George's Mingin Medicine as theclassreader - why, exactly??

[SirChenjin]

Apart from the SNP'S obsession with all things Scoa'ish obviously . We don't speak like that, none of our friends or family do, I don't understand the majority of the words and have no idea how to pronounce them - so when I listen to him reading I haver no idea of what he's saying is correct and then have to sign his readi g record. They would have been better giving him a book written in Mandarin - far more relevant and about as understandable to 99% of his class.

And yes, the title should been the class reader

After ten years of trying to help my children learn Burns poems for Burns night I feel your pain. Requests for help with pronunciation were met with a deafening silence. We are an English family but most of the locals had no idea either!

Exactly. I'm from Kent but spent my teenage years in the NE of Scotland where Doric was the local language, and now we're in middle class central belt where no-one speaks 'Scots'. How the hell am I supposed to listen to an entire book in a dialect I don't understand and can't pronounce to correct DS? Utterly pointless - I'm seriously considering phoning the school and refusing to have anything to do with this reader, and in 14 years of supporting 3 children through primary and secondary school I have never done that.

None of you use 'minging'?

Scots (which included Doric) is a protected language. It is important for traditional languages not to be lost, and I can't see why folk would have a problem with that

I haven't read the book so can't comment. (Although do use the word minging)

Think yourself lucky that they haven't studied the Broons! I used to love the Broons and Oor Wullie 30yrs+ ago but even then they were extremely dated. But now? My children were utterly bemused by them. Very difficult to find any real educational value whatsoever.

And the SNP wonder why there is an ever widening attainment gap.

So they can understand "Trainspotting" . Smacks of some poor (sod like me) teacher having to tick a myriad of pointless boxes to show someone who is as far from grass roots teaching as I am from the bottom of my to do list that they are doing their job.

Sadly, texts like these do satisfy lots of the entitlements for learners. The lyrical qualities of Julia Donaldson Scots language versions are lost in the Dahl rewrites.

I'm secondary English and oh how we sighed when SQA published the list of prescribed Scottish texts for Nat5 and Higher. Yes, celebrate our wonderful literary heritage- they are up for review and actually consulted the minions- I hope they pay attention.

Suffer the pain, hit the library - read "Treasure Island" and the recently reprinted "Light on Dumyat" and enjoy writing that is Scottish.

I use minging occasionally. I don't use the thousands of other words in the book because 'Scots' is nothing more than a dialect spoken by some people in some areas. If it's not spoken in an area any more than French or Belarusian then what on earth is the point of giving a class a book to read at home which is not relevant to the English language they speak? That's the problem I have with it. This isn't a book with a few Scots words thrown in - this is a book where the majority of the text is meaningless and alien to 30 children and which has to be waded through at home.

Oh I have the perfect solution! You need to record a Scottish Granny reading it aloud. I remember hearing my Mum read the Scottish version of The Twits to my son and it was so much better than I could do! Perhaps it could be recorded and come with the book!

Disclaimer: I have not read the book you are referring to but assume it's like the The Twits Scottish edition!

Treasure Island - now there's a book worthy of reading. Not this twee Scottiefied rewrite of the wonderful Dahl.

It drives me potty.
Scots was a rich and noble language. It was the language of Burns, Henryson.
This is just nonsense. No one speaks like that.

The Scottish Grannies I know don't speak Scots any more than I do

I don't speak Scots as such, but I use plenty of Scottish words and phrases, as do my kids who go to a middle class school in the central belt. I would prefer a book in Scots rather than some of the utter pish that they come home with.

I come across plenty of people who use way more Scots than I do and I would hate for my kids to look at someone blankly because they couldn't understand what they someone was saying to them.

Oh this is utter pish too.

Absolutely Angels.

I've been looking for a passage from it, so thanks for posting that TroublewithAngels.

I understand every single word in that quote and read it as fluently as I would read English.

By your own admission OP, you don't understand it. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's pish.

I'd forgotten about Light on Dumyat, I loved that book when I was young, I must get a copy for DD.

Geordie’s Grannie wis a grabbie crabbit auld wumman wi peeliewally broon teeth and a wee snirkit-up mooth like a dug’s bahookie. She wis aye compleenin, girnin, greetin, grummlin and mulligrumphin aboot somethin or ither. She wis a meeserable auld grumpy.

I usee all these words except snirkit and mulligrumphin - and it's not difficult to work out the meaning from context. Scots isn't "nonsense". It's a living language and it's how many people speak. And it's nice for one week of the year ( November, Book Week Scotland) for the kids who do speak like that to see their vernacular given credence in the classroom.

That quote sounds awesome Angels DD would love that, and I'd love reading it to her (in an English accent!)

That's great that Light in Dumyat is being reprinted - it's an awesome book!

Yes it does maw - although I imagine we'll have to agree to differ on what makes great children's literature.

Totally OT but how do you say Dumyat?
I'm thinking it's something like dum-eye-at but I've never been sure.