A little about me and one of my goals

For a geography assignment in school one year my mother told me to pick out a country that I would want to study. I picked Scotland. Braveheart was a new movie at the time and I had quickly been swept up by the story, the music, and the beautiful scenery. I dove into my studies. I still have a notebook I made with every fact I could find about the country and its history. At one time I could tell you what the average summer and winter temperatures are there. The passion for Scotland and the desire to learn more about it have never left me and it has grown with age. I have continued to buy books pertaining to not only to Scottish history but to Irish and British history as well (I know the story of William Wallace backwards and forwards-thanks Mel Gibson). I also love Celtic Music (I still watch the Lord of the Dance performance on tape) and I think I prefer British television over American.

While in my college geography class I was given the assignment of researching a culture and giving a presentation. Of course I had to pick somewhere in Scotland but I wanted it to be unique so I started searching. While reading up on crofting (something similar to sharecropping) and the islands off the country's coast I ran across a part of Scotland I had never heard of before. The Outer and Inner Hebrides, a group of islands off of Scotland's northwest coast. Many of the people on these islands still lived the crofter's way of life. In some cases towns still shut down on Sundays and Gaelic was still a language many spoke. There are several Hebride islands. I chose the largest one, the Isle of Harris as my presentation topic and got an "A". Needless to say I found an interest within an interest and I have been fascinated by the Gaelic languages ever since.

There are many Gaelic languages. Welsh (from Wales) is a language that you have probably heard of. Irish gaelic, Scots gaelic, Manx, Breton, and Cornish are others. They are spoken predominately in remote area of the United Kingdom but are also spoken in places such as Nova Scotia and France. I would like to learn Welsh and Irish but Scots is my passion.

I haven't learned much yet. I'm remind myself of a child who is just learning to speak and can tell you how to say bacon or milk or sugar (why are they all food items?)..... but one day I hope to somehow be fluent. I want to learn the language, fly to Scotland, and start a conversation with a Scots speaker. That would be the peak of success to me!

I'm currently trying to decide on a textbook curriculum with audio to invest in but in the meantime I have found a wealth of internet aids. If anyone is ever going to learn how to say any gaelic word they need audio because it just doesn't read the way it pronounces. The letters "bh" together make a "v" sound, etc. The BBC is a great source for information! All of my favorite sites are BBC sites. Here are a couple if you get curious and what to see what the heck it is I am doing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/foghlam/airsplaoid/index.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/foghlam/beag_air_bheag/

So now you know I'm weird and have interests that I share with absolutely no one else I know! Maybe I'll blog about something that makes more sense next time. One can only hope.