My mother’s maternal family were all first language Gaelic speakers, but my mother and her siblings were not brought up with the language due to the social and political climate at the time. My father was Italian and we were brought up bilingual, which allowed me the freedom to travel in Italy and to study a language academically that I was already fluent in, ensuring me at least one A grade!
When we moved back North temporarily after becoming pregnant with our first child nine years ago, I wasn’t thinking about education; I fully believed that I would be back at work in the South of England after six months and back on my career path, but island life changed my mind as I looked at it as a mother.
When it came to register our first child at nursery, I didn’t think twice about English or Gaelic because I knew how important a second language had been to me (although I probably didn’t realise it at the time). I have just registered my third child to start school in August and opting out to English didn’t cross my mind as I am now learning Gaelic too as I do homework with my children. It isn’t always easy. My oldest child is now in P4 and I am finding the reading more difficult, but there are resources out there to help and my wonderful friends and neighbours are always on hand when it gets too much.
My husband has started Duolingo so that he can help with the homework when he is home, and having tried it, it does help to get the basics. However, it alone won’t allow us to keep up with the children who can now talk to each other in Gaelic leaving us hoping that it isn’t something we should know!
I believe that learning a second language in an environment where it is a living language, including among native, first-language speakers, as is the case in the Western Isles, carries an additional benefit to our children. Meanwhile they are able to grow stronger roots and a sense of belonging as they are linguistically and culturally growing up in the communities of their ancestors.
I don’t know what the long term benefits are of learning a second or subsequent language, but I know that it helped me to study other languages with more ease, and that it helped me to be more independent abroad as a teenager / young adult – not only in Italy, and afforded me opportunities that I wouldn’t have had with only one language. I was also able to chat with my sister without others understanding, and I enjoyed learning my father’s dialect (Neapolitan) as I grew too – allowing us freedom to chat freely in Scotland and like a local in Naples.
Our children are enjoying Gaelic medium education, the oldest has now started formally learning English at school, and we all enjoy using whatever Gaelic we can to immerse ourselves in the culture and community of the Isle of Lewis – sometimes to hilarious effect when we get it wrong!