Why is reviving/using the indigenous language pretentious? A culture's /country's indentity is defined by it's language. Also the best way to oppress a culture is to forbid the use of its native language....Whoops flashing back to "Archeology - The Evolution of Civilizations"... sorry. Who'd have thought something I learned at Uni 13 years ago would have stuck?Where are you from, the 1940s?Britain's name dispute with Ireland ended some time ago, nobody calls Ireland "Éire" these days unless they're being pretentious by speaking in Irish.
Scotland to leave the UK?
- Thread starter DarthTom
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Reading for comprehension is a dying art, it appears.
And I think it helps to consider what the issues would actually be in real life and not in a fantasy world where the happy voters decide to rid themselves of the US and are free to start their new paradise the next day.
Poor Switzerland.
They'd be pretty well rounded, I would have thought 
It was banned for a long time. IS it encouraged these days? it is taught in school as a LOTE? Or is that not done. FWIW, my kids would love to learn to speak & read it, but it's not taught in school here, although German, French, Spanish, Indonesian, Japanese among many other LsOTE are on the NSW HSC Syllabus.
Good question. Let's ask someone who actually lives there. TheGodBen?They'd be pretty well rounded, I would have thoughtIt was banned for a long time. IS it encouraged these days? it is taught in school as a LOTE? Or is that not done.
Bring on the referendum, I don't believe the people of Scotland will vote in favour, tbh.
I don't want the language to die, but I object to the idea that it is our primary language when it is not. It was declared our primary language back at a time of high nationalist sentiment, back when there was a drive to make us distinct from Britain, and back when there was some hope that it could become the de facto language of the country. But those days are gone, Irish has fallen even further out of use and in this increasingly globalised world it doesn't make sense to supplant the lingua franca of international affairs with one that no other country speaks.
So yes, I find the notion that Irish people should speak Irish to be somewhat pretentious, because its only purpose seems to be to show others that we can. (Even though we can't.)
I was taught it from my first day in school, aged 4, until I left secondary education 13 years later. My earliest memory of the language is that my teacher wouldn't allow me to go to the toilet unless I asked in Irish, and I didn't know how to ask in Irish, so I'd usually just sit there for the rest of the afternoon bursting for a piss.
Three words that can still strike fear into my bones are "double Irish class". 
On an average day I can remember about 5 words.
Meh, in Yr 7 (early 70s) we had to do Latin, French, Indonesian and German, then choose at least one to study for the next 3 years. The only one or those 4 that made sense to me to teach in a school in Sydney Australia, was Indonesian. My kids all had to do German from Kinder or Yr 1 until Yr8.
I think it's already been established that we have at least one case of a peaceful division of a democratic state into two entities.
I know Americans like to think their country is somehow different than the rest of the world, but there's no "fantasy world" we need to contemplate to see that a war-free secession is possible.
Seriously: Reading for comprehension. It's a wonderful thing. So far nothing you've said has had the remotest resemblance to anything I've posted.
Maybe you should curb your eagerness to be anti-American long enough to read what I actually wrote and respond appropriately.
His location reads "Scotland" and he said "their country." In any case, there's nothing preventing Americans from being anti-American, believe me.
Seriously: Reading for comprehension. It's a wonderful thing. So far nothing you've said has had the remotest resemblance to anything I've posted.
Maybe you should curb your eagerness to be anti-American long enough to read what I actually wrote and respond appropriately.
I understood what you said; I don't think your issues are valid. I thought I was pretty clear.
Your responses indicate that I would deny people their right to self-determination and that I don't think a war-free secession is possible. That's the exact opposite of what I said.
And you don't think protecting the rights of the minority are valid? You don't think a secession agreement should involve reimbursement for Federal property and protection of or reimbursement for personal property? You don't think the United States should be concerned about the Rights of its citizens who didn't vote for secession and don't want to become citizens of a foreign country? Really? That's pretty bizarre, if you ask me.
And you don't think protecting the rights of the minority are valid? You don't think a secession agreement should involve reimbursement for Federal property and protection of or reimbursement for personal property? You don't think the United States should be concerned about the Rights of its citizens who didn't vote for secession and don't want to become citizens of a foreign country? Really? That's pretty bizarre, if you ask me.
His location reads "Scotland" and he said "their country." In any case, there's nothing preventing Americans from being anti-American, believe me.
Are you suggesting that any national who criticizes the USA is anti-American? Isn't that the stance that GW Bush took: anyone who criticizes me hates America. Why do you hate America?
And yet the IRA got almost all of their funding from the USA.
^apart from what they got from Libya and the Soviets...
True, you didn't specifically state that, you merely provided a list of issues that would need to be sorted.
I agree there's a list of things including property that need to be addressed, but I think that's contractural trivia you go through after recognising that the majority of the population in question wants to be a separate nation. These are not matters that need to be worried about prior to deciding whether or not to leave.
Ah IRA funding, I think that's something that still needs to be addressed by the USA in its relations with the UK. Not so many hard feelings in Scotland, but then the bombing campaign didn't extend up here, thankfully.
And I don't hate America. I think the priorities are fucked-up over there re: work/life balance and the social contract, but that's it. I definitely think people would be better off if it broke up into smaller bits.
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