It could be interesting to develop thoughts and exchanges along these lines further. Perhaps Makere’s site (link in the main post) would be an appropriate forum?

I was alerted to this post by Michael Newton. What you’ve said here brilliantly sums up exactly what I myself think on the issue – in the recognition and reclaiming of indigeneity, the need to challenge white supremacist claims to speak for us all, and also our own complicity in the past in the imperial process (and ongoing, with our current imperial wars, I would add). I am not a Gaelic speaker though my dad had 2 Gaelic speaking grandparents, but culturally I am deeply part of the Isle of Lewis where I was raised and educated.

Alastair McIntosh
(author of Soil and Soul)

Looks a wonderful picture but not able to blow it up as it seems to be ‘fixed”.

Most non-language speakers don’t really understand how difficult it is to interpret, and usually conflate, wrongly, interpreting and translation, two very different disciplines. Interpreting requires fluency in the source and target languages, of course, but that’s not enough by a long chalk. You also need the ability to condense a passage into its essential concepts, to cut out lots of ‘fluff’ and pull out the concepts that the speaker is communicating. Quite often, at conferences, you’ll hear a speaker go on for a minute or two, then when it’s the interpreter’s turn s/he’ll just come out with a couple of sentences. It brings home to you how much ‘padding’ there is in normal speech.

For those non-linguists reading this, to get an idea of how difficult it is to interpret, try this exercise. Record a short TV news bulletin, then play it back in ’story’ chunks, make notes about the stories, then recount the stories to yourself or, better, a friend. You’ll be amazed at how much you miss, and how difficult it is, even when it’s in your own language. And also amazed at how difficult it is to take notes without losing information.

I’ve immense respect for interpreters, particularly simultaneous interpreters. I remember, ages ago before the Berlin Wall fell, Mikhail Gorbachev (look him up, kids) appearing on the Clive Anderson show, flanked by his (Gorby’s) interpreter, Pavel Palazchenko. Anderson is a notorious motormouth and Gorby had very little English, but the interpreter worked so well that the two were able to trade jokes and anecdotes fluidly, without any awkward gaps. An absolutely brilliant example of the art of interpreting, which I’ll try to hunt down on YouTube. There’s a PDF paper about the interview.

It’s no accident that interpreting courses usually take 3 years of intense work. It is a damned, damned hard occupation.

The jury may still be out, but Fred’s links, as and when he posts them, may prove interesting.

(And yes, I got the theme from the WordPress site.)

Learning with mobile devices in general, ‘M-Learning’, is a Big Thing these days in higher education, to connect with the younger generation for whom mobile devices seem surgically attached to their bodies. I’ll post some links here later.

What’s your One Minute Gaelic series? Could you post a link or an example?

Fred