Why are some languages considered to be more useful than others?

Although this may be true, can’t these results be achieved through the education of global and ‘more useful’ languages such as Spanish, French, German, etc? Languages like these would most likely not only achieve the same results in children but open doors to more possible career pathways in the future on a global scale rather than only to the Western Isles. Highland Politician, Jim Crawford, argued a similar point when it was announced the Scottish Government planned to spill £4 million into the funding of Gaelic education for children throughout Scotland, labeling the scheme as a “waste of resources.” He also claimed, “Kids who want to progress in the world should be learning the likes of Mandarin, German or Spanish,”  thus presenting the opinion that Gaelic has descended to the level of being a completely useless language in this modern and ever-developing age. In such an era, the language of Gaelic is plainly thought as something merely historical and could only be holding back youngsters from achieving a more solidified and successful future because of its limited nature.

In addition to the barricade, the Gaelic language holds in front of other languages, it is not necessarily required like others are. Educating a child in a language breaks down the issue of a language barrier whereas with Gaelic this issue does not stand. Every Gaelic speaker in Scotland has spoken fluent English since around 1981 found in a survey taken to record the number of Gaelic speakers throughout Scotland from 1755-2011, the numbers of monolingual Gaelic speakers was left blank, meaning this language only exists for cultural and historic preservation purposes.