Friday 23 November 2007

A Wee Challenge For You - Yes YOU!

My posts are like buses, you don't see anything for a while and then two come along at once. I was planning on doing this one anyway, but the one before it was a random, last minute act of a desperate man. Lets just say you don't want upset a Canadian, sure they might act all polite but underneath they are a most impatient race.

But never mind that, let's get back to the purpose of this post. A week from now is St Andrew's Day, a day to celebrate Scottishness or all things Scotland related. We aren't very good at that in this country. The Irish have the leprechaun hat, tin whistle and top-of-the-mornin' chirpiness all sown up and they do it very well by all accounts. Everyone knows St Patrick's day. By contrast we in Scotland haven't really done a good job of selling St Andrew's Day. We could I suppose encourage people to wear blue, eat lots of shortbread, play the bagpipes badly and our drinks industry could follow the example of Guinness by selling barrel loads of drams but that wouldn't go down well with a lot of Scots. It's seen as cliché by too many people and so the day goes by with little in the way of celebration. That's a shame. It's time that changed. And that's where YOU come in.

We are all bloggers here, its probably fair to say that we enjoy that wonderful thing called language.

My challenge to you is to a write a blog post of 5 paragraphs (or more) in Scots. Why? Just because it will be fun and interesting.

You can write about whatever you like - social issues, injustice, humanity, politics, or something funny that you saw during the day. I don't much care what, as long as it is 5 paragraphs long and with every line written (to the best of your abilities) in Scots. And 5 full paragraphs at that, no cheating. None of the single sentence paragraph crap.

I know for most people outside of Scotland this might sound like an impossible challenge but I'm not seeking perfection. I'm not very good at speaking Scots myself, whenever I dared to as a child I got a skelp in the lug for my troubles for fear that I was going to turn into a ned. Looking at some of the kids around today I can see the wisdom behind that method of parenting, still I harbour some disappointment. Scots when used correctly can be quite a beautiful language. Some even consider it exotic. But that's going a wee bit far, that's just weird. However I will admit to it being entertaining.

So reader, care to celebrate St Andrew's Day? Are you up for the challenge? One post in your blog on the 30th of November, written in Scots? If you do decide to join in, whether you be from Rio De Janeiro, Papua New Guinea, Dunedin, Nova Scotia or wherever leave a comment here, so I can go have a nosey. And if you want to see my piss poor attempt from another time and place go here.

Remember perfection is not required, use the power of the internet and just have a good go at it. Have fun! Oh and I almost forgot - Spread the word - that way you can see you favourite bloggers' attempts too.

6 comments:

Girl said...

Uh oh.

And I was so going to go for that single sentence paragraph thing too. Bugger.

It can't be coincidental that my word verification begins with eep!

Scotsman said...

Hah! I thought as much.

Girl said...

Do you like how I crapped out?

Sorry!!

Ugh. I sat at the pc and stared at the screen but...nothing.

Bah.

Scotsman said...

I'll forgive you this once, if you come up with something that is 10 paragraphs long in 12 months time. That's got to be fair - a whole year for inspiration - or two months thinking time and then one month for each paragraph - how hard can that be? :)

phoenix said...

Och ah missed it cos ah wis so busy at hame sortin oot the wean. Ah promise though tae think long an hard fur next year and make us aw join in wi the celebratin.Ah may even ask ma wean tae join in cos she's lookin fur a wee project an she just loves writin.Dinnae think her teacher wud unerstand it though unless she's read some Irvine Welsh!

Scotsman said...

Teachers shud be used tae much worse, wi text speak an a'.

Wi' twa fur the price of ane I'll look forward tae next year.