Dear Rory

In regards to the article entitled _Will Gaelic Become Only Girl Talk?_ printed in The Scotsman, June 24, 1998: and reprinted in your 'Exciting Information That You Cant Afford to Miss' page
It is my opinion that this article is incomplete and a little misleading. The author states that girls "show a greater interest in languages" and appears to attribute this to using it more in the context of home and family. While this may be partially true, she does not explain that on average females have a greater aptitude for communications and learning languages. This has been proven in recent studies on brain research where PET scans between male and female brains show marked differences between the singular gyrus (languages) and the older temporal limbic system (fight or flight/motor skills).

The article is also addressing education at a secondary level, the age where most experts agree that the brain becomes less capable of being "remolded" -- less able to restructure itself and take on any recognitive system, including language. Many child education experts believe that the best time, the "sensitive" or "critical" period for a person to learn a new language is prior to puberty. Concentrating or putting emphasis on secondary languages during or after puberty can have a profound effect on students -- especially in males.

The current debate to the above is not whether these differences exist, but whether or not they are a result of physiology or social conditioning.

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If you take the above into consideration, and the traditional role of the male in the work place, one also has to address the fact that this is a high tech world full of computers, mathematics, physics, cosmology, chemical research, etc., Do enough Gaelic words even exist that would allow people to think in related and abstract terms while in pursuit of these types of vocations?

If we ever want to see an old and repressed language like Gaelic take its place in this New World as a usable, viable alternative -- or even as a primary or first language -- then Gaelic has to be quickly expanded to embrace the New World.