WTF? In Fife? When 1% of Scots speak it?

Is this happening elsewhere?

Is this the numpty SNiPs?

Same goes for the railway stations. Nonsense waste of money.

Thank you.

Exactly, hellish waste of cash that could’ve been spent on nuclear subs or something more worthy, like, eh?.

Does it affect your life in any way at all?

Remember, rule No.1

Oh btw, don’t ever go to Wales, your rage filled mind will explode

Come to Ireland. All the official documents by law have to be written in both English and Irish, it is a compulsory subject all the way through school yet only 2% (about 70,000 people) of the country use the language daily.

Brexit strategy – distancing themselves from us Brits?

Can they spell?

All looks foreeegn t’me.

Been like that since it became Police Scotland. I see it it on every police car I see on my limited travels around Scotland. North, East, South and West.
As it is a sticker I suspect the job lot has made it rather cheap.

Where have you been? It’s been on the cars for a while and the train stations too

I blame Donnie Murdo.

Fairly common on lots of civil service / quango / government up here

WTF: the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.

Public bodies all have to have a Gaelic Language plan.

As an English native, I see absolutely no problem with this at all, in fact I’m totally in favour of it. I don’t see any reason why the individual countries that make up the U.K. shouldn’t do their best to encourage the widespread use of their native languages.
I’m certain the OP would be reduced to a state of frothing apoplexy if he went to Cornwall, which isn’t even a separate country.
My g/f speaks Welsh, she had Welsh as part of the curriculum until O-Level. She’s English, was born in a pub on the King’s Road in London. She’s very proud of the fact, and keeps trying to teach me some words of Welsh. Sadly, my inability to even remember words in my own language means she’s largely onto a loser there.

How dare they support a native language of their own country? Don’t they know everyone should be speaking English in the colonies?

Public bodies all have to have a Gaelic Language plan.

Simples: “we plan not to use the silly dead language”

Anyone who says “simples” cannot comment on language use

How dare they support a native language of their own country? Don’t they know everyone should be speaking English in the colonies?

Gaelic was never the native language for much of Scotland, as much as the SNP now try to pretend it is in an attempt to make us “different”. Broadly, it covered the highlands while the central belt and lowlands spoke Scots (although history is never quite that simple).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic
Interesting to see the number of young speakers is staying constant, I’m amazed the OP has managed to last so long without seeing any of the signs, cars or other stuff up there.

It’s the same as with the road signs- people say “how much does this cost!11oNE!” and the answer is, essentially nothing. Because you need to put road signs up, and stickers on police cars, and it makes bugger all difference if you do it in one language or two.

Agree it’s a bit weird down here but then, stuff does get transferred across divisions

In some areas of Scotland Gaelic has never been spoken, e.g. Orkney & Shetland and Norn is more appropriate. Our LEA (Shetland) do not teach Gaelic as its never been spoken here and no one speaks it and we don’t have Gaelic signs. We do have some dual language signs for settlements in what I assume is Norn (Viking-ish at least).

As above Scottish Gov bodies (like SNH) do have Gaelic on their signs and literature.

Does it affect your life in any way at all?

Stupid question, it means there’s less money elsewhere do be used for useful stuff like police, useful education, NHS, trying to save the economy etc etc

I remember doing the Charity Commission Welsh language website and analysing the logs in the years afterwards. It would have been far cheaper to stick a button on the website which summoned a Welsh speaker to drive the length of the country to answer all and every query in person before moving on to the next request.
Taking into account the volume of post go-live proving that we did (STW owners may want to look this up alongside the concept of SIT and UAT), it would probably have ben cheaper to fly someone in from Patagonia to answer each Welsh language query.

I’m all for supporting dying minority languages, until it comes at the cost of other more worthwhile things..

’m all for supporting dying minority languages, until it comes at the cost of other more worthwhile things..

But if widespread bilingual signing encourages the use of the native language, then they’re no longer dying, and that can only be a good thing.

It’s the same as with the road signs- people say “how much does this cost!11oNE!” and the answer is, essentially nothing. Because you need to put road signs up, and stickers on police cars, and it makes bugger all difference if you do it in one language or two.

Crumbs, if you even give that a nanosecond’s thought you’ll realise what rubbish it is.

Let’s perhaps start with the salary of the person who does the translations…
Then the person that checks them

Etc

I’m glad someone has commented as I’ve struggled with the translation of the signage for ages…

English: Police
Gaelic: Poileas

I’m so glad it’s all so clear now.

It’s not very expensive and the tourists love it. It’s branding/marketing, not an attempt to convert people.

Crumbs, if you even give that a nanosecond’s thought you’ll realise what rubbish it is.

There are costs but over the course of the year to deliver all the signs and cars (hint we don’t need to translate it from scratch every time they run off some stickers) will be small. It will be a tiny amount and provide a way to stop a living language from dying. Culturally there is value there.

Signage is replaced according to natural wastage.

Scotrail has had Gaelic at main stations since I was a boy.

I can count in one hand how many Gaelic speakers I know. One is from Plockton and the other Inverness(ish).

A lot of the place names aren’t even Gaelic; some are pictish, some Scots and other transient languages. Flux of change and all that.

Most of us couldn’t care less as its not our language. Frankly I’d sooner see everyone speaking an internationally relevant second language than some inward looking shortbread tin shite but what do I know?

“Crumbs, if you even give that a nanosecond’s thought you’ll realise what rubbish it is.

Let’s perhaps start with the salary of the person who does the translations…
Then the person that checks them”

Not sure if serious.

Most of us couldn’t care less as its not our language. Frankly I’d sooner see everyone speaking an internationally relevant second language than some inward looking shortbread tin shite but what do I know?

From speaking to a few welsh speakers and others who were bilingual from birth being able think in 2 languages from an early age makes picking up other languages easier later in life. So it’s an advantage for people in a few ways.
Probably more everyday use up north than learning latin in yorkshire 😉
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/25/latin-lessons-dying-out-in-state-schools

“I’m certain the OP would be reduced to a state of frothing apoplexy if he went to Cornwall, which isn’t even a separate country”

And then yon mannie would tootally laise his shite if he went tae northy Ireland and deeked at Ulster-Scots, a maddey-uppy talk tae funnel groats tae Prods “equally” tae Nationalists whut chat Irish…

Let’s perhaps start with the salary of the person who does the translations…
Then the person that checks them”

Apparently, they’re on £350m each, and as much gammon as they can eat. Bastards.

an cuala tu mu Joe Cocker?

Gaelic was never the native language for much of Scotland

I know. But that’s what you get for uniting the place.

This stuff is pretty standard in lots of other countries. Stop worrying about it.

Gaelic has been spoken across just about all of Scotland, during various parts of history (except Orkney/Shetland). Plenty of evidence from placenames etc.

I remember doing the Charity Commission Welsh language website and analysing the logs in the years afterwards. It would have been far cheaper to stick a button on the website which summoned a Welsh speaker to drive the length of the country to answer all and every query in person before moving on to the next request.
Taking into account the volume of post go-live proving that we did (STW owners may want to look this up alongside the concept of SIT and UAT), it would probably have ben cheaper to fly someone in from Patagonia to answer each Welsh language query.

Welsh is an odd one, as if you come from (or visit) south Wales you would be forgiven for thinking it was nothing more than an inconvenient hour of the school week spent learning a pointless langage and keeping sign writers busy.

If you come from North Wales, especially the rural bits then some schools don’t teach English until the later years, and even then it’s just spelling/grammar, everything else, geography, history, science, dinosaurs, PE, was all in Welsh.

But then if you followed the Generalists line of thinking, we should all just learn Chinese (I know, there’s more than one ‘Chinese’, it’s like saying they should speak ‘British’) as it would save publishers having to translate stuff into English.

Gaslic markings in the lowlands is a piece of nonsense and we all know it. It never was the language, no one speaks it. they have to make up Gaelic names for places like falkirk. Its nonsense

Agreed TJ

So if a Gaelic speaker travels south they have to switch to a foreign language in their own country?

If I had to guess I’d say the Scottish government is trying to promote unity within Scotland. Probably not for the first time in history eh?

What on Earth is wrong with a country have two languages? A minority of people speak Welsh in Wales, but that number is growing, and so it should.

Scots Gaelic is the ancient language of Scotland, so why not encourage it? Besides, it’s still spoken extensively in Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island. You don’t want Scotland to get shown up by a bunch of New Worlders, do you?

If you come from North Wales, especially the rural bits then some schools don’t teach English until the later years, and even then it’s just spelling/grammar, everything else, geography, history, science, dinosaurs, PE, was all in Welsh.

There are Welsh medium schools throughout Wales, even in the English heartlands down here. They are well subscribed too and often by kids from English speaking families.

If you come from North Wales, especially the rural bits then some schools don’t teach English until the later years, and even then it’s just spelling/grammar, everything else, geography, history, science, dinosaurs, PE, was all in Welsh.

That’s where my g/f went to school, her folks owned a pub/hotel/restaurant somewhere on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park, so she was required to learn the language. She’s now in her 50’s, and can still speak it.
She also lived in southern Eire for ten years, but never managed to get a handle on the language there.