The American Scottish Gaelic Society

Petition to Protect Modern Language – including Gaelic – Studies at Aberdeen

| | Gaelic Education, Gaelic Learning Communities, Gaelic News, Gaelic Resources, Learn Gaelic

A proposal has been introduced at the University of Aberdeen that would, if passed, end its modern languages programs. This would mean the end of research and teaching in a number of languages, including Scottish Gaelic. It should be noted that the University of Aberdeen has one of the world’s largest collections of Gaelic literature and other resources in its libraries.

A petition drive is now ...

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The American Scottish Gaelic Society

New season of Zero to Gaelic announced

| | Advanced, Beginner, Gaelic Education, Intermediate

Zero to Gaelic, a four-level Gaelic course by Slighe nan Gàidheal, will soon begin its Zoom courses for the 2022/2023 session. Courses begin on 1st October and meet for a total of sixteen 90-minute sessions. Cost is $265 for each course, and students can register for them plus learn more about them on Eventbrite. All courses use the Scottish Gaelic in Twelve Weeks text.

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The American Scottish Gaelic Society

Edinburgh researchers to bring ‘Alexa NicGugaill’ to life

| | Gaelic Education, Gaelic News, Gaelic Resources

University researchers in Scotland are trying to develop a Gaelic-speaking voice assistant like the Alexa, Siri, and Google voice assistants used by millions of people to check the weather, play music, or shop online. According to a news report in The Scotsman, linguists and artificial intelligence (AI) developers at the University of Edinburgh want to use AI to convert spoken Gaelic to text.

The project is ...Read More

The American Scottish Gaelic Society

Corona-bhìoras: Scottish Gaelic COVID-19 Resources

| | Children, Gaelic Education, Gaelic Resources

Dè a th’ ann an corona-bhìoras agus carson a tha a h-uile duine a’ bruidhinn mu dheidhinn?

What is the coronavirus and why is everyone talking about it? If you have children (and if you don’t), this book from Gaelic-language publisher Acair may help answer those questions.

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A3019baea-1e4e-4834-8af4-9583360faeb3

The Scottish Government has published information on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Gaelic here. You can download a “staying ...

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The American Scottish Gaelic Society

An Naidheachd Againne: Prospects for Gaelic in 2030; Carina MacLeod interview

| | ACGA Newsletters, Gaelic Education, Gaelic Week @ GFM, Organization

The latest edition of An Naidheachd Againne (“Our News” or “The News At Us”) is available to members of An Comunn Gàidhealach Ameireaganach (ACGA). The quarterly newsletter — now in its 26th year — is a leading source of information in and about Scottish Gaelic around the world, published by our association in North America. Most of the articles, news stories, columns, and features are ...

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The American Scottish Gaelic Society

Western Isles ‘Gaelic First’ policy a good first step

| | Gaelic Education

You may have recently learned that Scottish Gaelic-medium education is now the “default” option in Scotland’s Western Isles, the contemporary heartland of the language. What may surprise many outside Scotland is that this wasn’t already the case — after all 52% of people in the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides aged three years or older are Gaelic speakers, according to the 2011 UK Census.

But Gaelic-medium ...

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The American Scottish Gaelic Society

Still time to support ‘Anna Ruadh’

| | Gaelic Education, Learn Gaelic

 

The clock is ticking on the Kickstarter campaign supporting Anna Ruadh, a translation of Anne of Green Gables into Scottish Gaelic. Supporters have until midnight June 30 (Maritime time) to contribute to the crowdfunding campaign (click here).

As a stretch goal incentive, if the campaign raises CA$2,000 more than the original CA$15,000 goal, the cover illustrator will create original pen-and-ink chapter heading illustrations for the book.

Anna ...Read More

The American Scottish Gaelic Society

YouTube nan Gaidheal #1: Can Seo

| | Beginner, Gaelic Education, Gaelic Learning Communities, Gaelic Resources

Since its launch in February 2005, YouTube has changed the way a generation consumes video content, and now it offers new ways to learn languages, including Scottish Gaelic.

There’s a vast and growing amount of material about Scottish Gaelic and in Gàidhlig available on YouTube, which is big enough now to challenge more traditional television, cable and streaming content for viewer’s interest. That material isn’t collated ...

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The American Scottish Gaelic Society

Glasgow Gaelic School Keeps Growing

| | Children, Gaelic Education

Critics of Gaelic-medium education often decry it as serving “the middle class,” but the headteacher of Glasgow Gaelic School/Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu says that’s not true.

In a recent article in Scotland’s The Herald newspaper, Donalda McComb, said 15 percent of the Gaelic-medium school’s pupils come from neighborhoods classed as the poorest in Scotland, though 17 percent come from wealthy neighborhoods.

“Some 19 per cent of our school ...

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The American Scottish Gaelic Society

Òran Bagraidh: Reimagining a song and a language

| | Gaelic Education, Gaelic Song

It’s well-known, or should be, that Scottish Gaelic was once spoken well beyond the Hebrides and Highlands, as far south as the Scottish borders during the Middle Ages. That’s been obscured by history and historical myth-making that sought to de-emphasize the role of the Gaels in Scotland (how many times have researchers heard “Gaelic was never spoken here” from people in parts of Scotland pocked ...

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