Category: Video

Summer Season

~ Gordon Wells ~ 1 Comment

The Hebrides are known to be capable of delivering all four seasons in one day – but at this time of year you can at least be confident that the day will be a long one! Already it’s well after 10 o’clock before the sun sets. Students and teachers are beginning to look forward to their summer break.

Last year learners of Gaelic and English joined forces for an end-of-term party in Grogarry Lodge. The evening was such a success that a repeat event is planned. And this year, there will be some special guests – Filidh Ruadh – from multilingual Switzerland to provide musical entertainment. As visitors to the Ceòlas music school last year, they’ve already made their mark in Uist, and it will be great to have them back again, performing specially at this international evening.

This short film was made at last year’s party. If we can produce the same spirit again this year it should be a great night!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivU7CZLbm0s?rel=0&w=300&h=233]

Gaelic in the Kitchen

~ Gordon Wells ~ 2 Comments

The Berneray Gaelic classes led by Alison Dix and Archie Campbell were invited into a neighbour’s house to learn how to make oatcakes in the Hebridean manner. Màiri also spoke about her lifelong connection with Berneray, as well as of her training and work experience on the mainland, and her interest in good homebaking. Getting to eat the oatcakes was an extra bonus – not to mention taking home the recipe!

This 5-minute audio recording of Màiri’s good Berneray Gaelic is overlaid with pictures snapped at the time with a mobile phone. It’s the work of a few minutes to put the two together and place the result online. Now Gaelic learners worldwide can listen again and again – perhaps while making more oatcakes in their own kitchen…

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/41353428 w=500&h=375]

Up for an International Award!

~ Gordon Wells ~ 3 Comments

The English component of the Island Voices video collection has been nominated for a prestigious award, the British Council ELTons, sponsored by Cambridge ESOL – “a celebration of excellence in English language teaching (ELT) from around the world.”

Michael Carrier, Head of English Language Innovation at the British Council said: “The ELTons have grown to become an essential fixture in the ELT calendar. They are a wonderful opportunity to showcase innovative ELT products and creative ELT authors from around the world, and we are very proud to be able to bring the ELT community together to celebrate innovation in our profession.”

The Island Voices Videos have been nominated under the Local Innovation category. The full press release is available via this link. Exciting times! We wait to see what May brings…

Sing! Sing! Sing! Seinn! Seinn! Seinn!

~ Gordon Wells ~ 1 Comment

Nuair a chleachdas sinn cànan cha bhi sinn daonnan ga bhruidhinn no ga sgrìobhadh. Uaireannan bidh sinn ga sheinn! Ma tha sgeulachd, bàrdachd, no òran agaibh, no aig caraid, nach cuir sibh thugainn e gus an tèid againn uile air a leughadh no a chluinntinn air làrach Pàipear Uibhist? Seo eisimpleir eile dhuibh.

Let’s not forget that a language can be sung, as well as spoken or written. Local Uist residents have been enjoying a series of community singing workshops recently, and sampling some new languages while doing so, including Finnish and Japanese as well as English and Gaelic. And local organiser Catherine Eunson has put together this short movie for Am Pàipear using one of the workshop songs as the soundtrack. See what you can do just with a series of still photographs!

Song, speech, or text. Still or moving pictures – or none at all. Just let us know if you would like to add to our Community Voices in Am Pàipear.

New Download Facility

~ Gordon Wells ~ 1 Comment

All 150 Videos in the Series One and Series Two Island Voices collection are now available for download in “avi” format from this page on the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig website:

http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gd/ealain-is-cultar/guthan-nan-eilean/

This new facility means that, once you download a particular video to your computer, you won’t need to go online every time you want to watch it. This may be especially useful if there are some particular clips you want to use on a regular basis, or if you’re taking your laptop somewhere where there isn’t a good internet connection.

The page also gives links to the transcripts for downloading in Word format, as well as to the original YouTube locations (already available through the Series One and Series Two pages on this site, which also give links to detailed pdf catalogues for each series).

Video learning group opens up

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Greek television interviews Konstantinou Bliatsios of the Georgiki Anaptixi Vocational Training Centre about the POOLS-CX workshop being hosted in Larisa

The POOLS-CX group has been meeting in Larisa, Greece, this week. This is a Transfer of Innovation project led by the University of Pitesti in Romania, building on the outputs of the original 2005-2007 POOLS project, out of which the Island Voices project was also born. Island Voices co-ordinator Gordon Wells has been helping group members from Italy, Greece, and Turkey to develop video-making techniques for language learning and teaching.

The group has been using Vimeo to upload their first drafts of videos, and comment on their progress. Up until this point this has been a closed group so that comments could be made in confidence. At this week’s meeting it was agreed to open the group to anyone who is interested in learning video skills, so that they can view how the team members have progressed over the past few months. The group can be viewed via this link, where participants’ first videos and discussions can be seen.

Benbecula Community Cinema – where Hebridean and Caribbean meet

~ Gordon Wells ~ 1 Comment

Hebridean Voices get a hearing alongside Caribbean ones on the “Silver Screen” at the Benbecula Community Cinema on Saturday 10th September.  Blockbusting “Pirates of the Caribbean – on Stranger Tides” gets its Uist premiere, with a retrospective selection of Series One Island Voices shorts offered up as a tasty starter. The focus this time is on Hebridean Food!

Neil Campbell from Sustainable Uist is keen to showcase local productions alongside headlining feature films in an exciting programme for Benbecula Community Cinema over the coming months.

English Video Tweets

~ Gordon Wells ~ 2 Comments

‘S e làrach-lìn ùr a th’ ann an “English Video Tweets” a tha ag amas air cuideachadh a thoirt do luchd-ionnsachaidh na Beurla. Air an làrach seo gheibhear ceanglaichean do bhidiothan air-loidhne a chaidh a dhèanamh airson luchd-ionnsachaidh. Tha fear no dhà ann cuideachd a chaidh a dhèanamh le luchd-ionnsachaidh fhèin – “Kallin Shellfish” nam measg.

The “English Video Tweets” website is a portal to a large and still growing collection of videos for learners of English. Some student projects are included in the collection, including “Kallin Shellfish”.

Grogarry Lodge: Community Cèilidh “par excellence”!

~ Gordon Wells ~ 8 Comments

Owned by the community company Stòras Uibhist, Grogarry Lodge is a remarkable venue. And last Thursday it hosted a remarkable evening, when learners of English and Gaelic from various classes around Uist gathered for an end-of-term celebration. The event was organised by the recently formed Language and Culture group at Cothrom, and was aimed at celebrating the rich linguistic diversity in the community. For one night, learners became teachers and shared something of their own languages with others eager to learn – including phrases of German, Italian, Polish and Russian, as well as English and Gaelic. Community members and followers of Guthan nan Eilean will recognise many of the faces, and perhaps be pleasantly surprised at the humour and talent on display that might not previously have been suspected!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivU7CZLbm0s?rel=0]

Food, thoughts, and songs were shared, with the English learners producing this booklet containing the recipes for the dishes they had prepared, as well as some poems reflecting their impressions of Scotland and the Western Isles. Just click on the link to download your own free copy!

Playlists for Online Immersion

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A new feature has recently been added to the YouTube channel that provides access to all 150 Series One and Series Two videos. The videos have been grouped into 8 separate playlists corresponding to the English and Gaelic Series One and Series Two Outdoors, Generations, and Enterprise categories. This allows easier navigation around the YouTube channel to let you find the video you’re looking for without having to go through the menus on this project website – though you’ll still need to use the Series One or Two tabs at the top of this page in order to access transcripts/translations.

Just go to the Playlists tab on this site or direct to the YouTube channel and click on a playlist to get a non-stop “feature length” playback of all the videos in the category of your choice. Ideal for “online immersion”!