First Impressions from Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

This is the first of a series of reflections I wrote during my time at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, an accreditted college on the Sleat peninsula of the Isle of Skye. SMO is unique in that it offers Gaelic-language higher education in a number of fields, and is home to many of the leading academics in the field of Gaelic revitalization.

In this reflection, I respond to the paper Not enough words: Language acquisition and identity work in tertiary-level Gaelic-medium education. by Dr. Tim Currie Armstrong, whose lectures I attended on several occasions.

Gaelic and ideology

When Armstrong uses the term ideology, he seems to be referring specifically to the awareness of “Gaelic identity and the language revival as a social movement”. But this is such a broad concept, so what exactly does it entail in practice? The answer to this question became more clear through a Q&A session with him, when the topic shifted to the attitudes people hold toward the language. Because Gaelic is no longer a communal language, the choice to use it as a medium of communal communication is just that–-a choice. Thus, the groups that embrace the language–-such as SMO–-are bound together by a constructed identity. Not constructed as in trivial or unreal; I mean it in the sense that it is consciously cultivated by its members, as opposed to identities one is born into and retains passively. What was once an innate, cultural identity can only be maintained by active identification as a Gael.

This is why ideologies are so important: there are many directions in which Gaelic can go as a social movement. While all members have the same overall desires (i.e. the use of Gaelic), their individual goals and methodologies may conflict. Having met a decent number of Gaels here, it seems to me that these ideological conflicts can feel personal-–after all, the stakes are high. A strategic miscalculation could result in the extinction of a language and its culture. This contextualizes Armstrong’s emphasis on SMO’s written stances on Gaelic. The college needs to firmly declare its ideology, in order to provide a stable and consistent vector despite consisting of individuals with many differing views.

An interaction

As to what the particular ideologies that exist in the Gaelosphere, I am uninformed as of time of writing. As I meet more Gaels and speak to them, I will inevitably learn about their ideological stances on the Gaelic Language. Yet I have had several experiences where ideological differences have been highlighted (as is often the case, ideologies are most noticeable in clashes between them). One experience was a brief exchange between two cafeteria servers, A and B, following these sentiments:

A: [In Gaelic] Would you like toast?
Me: Sorry?
A: Would you like toast? …
B: It’s their first day, they’re not going to have any idea what you’re saying.
A: Well it’s the language, and it’s spoken here. They might as well be exposed to it.
B: Yeah, but you might frighten them away like that.

This brief exchange highlights a pivotal difference in approaches to the language. Participant B indicates that Gaelic could be a burden on the uninitiated. By forcing uncomfortable speakers to interact with it, one risks alienation. This can make the use of Gaelic outside of specific spaces feel awkward and tedious, as if each conversation is a classroom exercise. Participant B adopts a more resolute stance. Yes, hearing Gaelic may be daunting. But speakers should not have to sacrifice their own use of the language for the sake of outsiders. In fact, it’s better for those outsiders to “come in” to the language, as opposed to gradually “building up” the language around them.

I don’t expect to have captured the full extent of either participant’s beliefs, and perhaps the sentiments they expressed here were merely situational. It would be impossible to know without a complete interview of both. This conversation was nevertheless an interesting snapshot, shedding light on the extent to which English and Gaelic compete and/or cooperate within the controlled environment of SMO, as alluded to by Armstrong. I don’t think either ideology is “correct”, and they both have the same goal of encouraging Gaelic learning. Yet the two approaches are incompatible. I imagine that the issue increases exponentially when the target audience is not a group of American students like me, but a future generation of Gaels, and the goal is not teaching Gaelic for a month, but revitalizing a language, a culture, a people.