Julie Fowlis on Fonn mo Bheatha

[KNQuail]

This episode of Fonn mo Beatha, from BBC Alba, was just recently uploaded to YouTube. I thought some of you might be interested in it, though I'm not sure if it belongs here or in the C&F Poststructural Pub. Anyways, Julie is interviewed by Cathy Ann MacPhee, and it's all in Gaelic (with English subtitles). I'm guessing it's from 2007, maybe 2008, but I'm not sure. Cathy talks too much for my liking and at times it seems Julie struggles to get a word in edgewise, but it's an interesting program.

Part 1...Julie talks a bit about her childhood, school, learning the bagpipes, oboe and whistle, going to Sabhal Mor Ostaig to improve her Gaelic, and performs Eilean Uibhist mo Ruin with Eamon. Plays a bit of whistle on the song, pretty sure it's a Generation...Bb perhaps?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1fuhE_LHf8

Part 2...starts off with Julie and Eamon playing a lovely tune, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Can't tell what whistle she's playing. More talk of Sabhal Mor Ostaig, joining Dochas, stage fright, her solo career, winning awards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6IInZ3nTD0

Part 3...a capella performance by Julie. Julie and Cathy talk of collecting Gaelic songs before they are lost forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO5fm_Zj60Y

Part 4...Julie, Cathy and Eamon do a song together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBMUyJtLZ98

***edited to fix the link to Part 2

[Redwolf]

Is this Scottish Gaelic or Irish Gaelic? Might be best to indicate with "SG" or "IG" in the title, since both languages are welcome (but they aren't, for the most part, mutually intelligible). I'm assuming Scottish Gaelic, since it's BBC Alba.

Redwolf

[KNQuail]

Scottish Gaelic. Sorry for the confusion, my understanding of it is that "Irish Gaelic" is generally just called "Irish" and "Scottish Gaelic" is usually referred to as "Gaelic."

[Redwolf]

Scottish Gaelic. Sorry for the confusion, my understanding of it is that "Irish Gaelic" is generally just called "Irish" and "Scottish Gaelic" is usually referred to as "Gaelic."

That's generally true...but enough people don't know that, that it's probably best to indicate (also, some older Irish speakers still use the term "Gaelic"). In fact, I'm often a little surprised at how few people don't know that there's any difference. We get requests at Irish Gaelic Translator.com all the time that start with something like "I've decided to get a tattoo to honor my Scottish ancestors...".

Or we can just go with "Gaeilge" and "Gàidhlig"

Redwolf

[KNQuail]

Now THERE is something I haven't thought of...a Gaelic tattoo. Not that I know for sure my ancestors spoke Gaelic, but with a name like MacPhail, I'm guessing they did at some point.

[MTGuru]

We get requests at Irish Gaelic Translator.com all the time that start with something like "I've decided to get a tattoo to honor my Scottish ancestors...".

Depends on how far back they want to go, doesn't it?

[Redwolf]

Now THERE is something I haven't thought of...a Gaelic tattoo. Not that I know for sure my ancestors spoke Gaelic, but with a name like MacPhail, I'm guessing they did at some point.

I think you may be the only person who hasn't!

Seriously, I'm sometimes a little shocked at how many of our requests start with "I just turned 18, and I'm about to get my first tattoo..." or "Time to add something new to the tatt." It's also amazing how "trendy" the requests are...for example, for a time, the number one tattoo request among men was "none but God may judge me." The big one among women is "live, laugh, love." I don't have anything against tattoos, personally (I'm not fond of how they look, but to each his own) but I sometimes wonder if these people realize just how unoriginal their requests are! Sometimes I want to advise them to just buy a T-shirt or poster...then wait 20 years to see if they're still in love with the "saying" before inking it permanently on their bodies.

The really scary thing, however, is how many people simply try to piece things together from a dictionary (using English syntax, and sometimes even English inflections, such as adding an "s" to form a plural!), or use something like Google Translator (or have a friend who claims to "know Gaelic" who has clearly done the same thing). The ones who come to us to verify their "translation" are the lucky ones...I'm sure for every one of those, there are two or three who don't bother, and just happily trot down to the tattoo parlor with their Google- or dictionary-generated gibberish in hand.

Redwolf

[KNQuail]

Ah yes, I do love a good tattoo-gone-wrong story!!! Heard a few when I got mine 2 years ago. I wasn't foolish enough to go with anything trendy like that, I just got one of a fiddle (yes, I'm a whistler now, but my all-time favorite instrument - to listen to, at least! - is the fiddle) with the notes to "O'er the Moor Among the Heather" (one of my favorite fiddle tunes...well, I guess it's actually a SONG, but I've only heard it done as an instrumental, and I'm partial to the versions by Natalie MacMaster and Alasdair Fraser) swirling around it. I'm really fussy when it comes to tattoos...I'd say probably 90% of the ones I see, I don't like. I thought about mine for over a year to make sure I wanted to go through with it, and when I went to get it the guy did a drawing and I made him change some stuff to it before inked me, to make sure it was exactly what I wanted. I'm really pleased with how it came out, and also glad I wasn't impulsive and didn't rush into it without thinking. No intentions of getting any Irish/Gaelic tattoos, nor in any other foreign languages. Sometimes I think about getting a thistle and a shamrock to reflect my Irish and Scottish heritage...but then I suppose I should think of something to to represent my German, English, Italian, Dutch, and God only knows what else ancestry as well, and it gets to be too much! I don't want that much ink.

[Redwolf]

Ah yes, I do love a good tattoo-gone-wrong story!!! Heard a few when I got mine 2 years ago. I wasn't foolish enough to go with anything trendy like that, I just got one of a fiddle (yes, I'm a whistler now, but my all-time favorite instrument - to listen to, at least! - is the fiddle) with the notes to "O'er the Moor Among the Heather" (one of my favorite fiddle tunes...well, I guess it's actually a SONG, but I've only heard it done as an instrumental, and I'm partial to the versions by Natalie MacMaster and Alasdair Fraser) swirling around it. I'm really fussy when it comes to tattoos...I'd say probably 90% of the ones I see, I don't like. I thought about mine for over a year to make sure I wanted to go through with it, and when I went to get it the guy did a drawing and I made him change some stuff to it before inked me, to make sure it was exactly what I wanted. I'm really pleased with how it came out, and also glad I wasn't impulsive and didn't rush into it without thinking. No intentions of getting any Irish/Gaelic tattoos, nor in any other foreign languages. Sometimes I think about getting a thistle and a shamrock to reflect my Irish and Scottish heritage...but then I suppose I should think of something to to represent my German, English, Italian, Dutch, and God only knows what else ancestry as well, and it gets to be too much! I don't want that much ink.

The ones that really get me are the people who post "The tattoo appointment is in one hour! Hurry...I need this translation quickly!" I think a lot of folks (a scary number of people, really) honestly believe that languages are just codes for one another...that all you have to do is get a dictionary and plug the words from one language into the syntax of another. Then they get REALLY confused when we tell them that there can be more than one way to say something. Sometimes we can persuade them to reschedule the tattoo appointment...other times we just cross our fingers.

On the other hand, we do get some who spend a lot of time and thought, and who ask good questions. Sometimes they come back and post a photo of the work they've had done and, even though I don't really care for tattoos, it's always nice to see how your translation turned out in print...er...ink.

I suspect that impulsive 18 year olds are the modern version of the young soldier on leave, who wakes up the next morning with a bad headache and "Mom" tattooed on his shoulder.

Redwolf

[KNQuail]

The ones that really get me are the people who post "The tattoo appointment is in one hour! Hurry...I need this translation quickly!" I think a lot of folks (a scary number of people, really) honestly believe that languages are just codes for one another...that all you have to do is get a dictionary and plug the words from one language into the syntax of another. Then they get REALLY confused when we tell them that there can be more than one way to say something. Sometimes we can persuade them to reschedule the tattoo appointment...other times we just cross our fingers.

Oy, I remember just trying to translate stuff into Spanish in high school...even there, not everything translates exactly. I can only imagine how it is with Irish!

I suspect that impulsive 18 year olds are the modern version of the young soldier on leave, who wakes up the next morning with a bad headache and "Mom" tattooed on his shoulder.

Redwolf

LOL Yes, I will agree with you on that!!! I know a guy that ran out and got his last name tattooed in big block letters across his entire back as soon as he turned 18...he definitely regrets that now! I'm glad I waited til the ripe old age of 26 to get mine. Had I done it at 18, I know I would have done something stupid.

[Redwolf]

When my daughter was 7, she badly wanted the character "Baby Bop" from the "Barney" show as a tattoo. Nowadays, at 16, when she muses on the idea of getting a tattoo when she's 18, my husband reminds her of that (much to her embarrassment!).

On the funny side, my husband used to work with a lady whose mom was Korean. Now, mom had lived in the States for more than 30 years, and had flawless English, with barely an accent. But she looked a little like the stereotypical "little old Asian lady," and she loved to play up to it from time to time, much to her daughter's embarrassment. She was appalled at the idea of people being tattooed in a language they didn't understand. Whenever they were out and about, if she'd see someone with a Chinese or Japanese tattoo, she'd grab her daughter's arm and say (loudly!), in the most godawful "stage" Chinese/pidgen accent you can imagine "Why dat man have 'kung pao chicken" on his neck? Lookie! Lookie! It say "kung pao chicken!" etc.

Redwolf

[KNQuail]

When I got my tattoo, another tattoo artist was talking about a client she had whose sister had adopted a little boy from Korea. The lady wanted the Korean symbol for "aunt" tattooed on her...much later she found out that the symbol actually meant "man!"

LOL...love how far we've strayed from the original topic. Guess no one's actually watched the Julie Fowlis videos, then? Oh well, I thought they were interesting.