Berneray and other Island Voices mingled harmoniously on Friday night (26^th November) at a cèilidh in the Lobster Pot – where Archie Campbell runs his weekly class for Gaelic learners on the island. The “Berneray Voices” project, with help from Bòrd na Gàidhlig, hosted this event aimed at bringing learners and fluent speakers together.

Take your pick of the following sound files to get a taste of how it went.

Berneray resident Donald Maclean talks about Berneray singers and learning Gaelic.

Here in Gaelic:

Here in English:

Gaelic tutor Archie Campbell talks about the class and the importance of singing.

Here in Gaelic:

Here in English:

Project co-ordinator Alison Dix talks about the Guthan Bheàrnaraigh project and names some of the performers at the cèilidh.

Here in Gaelic:

Here in English:

A selection of performances.

Duncan:

ND:

Ruairidh:

The learners:

Soundscape:

The Cothrom class in English for Speakers of Other Languages is held in a very well appointed upstairs room in the new Balivanich Community Hall. Mary Morrison leads the class with assistance from Suzanne Morrison. It’s a multilingual classroom with learners from Latvia and Poland, who also speak Italian and Russian. There’s a wide range of English levels in the class, with some members having arrived in the Hebrides several years ago, while others have been here just a few months.  But there’s a strong desire to learn in the group and a positive spirit of co-operation,  so newer arrivals are helped by those who have been here longer.

Last night the Island Voices project co-ordinator Gordon Wells visited the group, so class members had a chance to practise introducing themselves – saying who they were, where they were from, and where they were working now. They also talked about some of their favourite parts of Benbecula. Because it was a very pleasant summer evening the group then made a plan to tour round some of these sites and make some short video recordings.

Favourite spots were the beach, of course, and the community riding school where they got some lovely pictures of the horses.

Another highlight was Benbecula airport – because that’s the quickest way to Poland! And Olga wanted to make a film about Balivanich Primary School, where her daughter has been a pupil for three years now.

Here she talks about her impressions of the school, and how much her daughter enjoys it.

Following the conversation with Archie Campbell about learning Gaelic, Gordon Wells talks about opportunities for learning English. Some previous projects have been innovative, with learners doing their own filming. There’s an example here. A good contact point to find out about classes running now is Cothrom.

Tha clasaichean anns na h-eileanan airson luchd-ionnsachaidh na Beurla cuideachd. Seo eisimpleir inntinneach – rinn na h-oileanaich film dhaibh fhèin mun dòigh-beatha aca an seo. Ma tha duine sam bith airson fiosrachadh a bharrachd air clasaichean a tha gan ruith an-dràsta faodaidh iad fios a chur dhan bhuidheann-trèanaidh Cothrom.

Listen here in English:

Listen here in Gaelic:

Bidh video san t-sreath ùr le Eairdsidh Caimbeul a’ sealltainn mar a bhios daoine a’ buain na mònadh.

Tha Eairdsidh an sàs gu mòr ann an teagasg na Gàidhlig. An seo tha e a’ bruidhinn mu na clasaichean a bhios e a’ ruith ann an Uibhist, agus carson a tha an obair seo a’ còrdadh ris. Tha e cuideachd a’ toirt iomradh air cùrsa ùr sònraichte a bhios air a ruith le Stòras Uibhist.

There will be a video in the new series featuring Archie Campbell, showing how people cut peats.  Here Archie talks about his interest in teaching Gaelic in his home community in Uist. He mentions the various classes he’s running at the moment, and highlights an interesting new development – a weeklong immersion course to be run by Stòras Uibhist, which will have strong community links.Listen here to the English interview:

Listen here to the Gaelic interview: