Pic: Laura Fraser

The Chronicle Herald of Nova Scotia reports that seven students crowded around a wood stove here Tuesday morning, sheltered from the rain by a house built at the turn of the 20th century. At that time, Gaelic was the mother tongue of more than 40 per cent of people living on Cape Breton Island. Only about 500 Cape Bretoners are still fluent in the language today.

But the seven teenagers seemed happy to learn from the words of instructor Mary Jane Lamond, who spoke only in Gaelic as she described how to make a traditional Scottish bread known as bannock.

You want to keep people speaking in Gaelic for as long as possible.

Ms. Lamond, an award-winning performer and interpreter of Gaelic songs, explained later to a reporter.

Going around singing is great, too. But it’s not going to create more Gaelic speakers, and right now the language is struggling to survive.

The students are in their second week of a two-week paid apprenticeship program at the Highland Village Museum. The Gaelic Council of Nova Scotia set up the summer jobs to nurture a new generation of Gaelic speakers.

The teens are immersed in both the Gaelic language and the culture of the settlers who first arrived in Cape Breton from Scotland about 1810.

But instead of sitting in a classroom and conjugating verbs, the young people will do things like playing card games in Gaelic. Gestures are encouraged rather than using English words.

Read the complete story at Source.

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