March involving eight universities, says that local languages such as Võro and Seto should also be protected to contribute to preservation of linguistic diversity in Europe.
A research project symposium on minority languages was recently held in Võru, the capital of a region with two local language varieties that are spoken by thousands. Estonia's linguistic diversity is considered less than in a number of other European countries, according to the news program Aktuaalne Kaamera.
But the Estonian state has not used all the available options for preserving linguistic diversity. For years there has been a running dispute about recognition of the southern Estonian varieties Võro and Seto as regional languages.
The result is that the southern Estonian languages are still not governed by law, so language inspectors – if Estonia had such officious oversight – could in theory fine hospitality and travel companies that use signs in the local language without a translation into Estonian.
"Actually it's part of the Tartu literary language that has remained extant," explains linguist and professor Mart Rannut. "How to formulate this in Europe's legal space is a question that requires expert analysis."
Former politician and local activist Kaido Kama has a clear position on the matter. "It is a value […] that is worth maintaining, preserving and developing," said Kama, the vice chairman of the Võro Institute's research council.
Europe has several examples of new languages that were considered dialects not so long ago, such as Frisian. Kama says other dialects are seeing the same trend of acceptance as full-fledged languages.''
If you would like to know more about Võro, the Võro Institute have a great website in English, Estonian, and Võro
http://www.wi.ee/index.php/welcome?lang=en-GB
Thursday, 7 October 2010
What makes a language 'official'?
When is a language an "official" language?
Much of the impassioned debate around the proposed new law on the Welsh language centres on that complex question.
The assembly government maintains that its amendments confirm official status for Welsh.
But Welsh language campaigners argue the changes in status have no power in law.
This argument is complicated by the fact that the English language does not have an "official" status in law, so there is no clearly defined notion of what official status might mean.
Ultimately, perhaps, arguments about linguistic status are important as a way into arguments about linguistic rights.
When the assembly's legislation committee scrutinised the Welsh Assembly Government's proposals, it recommended the inclusion of a clear statement that English and Welsh are official languages of Wales.
What has actually been proposed by the ministers is a clause stating that "the Welsh language has official status in Wales" followed by a series of clauses explaining how that status is given legal effect.
For some language campaigners this is an unacceptable limiting of the concept of "official" status to cover the subject areas listed in the clauses.
These establish, for example, that all public sector bodies and some private sector companies - utilities such as telecoms, gas and electricity firms - must provide services in the Welsh language.
What that does not do, say opponents, is give Welsh speakers the right to demand services in Welsh and enforce that right through the courts.
But, unnecessary as it may be in practice, those are rights English speakers don't have either because, as stated earlier, English does not have an "official" status in law.
It is perhaps impossible for Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones and his government colleagues to chart a course on the Welsh language that satisfies most.
"I get the impression that if Moses secured the language's status on Mount Sinai, some people still would not be happy," he told BBC Radio Cymru's Post Cyntaf programme on Thursday morning.
If Welsh speakers did have a right to demand services in Welsh in every area of life and in every part of Wales, however few Welsh speakers live there, that would also meet opposition - from the businesses which would have to provide those services, for example.
But it is a course Mr Jones has to pursue. A new law on Welsh was a central promise in the One Wales document underwriting the coalition agreement between Labour and Plaid Cymru at the Welsh assembly.
It is also a vital issue for much of Plaid Cymru's support.
So it is imperative for that party, while in government, to bring such a law into being before the end of the current assembly term and next May's election
From the BBC October 7th 2010, Mark Hannaby reporting
Much of the impassioned debate around the proposed new law on the Welsh language centres on that complex question.
The assembly government maintains that its amendments confirm official status for Welsh.
But Welsh language campaigners argue the changes in status have no power in law.
This argument is complicated by the fact that the English language does not have an "official" status in law, so there is no clearly defined notion of what official status might mean.
Ultimately, perhaps, arguments about linguistic status are important as a way into arguments about linguistic rights.
When the assembly's legislation committee scrutinised the Welsh Assembly Government's proposals, it recommended the inclusion of a clear statement that English and Welsh are official languages of Wales.
What has actually been proposed by the ministers is a clause stating that "the Welsh language has official status in Wales" followed by a series of clauses explaining how that status is given legal effect.
For some language campaigners this is an unacceptable limiting of the concept of "official" status to cover the subject areas listed in the clauses.
These establish, for example, that all public sector bodies and some private sector companies - utilities such as telecoms, gas and electricity firms - must provide services in the Welsh language.
What that does not do, say opponents, is give Welsh speakers the right to demand services in Welsh and enforce that right through the courts.
But, unnecessary as it may be in practice, those are rights English speakers don't have either because, as stated earlier, English does not have an "official" status in law.
It is perhaps impossible for Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones and his government colleagues to chart a course on the Welsh language that satisfies most.
"I get the impression that if Moses secured the language's status on Mount Sinai, some people still would not be happy," he told BBC Radio Cymru's Post Cyntaf programme on Thursday morning.
If Welsh speakers did have a right to demand services in Welsh in every area of life and in every part of Wales, however few Welsh speakers live there, that would also meet opposition - from the businesses which would have to provide those services, for example.
But it is a course Mr Jones has to pursue. A new law on Welsh was a central promise in the One Wales document underwriting the coalition agreement between Labour and Plaid Cymru at the Welsh assembly.
It is also a vital issue for much of Plaid Cymru's support.
So it is imperative for that party, while in government, to bring such a law into being before the end of the current assembly term and next May's election
From the BBC October 7th 2010, Mark Hannaby reporting
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Cá Bhfuil Na Gaeilg eoirí?
Cá Bhfuil Na Gaeilg eoirí? *
Gaelic is the first official language of Ireland, with 25% of the population claiming to speak it. But to what extent can Irish be used in everday life? To put it to the test, Manchán Magan set off round the country with one self-imposed handicap - to never utter a word of English. The original article was published in the Guardian on Friday 5th January 2007.
(*English translation: Where are all the Gaelic speakers?)
There is something absurd and rather tragic about setting out on a journey around a country, knowing that if you speak the language of that country you will not be understood. It is even more absurd when the country is your native one and you are speaking its native language.
Irish (Gaelic) is the first official language of Ireland. We have been speaking it for 2,500 years, right up until the British decided it would be easier to govern us if we spoke their language (and then outlawed the use of Gaelic in schools) in the 19th century. We, in turn, soon realised that our only hope of advancement was through English, and we - or at least the half of the population that survived the Famine - jettisoned Irish in a matter of decades. Had it not been for the Celtic Revival that accompanied Ireland's fi ght for independence in the early 20th century, the language would have probably died out by now. Today, a quarter of the population claim they speak it regularly. I have always suspected this figure and to test its accuracy I decided to travel around the country speaking only Irish to see how I would get on.
I chose Dublin as a starting point, confident in the knowledge that in a city of 1.2 million people I was bound to find at least a few Irish speakers. I went first to the Ordnance Survey Office to get a map of the country. (As a semi-state organisation it has a duty to provide certain services in Irish.) "Would you speak English maybe?" the sales assistant said to me. I replied in Irish. "Would you speak English?!" he repeated impatiently. I tried explaining once again what I was looking for. "Do you speak English?" he asked in a cold, threatening tone. "Sea," I said, nodding meekly. "Well, can you speak English to me now?" I told him as simply as I could that I was trying to get by with Irish.
"I'm not talking to you any more," he said. "Go away."
I really needed a map for the journey ahead; it would be hard enough to get by without having to ask for directions constantly. I tried addressing the man one last time, using the simplest schoolroom Irish that he must have learned during the 10 years of compulsory Irish that every schoolchild undergoes, but he covered his ears, and I was left with no choice but to leave.
It was not a good start. Although it was still early I decided I needed a drink and headed to an elegant Victorian bar off Grafton Street. "I don't speak Irish mate, sorry," replied the barman when I ordered a pint. I tried simplifying the order - although how much simpler can you make, "I'd like a drink, please"? "I don't speak Irish mate," he said again. I have managed to get drinks in bars from Cameroon to Kazakhstan without any problem; if I had been speaking any other language I doubt it would have been an issue. I tried pointing at what I wanted - the taps were lined up along the bar - but I made the mistake of talking as I pointed.
"Did you not hear me, no?" the barman said menacingly.
I thought it safer to get one of the customers to translate for me, but they stared resolutely into their pints when I turned to them. Eventually, one young lad, taking pity on me, advised me to go to a cafe on Kildare Street.
"A cafe?" I said. "I'm looking for a drink." "Just go there," he said, and so, following his directions I found myself in a murky cellar beneath the offices of the Irish language development agency. They had no beer licence, but I got a cup of coffee and the owner told me in rich, mellifluous Irish how the place was normally teeming with Gaeilgeoirí (Irish speakers) but because it was a sunny day no one wanted to be skulking underground and so I was the only customer. The city's Victorian plumbing was struggling to cope with the July heat and the place stank of sewage. I could not help thinking it was a sort of ghetto, a sanctuary for a beleaguered minority.
I knew the journey was going to prove difficult, just not this difficult. Language experts claim that the figure of fluent Irish speakers is closer to 3% than the aspirational 25% who tick the language box on the census, and most of these are concentrated on the western seaboard, in remote, inaccessible areas where one would not naturally find oneself. What I had not factored for was the animosity. Part of it, I felt, stemmed from guilt - we feel inadequate that we cannot speak our own language.
I decided to contact a talk radio show in Dublin to ask the listeners what they thought. A few phoned to say that they had no idea what I was talking about. "Is the language dead? I asked in Irish, over and over again. "Sorry?" most of them replied, or: "You what? Are you speaking the Irish?" Some of the callers wanted me and my bog language pulled off the airwaves, others talked of their shame at not being able to understand me and of how much they admired me for speaking out. This in turn made me feel guilty: the only reason I speak Irish is because my grandmother went to the trouble of learning it 90 years ago as a weapon in the struggle for an Irish republic. She then bribed me as a child with sweets and treats to go on speaking it when I realised that none of my friends did. In fact, I had almost discarded it, regarding it as a dead weight around my neck, until TG4, the Irish-language television station, was set up in 1996 and I started making travel documentaries for it.
After the radio show, I decided to visit the tourist office which, presumably, was used to dealing with different languages. The man at the counter looked at me quizzically when I inquired about a city tour. "Huh?" he said, his eyes widening. I repeated myself. "You don't speak English, do you?" he asked coldly. I was beginning to hate this moment - the point at which the fear and frustration spread across their faces. They were just trying to get through the day, after all. They did not need to be confronted by an unbending foot soldier of the Irish Taliban.
I explained what I was trying to do. "Well, mate, I don't actually speak Irish, so ... " he paused menacingly and I tried to smile encouragingly, "so, If you speak English, I'll be able to understand what you're saying."
"Béarla only - English only," said his supervisor, standing sternly behind him, repeating it a second time in case I was slow. I asked if there was any other language I could use and they pointed to a list of seven flags on the wall. To be honest, I could speak five of them but I had promised myself not to, not unless it was absolutely necessary. Eventually they located a charming young woman who spoke perfect Irish and was able to tell me everything I needed to know, but she was terribly nervous, believing her vocabulary to be inadequate. It was not; it was wonderful. It is an odd tendency that people often have an erroneous view of their ability to speak Irish, either over- or underestimating their ability - possibly a convoluted psychological legacy of the stigma attached from days when it was a sign of poverty and backwardness.
I might have been tempted to give up the journey entirely had it not been for something that happened during the radio phone-in. I was rapidly approaching a point of despair when some children came on the line. I found they spoke clear and fluent Irish in a new and modern urban dialect. They told me how they spoke the language all the time, as did all their friends. They loved it, and they were outraged that I could suggest it was dead. These were the children of the new Gaelscoileanna - the all-Irish schools that are springing up throughout the country in increasing numbers every year. While old schools are being closed down or struggling to find pupils, the Gaelscoileanna are having to turn people away. The phenomenon is as popular among the affluent middle classes as it is in working-class estates, largely due to the excellence of the education: Irish-speaking secondary schools often score higher in state exams than the most elite fee-paying schools. The students come away unburdened with the sense of inferiority that every previous generation had been instilled with since the days in which the British first labelled Irish as backward.
These children were reared on Irish versions of SpongeBob SquarePants and Scooby-Doo on TG4 . They had invented Irish words for X-Box and hip-hop, for Jackass and blog. They were fluent in Irish text-speak and had moulded the ancient pronunciations and syntax in accordance with the latest styles of Buffy-speak and Londonstani slang. I realised it was they I should have turned to for help on the streets. The children filled me with renewed confidence as I left Dublin and took to the road, boosted further by my first experience in a petrol station where a Polish attendant had no problem deciphering the complicated mechanical query I had about my borrowed vintage Jaguar. For him, every day involved a struggle to understand a foreign language, and whether I was speaking Irish or English made little difference. In fact, everyone I met over the course of the next 1,000 miles driving around the country were more approachable and considerate than those first few Dubliners. Not that I am claiming they all had fluent Irish - far from it - but they were willing to engage with me, to string together the few stray words of school Irish that arose from the darkest recesses of their minds, or else to try to decipher my miming and mad gesticulation.
None the less, the journey was still a strain for most of the time. I got given the wrong directions, and served the wrong food, and given the wrong haircut, but I was rarely threatened or made to feel foolish again. Even on the staunchly loyalist Shankill Road in Belfast I was treated with civility, though warned that if I persisted in speaking the language I was liable to end up in hospital. In Galway, I went out busking on the streets, singing the filthiest, most debauched lyrics I could think of to see if anyone would understand. No one did - old women smiled, tapping their feet merrily, as I serenaded them with filth. In Killarney, I stood outside a bank promising passers-by huge sums of money if they helped me rob it, but again no one understood.
I know that by the end of the trip I should have reached some conclusion, but in fact I was more confused than ever. In parts of Northern Ireland, where Irish was effectively banned until the early 1990s, I found a tremendous resurgence taking place. The Good Friday agreement recognised its status and now the North has its own daily Irish-language newspaper, a daily BBC Radio programme and a brand new local radio station. In Galway, I met Irishspeaking immigrants who have formed a lobby group to promote the language. I met publishers who are churning out ever more Irish novels, biographies and poetry each year.
From a purely regulatory perspective, the language has recently won some important (though possibly Pyrrhic) victories - the Official Languages Act guarantees the right to communicate in Irish with all state and semi-state organisations (although whenever I tried sending Irish emails to government bodies during the journey they were ignored).
Possibly the language's most significant moment of the past few centuries occurred when Irish became an official working language of the EU. It is a huge vote of confidence by our European neighbours, and it seems appropriate that Irish people should decide at this time once and for all what we want to do with our mother tongue. Should we stick a do-not-resuscitate sign around its neck and unplug the machine, or else get over our silly inferiority complex and start using the bloody thing?
As the Gaelscoileanna children might say: "Athbhreith agus cuir diot é!" (Just rebirth and get over it!).
Gaelic is the first official language of Ireland, with 25% of the population claiming to speak it. But to what extent can Irish be used in everday life? To put it to the test, Manchán Magan set off round the country with one self-imposed handicap - to never utter a word of English. The original article was published in the Guardian on Friday 5th January 2007.
(*English translation: Where are all the Gaelic speakers?)
There is something absurd and rather tragic about setting out on a journey around a country, knowing that if you speak the language of that country you will not be understood. It is even more absurd when the country is your native one and you are speaking its native language.
Irish (Gaelic) is the first official language of Ireland. We have been speaking it for 2,500 years, right up until the British decided it would be easier to govern us if we spoke their language (and then outlawed the use of Gaelic in schools) in the 19th century. We, in turn, soon realised that our only hope of advancement was through English, and we - or at least the half of the population that survived the Famine - jettisoned Irish in a matter of decades. Had it not been for the Celtic Revival that accompanied Ireland's fi ght for independence in the early 20th century, the language would have probably died out by now. Today, a quarter of the population claim they speak it regularly. I have always suspected this figure and to test its accuracy I decided to travel around the country speaking only Irish to see how I would get on.
I chose Dublin as a starting point, confident in the knowledge that in a city of 1.2 million people I was bound to find at least a few Irish speakers. I went first to the Ordnance Survey Office to get a map of the country. (As a semi-state organisation it has a duty to provide certain services in Irish.) "Would you speak English maybe?" the sales assistant said to me. I replied in Irish. "Would you speak English?!" he repeated impatiently. I tried explaining once again what I was looking for. "Do you speak English?" he asked in a cold, threatening tone. "Sea," I said, nodding meekly. "Well, can you speak English to me now?" I told him as simply as I could that I was trying to get by with Irish.
"I'm not talking to you any more," he said. "Go away."
I really needed a map for the journey ahead; it would be hard enough to get by without having to ask for directions constantly. I tried addressing the man one last time, using the simplest schoolroom Irish that he must have learned during the 10 years of compulsory Irish that every schoolchild undergoes, but he covered his ears, and I was left with no choice but to leave.
It was not a good start. Although it was still early I decided I needed a drink and headed to an elegant Victorian bar off Grafton Street. "I don't speak Irish mate, sorry," replied the barman when I ordered a pint. I tried simplifying the order - although how much simpler can you make, "I'd like a drink, please"? "I don't speak Irish mate," he said again. I have managed to get drinks in bars from Cameroon to Kazakhstan without any problem; if I had been speaking any other language I doubt it would have been an issue. I tried pointing at what I wanted - the taps were lined up along the bar - but I made the mistake of talking as I pointed.
"Did you not hear me, no?" the barman said menacingly.
I thought it safer to get one of the customers to translate for me, but they stared resolutely into their pints when I turned to them. Eventually, one young lad, taking pity on me, advised me to go to a cafe on Kildare Street.
"A cafe?" I said. "I'm looking for a drink." "Just go there," he said, and so, following his directions I found myself in a murky cellar beneath the offices of the Irish language development agency. They had no beer licence, but I got a cup of coffee and the owner told me in rich, mellifluous Irish how the place was normally teeming with Gaeilgeoirí (Irish speakers) but because it was a sunny day no one wanted to be skulking underground and so I was the only customer. The city's Victorian plumbing was struggling to cope with the July heat and the place stank of sewage. I could not help thinking it was a sort of ghetto, a sanctuary for a beleaguered minority.
I knew the journey was going to prove difficult, just not this difficult. Language experts claim that the figure of fluent Irish speakers is closer to 3% than the aspirational 25% who tick the language box on the census, and most of these are concentrated on the western seaboard, in remote, inaccessible areas where one would not naturally find oneself. What I had not factored for was the animosity. Part of it, I felt, stemmed from guilt - we feel inadequate that we cannot speak our own language.
I decided to contact a talk radio show in Dublin to ask the listeners what they thought. A few phoned to say that they had no idea what I was talking about. "Is the language dead? I asked in Irish, over and over again. "Sorry?" most of them replied, or: "You what? Are you speaking the Irish?" Some of the callers wanted me and my bog language pulled off the airwaves, others talked of their shame at not being able to understand me and of how much they admired me for speaking out. This in turn made me feel guilty: the only reason I speak Irish is because my grandmother went to the trouble of learning it 90 years ago as a weapon in the struggle for an Irish republic. She then bribed me as a child with sweets and treats to go on speaking it when I realised that none of my friends did. In fact, I had almost discarded it, regarding it as a dead weight around my neck, until TG4, the Irish-language television station, was set up in 1996 and I started making travel documentaries for it.
After the radio show, I decided to visit the tourist office which, presumably, was used to dealing with different languages. The man at the counter looked at me quizzically when I inquired about a city tour. "Huh?" he said, his eyes widening. I repeated myself. "You don't speak English, do you?" he asked coldly. I was beginning to hate this moment - the point at which the fear and frustration spread across their faces. They were just trying to get through the day, after all. They did not need to be confronted by an unbending foot soldier of the Irish Taliban.
I explained what I was trying to do. "Well, mate, I don't actually speak Irish, so ... " he paused menacingly and I tried to smile encouragingly, "so, If you speak English, I'll be able to understand what you're saying."
"Béarla only - English only," said his supervisor, standing sternly behind him, repeating it a second time in case I was slow. I asked if there was any other language I could use and they pointed to a list of seven flags on the wall. To be honest, I could speak five of them but I had promised myself not to, not unless it was absolutely necessary. Eventually they located a charming young woman who spoke perfect Irish and was able to tell me everything I needed to know, but she was terribly nervous, believing her vocabulary to be inadequate. It was not; it was wonderful. It is an odd tendency that people often have an erroneous view of their ability to speak Irish, either over- or underestimating their ability - possibly a convoluted psychological legacy of the stigma attached from days when it was a sign of poverty and backwardness.
I might have been tempted to give up the journey entirely had it not been for something that happened during the radio phone-in. I was rapidly approaching a point of despair when some children came on the line. I found they spoke clear and fluent Irish in a new and modern urban dialect. They told me how they spoke the language all the time, as did all their friends. They loved it, and they were outraged that I could suggest it was dead. These were the children of the new Gaelscoileanna - the all-Irish schools that are springing up throughout the country in increasing numbers every year. While old schools are being closed down or struggling to find pupils, the Gaelscoileanna are having to turn people away. The phenomenon is as popular among the affluent middle classes as it is in working-class estates, largely due to the excellence of the education: Irish-speaking secondary schools often score higher in state exams than the most elite fee-paying schools. The students come away unburdened with the sense of inferiority that every previous generation had been instilled with since the days in which the British first labelled Irish as backward.
These children were reared on Irish versions of SpongeBob SquarePants and Scooby-Doo on TG4 . They had invented Irish words for X-Box and hip-hop, for Jackass and blog. They were fluent in Irish text-speak and had moulded the ancient pronunciations and syntax in accordance with the latest styles of Buffy-speak and Londonstani slang. I realised it was they I should have turned to for help on the streets. The children filled me with renewed confidence as I left Dublin and took to the road, boosted further by my first experience in a petrol station where a Polish attendant had no problem deciphering the complicated mechanical query I had about my borrowed vintage Jaguar. For him, every day involved a struggle to understand a foreign language, and whether I was speaking Irish or English made little difference. In fact, everyone I met over the course of the next 1,000 miles driving around the country were more approachable and considerate than those first few Dubliners. Not that I am claiming they all had fluent Irish - far from it - but they were willing to engage with me, to string together the few stray words of school Irish that arose from the darkest recesses of their minds, or else to try to decipher my miming and mad gesticulation.
None the less, the journey was still a strain for most of the time. I got given the wrong directions, and served the wrong food, and given the wrong haircut, but I was rarely threatened or made to feel foolish again. Even on the staunchly loyalist Shankill Road in Belfast I was treated with civility, though warned that if I persisted in speaking the language I was liable to end up in hospital. In Galway, I went out busking on the streets, singing the filthiest, most debauched lyrics I could think of to see if anyone would understand. No one did - old women smiled, tapping their feet merrily, as I serenaded them with filth. In Killarney, I stood outside a bank promising passers-by huge sums of money if they helped me rob it, but again no one understood.
I know that by the end of the trip I should have reached some conclusion, but in fact I was more confused than ever. In parts of Northern Ireland, where Irish was effectively banned until the early 1990s, I found a tremendous resurgence taking place. The Good Friday agreement recognised its status and now the North has its own daily Irish-language newspaper, a daily BBC Radio programme and a brand new local radio station. In Galway, I met Irishspeaking immigrants who have formed a lobby group to promote the language. I met publishers who are churning out ever more Irish novels, biographies and poetry each year.
From a purely regulatory perspective, the language has recently won some important (though possibly Pyrrhic) victories - the Official Languages Act guarantees the right to communicate in Irish with all state and semi-state organisations (although whenever I tried sending Irish emails to government bodies during the journey they were ignored).
Possibly the language's most significant moment of the past few centuries occurred when Irish became an official working language of the EU. It is a huge vote of confidence by our European neighbours, and it seems appropriate that Irish people should decide at this time once and for all what we want to do with our mother tongue. Should we stick a do-not-resuscitate sign around its neck and unplug the machine, or else get over our silly inferiority complex and start using the bloody thing?
As the Gaelscoileanna children might say: "Athbhreith agus cuir diot é!" (Just rebirth and get over it!).
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