If you listen to BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal you might come across people talking about "assassin" on a regular basis. If you're confused, don't be, they're just talking about England (no, really, à Sasainn means "from England" for example)
But the thought that anti-Gaelic sentiment still exists within Scotland itself, while not entirely surprising is, as the article points out, revealing of a fear to engage with a culture that is still portrayed as backwards and outdated.
I'm not a Gael by blood or education by a long shot but I am proud to be involved in the implementation of Gaelic Medium Education and hopefully make a positive impact and change people's perceptions. Really you just have to listen to Julie Fowlis sing to realise just how amazingly beautiful the language can be.
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Gael Power
By Mike Small Scotland is a multicultural country where at least 160 languages are spoken. That gaelic should be one of them seems to irritate people at some deep level and they’re getting angrier …
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You might find this blog post of interest:
http://blog.anghyflawn.net/2015/03/26/why-teach-the-kids-gaelic-if-you-can-teach-them-mandarin/
+bethan jenkins indeed, excellent article despite a somewhat misleading headline.
The Minecraft tale reminds me of how important it is to find something interesting in a target language in order to study it effectively.
I hated French at school and found it very difficult to learn, but since finding interesting things to read in that language it has become considerably easier.
I was thinking that was maybe the origin of Sassenach.
A quick goog search
"Sassenach adj. and n. English; an English person
Sassenach is derived from the Scottish Gaelic word sasunnach, literally meaning 'Saxon', and originally used by Gaelic speakers to refer to non-Gaelic speaking Scottish Lowlanders."
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/SWE/TBI/TBIIssue13/Sassenach.html
+Milo Thurston I know exactly what you mean. I gave private English lessons to a boy back when I was still at uni in France and thought the best way to engage him was to find something he was passionate about that had some connection to the English language. Unfortunately, that didn't really work out, his only interest was fishing…
+mike quinn I think it's normally written Sasannach in Gaelic but yes
+Jean-Loup Rebours-Smith it's a shame that you probably didn't have a copy of "Fly Fishing" by J. R. Hartley. 😉
Yeah I don't think that would have helped though