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Gaelic lessons for Cal Mac crews 2/9/10
Ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) is giving every one of its staff the opportunity to learn Gaelic as part of the company’s commitment to supporting the language.
Staff on all its vessels and in ports are being encouraged to learn Gaelic via an
innovative online “toolkit”, developed by the Skye-
The toolkit includes introductory lessons, glossaries of useful phrases, an interactive map showing CalMac’s ferry routes and the meaning of the port names, puzzles, animations and over 1000 audio phrases so that the learner can hear, as well as see, the phrases.
CalMac’s Managing Director Phil Preston said: “We are pleased to be able to increase the visibility and use of Gaelic whether it is by displaying bilingual signage on vessels and at ports, or through our role as supporter of the Royal National Mod.
“Around ten per cent of our staff are Gaelic speakers but we wanted to increase that by offering tuition to as many staff as possible. We have tailored the content of the “toolkit” so it is relevant to ferries and are sure that once everyone gets a basic understanding and grasp of simple phrases they will want to go on and learn more.
“ We are not restricting this to customer facing staff, and are also opening it up to staff with our sister ferry operator NorthLink Ferries Ltd, which serves the Northern Isles, taking the total number of eligible staff to more than 1600.
“This has been a huge undertaking so we are grateful to Cànan for their expertise and guidance and to Bòrd na Gàidhlig for the funding which has made this possible,” he said.