Minority or Major language?

somairle

Partially inspired by this

I have started to question my language choice. I am currently learning Irish, but decided long ago I will learn French after. But now I dont want to wait another few years to master Irish when I could be getting on with French.

David makes the point that questions why anyone would learn Scots Gaelic, a language with 60k speakers all of whom speak English as well (similar to Irish), when they could learn Hindi and speak with 600million most of whom don't have English. I think he is a bit black and white, a language is more than a tool of communication to me, but he has a point all the same.

So minority languages and why? when you could learn a major language?

deirdremf

somairle wrote: »

Partially inspired by this

I have started to question my language choice. I am currently learning Irish, but decided long ago I will learn French after. But now I dont want to wait another few years to master Irish when I could be getting on with French.

David makes the point that questions why anyone would learn Scots Gaelic, a language with 60k speakers all of whom speak English as well (similar to Irish), when they could learn Hindi and speak with 600million most of whom don't have English. I think he is a bit black and white, a language is more than a tool of communication to me, but he has a point all the same.

So minority languages and why? when you could learn a major language?

"I'm uneasy about spending too much public money ... "
Yeah, right. An English (sounding) guy doesn't want to spend time or money on learning Scots Gaelic. Big surprise, as his cultural forebears have spent vast amounts of money and time trying to wipe it out, and even more time and money trying to wipe Irish out.
Regarding Hindi, I don't intend visiting India in the near future, so this is a false analogy for me.
So my advice would be to learn a language that you want to learn. Make up your own mind, and if you now decide that French is more important to you than Irish, go for it - but not on the basis of how much public funding yer man might think is too much!

So on that point, what are "absurd levels of public funding"? Just how much is absurd?

An Coilean

For someone from Ireland, they could learn Irish, a language with around 100,000 speakers, or they can learn the likes of Hindi with 600 million speakers.

Seems an obvious choice I suppose, though where you are going to find the time to talk to 600,000,000 people, very few of whom actually live in Ireland is a bit of a sticking point. Of course if you learn Hindi, it would be very usefull if you went to India, but I don't really have any interest in going to India, I could learn Cantonese, a language with twice as many speakers again as Hindi, must be twice as attractive to learn right? Well not really, its not very useful to know Cantonese in Ireland, I don't know anyone who speaks Cantonese here, and I don't really want to go to China, I want to stay here, so I learnt Irish. I know lots of people who speak Irish.

johnfatz

An Coilean wrote: »

For someone from Ireland, they could learn Irish, a language with around 100,000 speakers, or they can learn the likes of Hindi with 600 million speakers.

Seems an obvious choice I suppose, though where you are going to find the time to talk to 600,000,000 people, very few of whom actually live in Ireland is a bit of a sticking point. Of course if you learn Hindi, it would be very usefull if you went to India, but I don't really have any interest in going to India, I could learn Cantonese, a language with twice as many speakers again as Hindi, must be twice as attractive to learn right? Well not really, its not very useful to know Cantonese in Ireland, I don't know anyone who speaks Cantonese here, and I don't really want to go to China, I want to stay here, so I learnt Irish. I know lots of people who speak Irish.

Bit of an error there - only an estimated 70 million people speak Cantonese - Mandarin is about 850 million people.

An Coilean

johnfatz wrote: »

Bit of an error there - only an estimated 70 million people speak Cantonese - Mandarin is about 850 million people.

Fine, either way you get the point I was making.

deirdremf

Interesting to note that Somairle (I know the name Somhairle, and even Somerled) hasn't had the time to return to this thread that s/he started since s/he set it up.
I wonder why s/he bothered to start it??

somairle

deirdremf wrote: »

Interesting to note that Somairle (I know the name Somhairle, and even Somerled) hasn't had the time to return to this thread that s/he started since s/he set it up.
I wonder why s/he bothered to start it??

Because I thought it would spark more of a discussion about the merits of a minority or majority language, it didnt unfortunately

daithicarr

His opinion logical argument comes across as extremely pompous small minded and anglocentric .

I always find it amazing that the pitifully small amount of money spent to help aid one of the Uk's most ancient and indigenous languages is question on the value of worth . especially when compared to the proposed £5 billion to be spent on one nuclear submarine, which adds absolutely nothing to the culture of the UK or mankind in general.

what he is really doing is belittling Gaelic and by extension other languages and cultures that haven't spread themselves around the globe through war and imperial expansion as being worthless.

somairle

Yeah I thought he came across as a bit pompous too. Ultimately to me language is more than a mode of communication so I think his view of what it is a bit narrow.