McClef has some very good and interesting points.

Any who have had experience educating or being educated (that should be all of us) know all too well that a student is a fickle and complex animal to convince. Some would say worse than the proverbial mule.

I will give my experience. At school I loathed language and remember not a single word of Indonesian or French. A point I am sad about now.

Contrary to everybody's expectations, at uni I took up Japanese as a major. I have now been living in Japan and have a reasonable ability at the language.

My point is, I have very little doubt that if the government stopped forcing those who have no desire to learn the language and started spending probably a fraction of they do now on providing rebates to those that have a true passion for the language they would get healthier statistics in the census. At the moment most say they have basic ability and very few have fluent ability. They should be aiming to switch these results. If you lose those that have basic ability that is no loss to the language.

My point is that people wont learn a language unless they have a passion for it or they have to like the world with English. Gaelic will never be English so stop trying to use an the English model of TESOL (Teaching English as a second or Other Language).

I'll get off of my soap box now

As a disclaimer I really want to learn the language and wish I had half the chances afforded Scots.