Hansard

Ik ben heel tevreden dat wij vandaag deze belangrijke discussie over de kwestie van de talen van Europa hebben. Dutch is one of my hidden talents. I was going to marry a Dutchman once, but he told me that in his view a woman's place was in the kitchen. As members can imagine, I said "Tot ziens, meneer," or "Goodbye, sir," and that was that.

I studied Dutch at The Hague and I took German and Spanish at school—I can carry on not too badly in those two languages. I learned a bit of Italian in the free lessons in the European Parliament. As George Reid said, it is a case of total immersion. As Irene Oldfather will know, because she was there a lot, it is a great privilege to be surrounded by languages. It made it easy for us to try.

I was once in a group with Irishmen and Frenchmen. Every morning I was kissed by 15 Frenchmen, including three former Prime Ministers. It took quite a while every morning and, I may say, it did not happen to many other people. They used to try to make me say cheeky things. One of the assistants once made a philosophical statement: "Au bal des pompiers, c'est toujours les mêmes qui dansent"—meaning it is the politicians who always want to speak. That useful phrase keeps coming to mind. I tried my French out on the oldest member, Louise Weiss, a famous lady who was much decorated culturally and a filmmaker of great repute. She said, "Winnie, please do not speak French to me. I am over 80 and I cannot stand it." That was the honest answer about my French, which I did not study at school.

George Reid gave us tips. A good tip in the Gaelic language is a useful phrase that members must all learn: "Càit a bheil a' cheilidh?" which means "Where is the ceilidh?" If members know that they will get invited into the back rooms and all the places where the singing is.

I have been studying Gaelic for 20 years. I can read and write it and I have limited vocabulary. Gaelic speakers are sophisticated people. It is a philosophical language, which creates certain barriers if one approaches it from a knowledge of Europe. I was head of a group to do with minority languages in Europe, of which there are more than 30. They are too many to list but, apart from the famous ones such as Breton and Basque, they include Sardinian, Corsican, Andalucian and Valencian. Every one of those languages has a valuable literature and a culture with a unique way of expressing ideas. They are all part of our common culture and the loss of any one is a tragedy for us all. Some, like Cornish and Manx, have gone.

Along with John Hume, I was privileged to create a budget line in the European Parliament for minority languages. That has helped many practical things, such as the publication of books for children in the lesser-used languages and a Breton dictionary. A Shetlandic dictionary is even being considered. I introduced Erasmus when I chaired the Education Committee. The original idea of Erasmus was not only study in another university but an immersion course for a period before the student would go. It was watered down, though. It is up to individual partners to find their own solution. Some people get the immersion course before they study.

In the Borders, a roving teacher was employed to teach Scots. Speaking at a Burns supper in Luxembourg, he told a funny tale about teaching Scots officially to children who really spoke Scots. A wee boy put up his hand and said, "Please Sir, does oor real teacher ken whit you're daein?" That shows that some of us who speak Scots have an understanding of the language that is more passive than active. It is a pity that Scots could not be encouraged more.

It was quite wrong for Gaelic grannies such as mine to tell their grandchildren that Gaelic would hold you back. That was the old, stupid thing that was said, but it is now well-known that knowledge of two languages makes it much easier to learn a third and to be philosophical.