Long overdue. A welcome development. 

Gaelic is a cute, but outdated, language of communication now. And indicating that one thinks of it as being  more of a hindrance to "outsiders" ( e.g. tourists) may  mean that the person saying this may not be too far off the mark. Display Gaelic by all means but little explanations in English alongside will not go amiss either.

In Canada we have Indigenous(I.e. native Indians) languages, then French and  English and , in the areas of our large cities where large congregations of immigrants of the same origin live (e.g. East Indians), then many of them will speak their own native  language in their Canadian districts one to another on a daily basis.....except that their kids going to school will use English as a FIRST language whereas the original immigrants will often see it, think it and speak it as a second language only. That's part of the reason why immigrants to Canada often  populate just one area of a city with little or no spread-out to other districts. Example: In the Vancouver South  area we have a city named Richmond where I bought my first Canadian home. At that time the population of Richmond  was only about 8,000, if that, and houses were dirt cheap. . Now there are over 100,000 residents and most of them are East Indian and house prices are extremely high indeed.

However, almost everyone who is not yet an old fogie will also either speak English fluently enough, or will have children who do together with the latter seeing it increasingly as their first language....mostly because their friends at school will always speak English and will perhaps laugh at them if they fail to master it too. But, of course, the kids  pick up the language very quickly and that will definitely  be their preferred first language not the other language as preferred  by their parents.

Have you ever noticed , too, that almost every reasonably bright and/or educated foreigner whom you come across speaks  good English and has no problem communicating with anyone because English is now the distinctly universal inter-continental language of the world - at least by people who have had any kind of an education. Don't look for it from the Onion Johnnies though 'cos I think they are a lost race now are they not?

Tá sean-scannán ciallmhar timpeall an hoose seo

Pog mo thoin

Yet another concerning development it seems to me the club has ran out of ideas attracting Invernessians when they are targeting the local garlic community. 

dougal 
 

 

Tha fìor Inbhir Nis a ’bruidhinn an cànan màthaireil

Faighinn anns a ’mhuir.

Buster reic e an teas Le buille Rocksteady

Can we have a translate button set up on this site? 

A worthless gimmick. There may be a couple of dozen or so Gaelic speakers in our home crowd, two or three might even have it as a first language but each and every one of them is also fluent in English.

If we are really wanting to encourage a portion of the population of the Highlands who might not be regular attendees then announcements in Polish would be more effective and demonstrate an outward looking, embracing and welcoming attitude notwithstanding the xenophobic and insular madness of exiting the European Union.

On 2/3/2020 at 2:54 PM, Kingsmills said:

A worthless gimmick. There may be a couple of dozen or so Gaelic speakers in our home crowd, two or three might even have it as a first language but each and every one of them is also fluent in English.

If we are really wanting to encourage a portion of the population of the Highlands who might not be regular attendees then announcements in Polish would be more effective and demonstrate an outward looking, embracing and welcoming attitude notwithstanding the xenophobic and insular madness of exiting the European Union.

What a shamelessly racist comment suggesting our polack comrades are that daft they can't speak English just goes to show racism lurks even at our small family club who'd have guessed it

4 minutes ago, Alan Simpson said:

What a shamelessly racist comment suggesting our polack comrades are that daft they can't speak English just goes to show racism lurks even at our small family club who'd have guessed it

Just shows ya - there's always a way of misinterpreting a well-meaning, non-racist comment!

8 minutes ago, buckett said:

Just shows ya - there's always a way of misinterpreting a well-meaning, non-racist comment!

I dunno my man maybe he's old skool doesn't realise just how racist he is besides sure he's got his good points just avoid him if you've used the sunbed a bit much eh

29 minutes ago, Alan Simpson said:

. . .  just avoid him if you've used the sunbed a bit much eh

????

Perhaps we could give them a reduced price entry as long as they wash all the vehicles in the car park first. 

1 hour ago, Alan Simpson said:

I dunno my man maybe he's old skool doesn't realise just how racist he is besides sure he's got his good points just avoid him if you've used the sunbed a bit much eh

So why didn't you pick on me when I suggested it on the previous page?

1 hour ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

So why didn't you pick on me when I suggested it on the previous page?

Stadium announcements in Romanian my man are u on the crack pipe no much point in trying to wind up a guy who thinks speaking gibberish in to a microphone is suddenly gonna have the crowds flocking! 

That's how wer gonna boost crowds is it speak polish and stand outside the fish factory dishing out free tickets like confetti! Besides the point the Poles are mad for the boxing specially after a few voddies don't think even our sweetie rustling away day ultras will be able to tackle them if they decide they've seen enough of Big J shooting for the stars

This topic is descending into total stupidity.  Can the Mods please close it ASAP 

 

2 hours ago, Alan Simpson said:

Stadium announcements in Romanian my man are u on the crack pipe no much point in trying to wind up a guy who thinks speaking gibberish in to a microphone is suddenly gonna have the crowds flocking! 

In a sense, I somewhat agree. No point doing it when A) They understand English well enough, and B) There's nobody that it would even benefit. Like the gaelic announcements. 

The only time announcements in another language would somewhat make sense, is if (by against all the odds) we end up playing in Europe against a team from a country that isn't fluent or majority in English. Otherwise, it's completely pointless, never heard anyone speaking fluent Gaelic bar once at Inverness Athletic earlier this year, but he still spoke English, and more than likely, his children who were also speaking Gaelic did too.

It's not worth having separate announcements for maybe not even a handful of people. I'd say it's the equivalent of an English National League club making announcements in English and French, hell, I don't even think the Irish/Northern Irish Premiership club's make announcements in both English and Gaelic...

If it gets people through the door then why not!? If it gets us on BBC ALBA a bit more then why not!? Any promotion is good promotion. We can't afford to lose even one person from our meager crowds. I'm a Gaelic speaker, so is my dad, and so was my Grandfather. My dad hasn't been to a game in a few years but has said he will go. Now if that happens a handful more times then the "gimmick" pays for itself several fold.

As another example, the Dungwall lot use English for their chosen language - Now half of them can't even string a sentence together in any language but they still use it! 

BBC Alba. Is pointless 4 x more English speakers than Gaelic watch the channel purely to see the delayed coverage of premiership games. The channel has a weekly viewership of 625000 viewers. If our games were shown more on BBC Alba then less folk would spend the money or time going to the stadium so less revenue. The whole Gaelic thing is a pointless waste of money.  There is an estimated 57000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland from the last census that's 150p less than the previous. Is you take 10% which is the average for interest in the sport from the population then that's 5700 spread across all teams in Scotland. Then just looking at spfl teams 42. That equates to 135 people per club on average. Not really worth the bother. How about we e.g. a PA system that works rather than gimics.

Edited February 5, 20205 yr by MorayJaggie

1 hour ago, MorayJaggie said:

BBC Alba. Is pointless 4 x more English speakers than Gaelic watch the channel purely to see the delayed coverage of premiership games. The channel has a weekly viewership of 625000 viewers. If our games were shown more on BBC Alba then less folk would spend the money or time going to the stadium so less revenue. The whole Gaelic thing is a pointless waste of money.  There is an estimated 57000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland from the last census that's 150p less than the previous. Is you take 10% which is the average for interest in the sport from the population then that's 5700 spread across all teams in Scotland. Then just looking at spfl teams 42. That equates to 135 people per club on average. Not really worth the bother. How about we e.g. a PA system that works rather than gimics.

So following that logic, let's do away with disability access because less than 1.5% are disabled ... just saying!

 

15 hours ago, Jack Waddington said:

In a sense, I somewhat agree. No point doing it when A) They understand English well enough, and B) There's nobody that it would even benefit. Like the gaelic announcements. 

The only time announcements in another language would somewhat make sense, is if (by against all the odds) we end up playing in Europe against a team from a country that isn't fluent or majority in English. Otherwise, it's completely pointless, never heard anyone speaking fluent Gaelic bar once at Inverness Athletic earlier this year, but he still spoke English, and more than likely, his children who were also speaking Gaelic did too.

It's not worth having separate announcements for maybe not even a handful of people. I'd say it's the equivalent of an English National League club making announcements in English and French, hell, I don't even think the Irish/Northern Irish Premiership club's make announcements in both English and Gaelic...

In Wales they make announcements in Welsh then English. Swansea are very pro-welsh language. Cardiff also do the same. Wrexham will do Welsh only if it is a game between two welsh sides. It's important stuff, the language must be preserved and by adding it into everyday life - it stays alive!

 

5 hours ago, MorayJaggie said:

BBC Alba. Is pointless 4 x more English speakers than Gaelic watch the channel purely to see the delayed coverage of premiership games. The channel has a weekly viewership of 625000 viewers. If our games were shown more on BBC Alba then less folk would spend the money or time going to the stadium so less revenue. The whole Gaelic thing is a pointless waste of money.  There is an estimated 57000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland from the last census that's 150p less than the previous. Is you take 10% which is the average for interest in the sport from the population then that's 5700 spread across all teams in Scotland. Then just looking at spfl teams 42. That equates to 135 people per club on average. Not really worth the bother. How about we e.g. a PA system that works rather than gimics.

I remember when I used to teach, you always got people asking "is this in the exam?" No? "Then why are we doing it?" You must have been one of them ?

Every day is a school day. If you're not interested in the meaning of the place names all around you, and the history/culture of your country, I can't help you. It's a minor miracle that the language survives at all considering the efforts to stamp it out in the 18th century.

Just as an aside, BBC Alba does a magnificent job on its other programmes, e.g. Eorpa and other documentaries. It shows what a small channel can do on what is probably a fraction of Gary Lineker's salary. We've been having a good laugh at the antics of Sweeney Ness on "Air an Lot" as we buy meat from him.

Mind you I kind of agree about the stadium announcements being a bit gimmicky. If anything I suppose it will go a little way towards making our mark as a true Highland club which at the moment our neighbours are doing better.

Edited February 5, 20205 yr by TheMantis

The more gaelic speakers the better as the players will not understand all the abuse shouted at them - I can just see Brad McKay smiling and waving back to the group of fans chanting - "Tha thu diùid agus tha fios agad gu bheil thu".

On 2/1/2020 at 9:33 PM, Satan said:

Maybe get some government money to pimp out our PA.

Christ it needs it!

 

Gaelic disco lights.