The Gaelic Society of Moscow speaks out!
- From: micheil@xxxxxxx (The Highlander)
- Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 07:29:07 GMT
SCOTTISH GAELIC
TEN REASONS FOR LEARNING IT
©Gaelic Society of Moscow,2003
©Gaelic Society of Moscow,2003
Some posters may remember my mentioning in the past that there is a
substantial Scottish community living in Russia; many descended from
Scots soldiers and merchants of the 1600s and 1700s.
SCOTTISH GAELIC
TEN REASONS FOR LEARNING IT
http://www.gaelic.ru/
Why learn Gaelic? Go to Scotland itself and many people will offer
you inexhaustible reasons for not learning it. Some people claim it is
almost obsolete therefore irrelevant to their lives. It is of only
academic interest. As few as 2 percents of Scots have knowledge of
Gaelic so why learn it. It is simply useless knowledge. Why learn a
language if you have few opportunities to use it in addition, people
have problems improving English never mind learning an ancient
language. The culture of the Gaels is no longer appropriate in a
modern industrial society. The main argument against learning Gaelic
is utilitarian; it is no longer useful to learn. We, of the Russian
Scottish Gaelic Society refuse to bow to these notions. After much
consideration, we firmly believe that there are overwhelming reasons
for not just Scots to learn Gaelic but for anyone regardless of
nationality, religion and political beliefs. Our Society has been
established to hold up another candle for the cause of Scottish
Gaelic. We intend to keep the candle burning from afar, in Moscow, for
a long time. A favourite story told by our society may help to sum up
our spirit.
One day the Duke of Buccleuch was being driven in a carriage
through his land when he was astonished to catch a glimpse of a shabby
looking stranger squatting on his land. The duke was taken aback by
this. He stopped his carriage, got out and addressed the stranger ' Do
you know that you are trespassing on my land?' The stranger replied
'By what right is it your land?' 'My family fought for it' The
stranger retorted 'Then fight for it again'.
That is how we feel about Scottish Gaelic. We have to fight for it
again. A tremendous blow was inflicted on the Gaelic language and
culture at Culloden and the Highland Clearances. The language and
culture were devastated. It is a miracle it survived at all! Now we
have to refight the war to recover Gaelic. This time it will be a war
without guns. The ink of the pen is worth far more than the blood of
the martyrs. The potential power of the word has a magic of its own
which can weave many a spell.
We may present ten reasons for learning Scottish Gaelic.
You gain access to a unique way of perceiving life which opens up a
radically distinct world which will enchant you. As Wittgenstein
stated, a language is not simply a means of communication but reflects
a mental condition of mind. You learn of a rich culture. You also
might be rewarded with ideas which are now alien to our own
contemporary world. Some of those notions reflected in the language
express a more humane and caring attitude to people than our own
prevailing notions. Therefore learning a language can represent a
profound way of living a new way of life. It is an invitation to
embrace, a new way of living. Let us present a few examples of those
differences to illustrate the point:
It is fair to claim that Anglo-American culture is a 'Putting-down
culture'. It is so competitive that it brutally divided people into
either 'winners' or ?losers'. Those who fail to attain a particular
level of material wealth, prestige, property or power are scored as
?failures'. This notion, call it the 'American Dream' or 'capitalism',
is so prevalent that it is in films, cartoons, comics and almost
ingrained into the mentality of people. The attitude also banalises
conversation or at worse, brutalises our speech. For instance, we hear
that people must 'earn respect' rather than attain it automatically.
In a reasonable humane and decent society people should treat others
with respect regardless of their faults. We are not even generous with
our respect anymore.
Scottish Gaelic is far more generous with their respect to others.
For instance, in British English, a person states 'Hector is a joiner?
while Scottish Gaelic translates back into English as 'There is a
joiner in Hector: (Se saor a tha ann an Eachann).The difference
between the meanings is not even subtle. In the former, the person's
identity is more likely to be rigidly defined by his occupation while
in the latter, being a joiner is only one part of his identity. For
the Scottish Gaels a person is more than just his work. There can be
an artist, a singer and a fisherman in him.
We too often senselessly condemn people for being a prostitute,
policeman or lawyer. We like to put people into little boxes and label
them. This 'talk' scarcely acknowledges the unique personhood which
resides in every person. Scottish Gaelic acknowledges the Matreshka
doll in all of us. In western society, people are burned in hell even
before they reach it. A person is thus not a one-dimensional man but
three, four or five dimensional man. This is important because people
are often mislead into believing they are a hopeless failure and loser
when in reality they are not. They are simply succumbing to the
largely inhumane ideas which prevail in western society. For Scottish
Gaelic no man is a loser. On the contrary, the 'loser' is only in him,
and probably not in him at all. In English, while people 'have' a car,
in Scottish Gaelic, the car is only near him. A person is therefore
more likely to be defined by being rather than what he actually has.
Yet a third example of how different Gaelic is from English can be
defined by the word Ceilidh. The word can be simultaneously defined as
both visit and a highland gathering where people gathered to entertain
themselves by telling stories, poems and singing music. In contrast to
a society where people prefer to watch TV and play computer games, the
people assume an active role in their entertainment. In some Highland
vil-lages every house was thought to contain a fiddle!
Scottish Gaelic stresses the Oral Poetic tradition where the
story-teller can act the role of a shaman whose stories act as a
blessing on those who listen to them. Learning Gaelic can be an
immense liberation from the soulless rat-race ideas of consumerist
society. If an oppressive idea torments you mind and makes you too
hard on yourself then discard it!
By learning Scottish Gaelic you are undertaking something special.
You are helping to preserve just one of the languages still under
threat of perishing. You might also be inspiring native Indian people
to defend their own languages. This is important be-cause the World
might lose as many as 3000 languages by 2010 unless it takes radical
action.
If you love history, then Scottish Gaelic is a must. You can be
transported back into another bygone age. The speaker of Gaelic
embraces modern times, the Middle-Ages and antiquity and his mental
horizon is radically enlarged. If Americans seriously seek to affirm
their roots then dawning a kilt and tracing their ancestral roots is
not an an-swer; learn Scottish Gaelic. This act not only more fully
affirms an almost lost identity but practically supports Scottish
culture. (Incidently, the fact that so many Russians and Americans
think the 'kilt', an English invention a symbol of Scottish,
demonstrates how people continue to cling to a highly impoverished
reinvention of the Scottish identity.)
If you are a serious writer or poet, Scottish Gaelic can inspire
creativity. There may well be a correlation between how many languages
a person speaks and literary output. Is it any wonder that we are at
present witnessing a renaissance in Scottish writing when some Scots
speak Lallans, Gaelic and English! The German philosopher,
Schopenhauer, thought that learning ancient languages was far better
for creativity than mastering modern languages as 'learning ancient
languages offers more ideas than mastery of modern languages. To
imitate the ancients in their own languages the best way of preparing
for skillful and finished expression of thought in the mother tongue.
So improve your Russian by learning Scottish Gaelic! Scottish Gaelic
puts the poet back into you!
Learning Scottish Gaelic allows you to master the oral poetic
tradition which permits you more independence by helping your memory.
In this age, we are too dependent on pocket dictionaries, diaries and
calculators and less on our memories.
There is no better recreation for the human mind than to take a
book of Scottish Gaelic in the hand for half an hour, and you already
feel fresher, more energetic and revitalized.
If you are unhappy with your old identity and feel profoundly
enstrangled and alienated from your own then join us. There is no harm
in becoming Scottish. You do not have to be born in Scotland to
embrace a Scottish identity. Learn the language than be born in
Scotland.
Learning Gaelic offers an insight into Irish culture. 75 percent of
words from Irish are identical with Gaelic. So you befriend not only
the Scots but the Irish. Learning Scottish Gaelic will get you far
more respect from the Scots than learning English. It is one of the
best complements you can pay Scotland.
Learning a language is a test of character. Too many people give up
after the first few lessons because it all seems so daunting. Learning
it strengthens your will-power and you become a real doer rather than
a mere talker. Who knows! Though learning a language can represent
hardship, it also offers joyful moments as well as a real feeling of
achieving something. Perhaps it could offer you a new meaning and
purpose to life.
By learning Scottish Gaelic we are imperceptively affirming a
strong Russian philosophical tradition which has been largely ignored
by the West. Whereas the Russian Slavonic philosophers made only
incomplete and impartial attempts to internationalize the concept of
Sobomost? we are striving to put it into practice. Sobomost? ceases to
be a remotely theological or academic idea but is brought down to
earth by affirming a Celtic form of Sobomost?, - Neighbourness or
-Nabochar' which has firm roots in a Celtic way of life. Ideas from
Russian philosophy can strongly inspire Scots to revive their lost
traditions of hospitality, care for others and reawaken a spiritual
sense of community. Learning Scottish Gaelic helps to recover our
sense of society. This is imperative at a time when we are becoming
more and more alienated from each other .We are becoming in Durkheim's
phrase 'disorganised particles of dust' who are strangers to not only
each other but ourselves. Learning this language is one way of
dealienating ourselves. You don't just come into a classroom but into
a real community. You don't just communicate but you partake in a
special communion.
Scottish Gaelic is a special language. It is a unique spiritual
gift. We, of the Scottish Gaelic society in Moscow are learning Gaelic
not for profit, prestige or power but to preserve a profound spiritual
legacy. Unless we make a tremendous effort to learn Scottish Gaelic
then this language will die. A priceless treasure will be lost
forever. It will remain no more than a historical curiosity for
academics. We certainly won't let this happen.
http://www.gaelic.ru/
The Highlander
Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns
an pòst seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.
The views expressed in this post are
not necessarily those of The Highlander.
.
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