Following on from the "Gaelic in English schools" campaign in the West Highland Free Press last year, I contacted one of the primary schools in West Lothian suggesting they include some Gaelic to the children. They felt it would be useful to do this as part of Scots week. So I took a morning out from my day job today and spent it giving a few hundred children an introduction to the languages, some phrases, songs, history and customs etc. The day went very well and one approach I took was to first off highlight Gaelic words they were using every day (placenames, personal names) and didn't realise it and also various words in English of Gaelic origin (e.g. Pet, Trousers), as well as the more usual Ceilidh, Glen etc and what they originally meant. The day went very well with some children coming up to me after school and saying "ciamar a tha thu". Another child said that they had wanted me to stay for longer.
One unexpected mnemonic was "Martian lad" for "mar sin leat". In any case I have put the material online here incase anyone else might find it useful:
http://www.siliconglen.com/craig/gaelicintroduction.doc
It's more aimed at the upper ages of primary school but the songs went down well with the younger ones, especially the puirt a beul.
Something like this could form a useful model for rolling out across more English medium in schools in Scotland, to counter the widespread ignorance of the language.
Craig
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