{"id":3231,"date":"2015-04-02T14:06:19","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T14:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"hhttps:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/?p=3231"},"modified":"2015-04-02T14:06:19","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T14:06:19","slug":"dr-mcewan-fujita-research-rocaidean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/2015\/04\/02\/dr-mcewan-fujita-research-rocaidean\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Emily McEwan-Fujita: Research &amp; Rocaidean"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/independent.academia.edu\/EmilyMcEwanFujita\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3230 size-medium\" title=\"Independent researcher Emily McEwan-Fujita\" src=\"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/emilymcewenfujita.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"EmilyMcEwenFujita\" width=\"300\" height=\"218\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/emilymcewenfujita.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/emilymcewenfujita-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/emilymcewenfujita-1024x744.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/emilymcewenfujita-768x558.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/emilymcewenfujita-1536x1116.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Dr Emily McEwan-Fujita conducted a large part of her PhD fieldwork in Uist in 1999\/2000, and went on to complete her doctorate in Anthropology with the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>Since then she has published <a title=\"McEwan-Fujita articles on Academia.edu\" href=\"https:\/\/independent.academia.edu\/EmilyMcEwanFujita\">numerous articles<\/a>\u00a0on the subject of Gaelic and its revitalisation both in Scotland and Nova Scotia, where she now lives. Most recently she has become an active blogger.\u00a0She wrote an interesting piece last month on Gaelic revitalisation and rocket science.<\/p>\n<p>Here Emily talks (in Gaelic) about some of her observations on learning Gaelic in Uist, and how she came to write her piece:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dr. Emily McEwan-Fujita on Island Voices\/Guthan nan Eilean\" width=\"656\" height=\"369\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MfRIH35LsBk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Good to hear a new voice on Guthan nan Eilean!<\/p>\n<p>And, with her kind permission, here&#8217;s the piece itself, &#8220;re-blogged&#8221;:<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><em>Saving Gaelic \u2013 Is It Rocket Science?<\/em><\/h3>\n<p><em><br \/>\nA few years ago, someone criticized my work, saying that Gaelic language revitalization wasn\u2019t rocket science.\u00a0I didn\u2019t know whether to laugh or cry, because she was right. Language revitalization isn\u2019t rocket science \u2014 it\u2019s far more difficult.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Rocket science, or any type of engineering, formulates and solves problems. Get the math right, solve the problem. On to the next problem. Something breaks or goes wrong? Find the math or programming mistake and fix it. Human error is a factor, but the math is reliable.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Language revitalization, on the other hand, is not so simple.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>A formal definition of language revitalization is: \u201cthe attempt to add new linguistic forms or social functions to a language which is threatened with language loss or death, with the aim of increasing its uses and users\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.ca\/books\/about\/Language_Revitalization_Processes_and_Pr.html?id=zg1jiWzGvNUC&amp;redir_esc=y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kendall King 2001, p. 4<\/a>). Basically, it\u2019s the effort to save a language that is gradually going out of daily use.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Why is it so difficult to <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.ca\/books\/about\/Saving_Languages.html?id=Vavj5-hdDgQC&amp;redir_esc=y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">save a language<\/a>? Because it involves a deliberate effort to change people&#8217;s <strong>opinions<\/strong>, <strong>ideas<\/strong>, <strong>feelings<\/strong>, and <strong>behaviors<\/strong>&#8230; <\/em><strong><em><a title=\"McEwan-Fujita &quot;rocket science&quot; blog post\" href=\"https:\/\/gaelic.co\/rocket-science\/\">Read more&#8230;\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can read more posts from Emily on her blog: <a href=\"https:\/\/gaelic.co\/blog\/\">https:\/\/gaelic.co\/blog\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Emily McEwan-Fujita conducted a large part of her PhD fieldwork in Uist in 1999\/2000, and went on to complete her doctorate in Anthropology with the University of Chicago. Since then she has published numerous articles\u00a0on the subject of Gaelic and its revitalisation both in Scotland and Nova Scotia, where she now lives. Most recently &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/2015\/04\/02\/dr-mcewan-fujita-research-rocaidean\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dr Emily McEwan-Fujita: Research &amp; Rocaidean<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-research","category-ugc","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}