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Chinese/Mandarin in Shetland Schools.


Kavi Ugl
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Well since we live in a big wide world I would hope that bairns learn to say "skorie" at home and "seagull" when talking to the big wide world.  But I do agree that learning their own local history, culture and language is also important.

 

And on a point of interest is "bairns" the correct Shetland word for bairns.  I always thought is was more Scottish.

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I'll resist the temptation to repeat one of Phil the Greek's "jokes".....

 

I wouldn't imagine this will be a best seller, but if some other mug and not us is paying for it.....Agreed though, if funding is being found for anything right now, its a pity its not to the benefit of the majority, rather than probably less than 1%.

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I'll resist the temptation to repeat one of Phil the Greek's "jokes".....

 

I wouldn't imagine this will be a best seller, but if some other mug and not us is paying for it.....Agreed though, if funding is being found for anything right now, its a pity its not to the benefit of the majority, rather than probably less than 1%.

 

If I read the article correctly, funding is only being found for 2 years.  Just how much "schoollboy" (or girl) Chinese do you think you could learn in that time? and, what happens afterwards?

Sure as hell wouldn't have time for the works of Mao... :razz:

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As it is, we have bairns who don't even say the word "skorie" but use "seagull"!.

I'm glad they are not randomly calling seagulls 'skories' - that is a Toonie habit surely. A seagull is a maa, only a young speckled one is a skorie. It has become a pejorative term for the hapless birds so perhaps that's why the young folk are choosing not to use it.

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I understand what you're saying viz maa/skorie and I wouldn't disagree but my basic point is that even "basic" Shetland words are dying out.

 

Considering the age group I've heard it from(Primary), it's certainly not that they're choosing not to use it.

 

It's a sign of the anglified education system and environment we seem to live in.

 

The fact is, the whole issue of what languages are taught in Shetland's schools should be over-hauled asap(French??).

 

As things stand we have more economic links with Norway(salmon industry and oil/gas industry) than with the likes of France.

 

Scrap the old pointless languages of French and Latin and replace it with Norwegian. 

Edited by Kavi Ugl
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Scrap the old pointless languages of French and Latin and replace it with Norwegian. 

 

French speakers in the world over 70 million

Norwegian speakers 5 million (and most of the Norwegians I met there can speak English)

 

Which one is pointless?. Rather my bairn could speak to as many of the worlds inhabitants as possible and with learning French they'd know two of the most used languages in the world.

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Oh dry your eyes I see your point, the problem with your point is that it's insular and the world is big wide place hence the highlighting of how many people speak French and how few speak Norwegian.

 

Now I'm not saying we can't have Norwegian taught in schools but it shouldn't be at the expense of much more widely spoken languages. I also agree teaching mandarin is a waste of time in the context of current educational needs, dare I say it teaching Norwegian would make more sense than teaching Mandarin but you shouldn't ditch French or German to only teach Norwegian that doesn't make sense.

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