Conducting Business In Manx

[Chinahand]

I was struck by this story on the Manx Radio web site:

 

Island banks and businesses are being told to check they speak the lingo – and know the law.

 

Dr Brian Stowell says he wrote to an Island-based utility company after it had the cheek to return one of his cheques.

 

It hadn’t bounced and the company does accept cheques, but he’d written it in Manx.

 

I fully expect to get a bit of abuse for saying this, but I'm quite skeptical about language revival movements. I feel that before long someone will demand Manx translation in court or similar, not due to a need but to make a political point - we will then be on to the slippery slope to having all documents having to have Manx and English versions etc etc.

 

That would be a huge expense for the Island for the benefit of a tiny minority wanting to make a rather obscure political point - I feel that Manx heritage and culture is a lot more than a dead language with little practical use.

 

Insisting cheques in Manx must be honoured is quite a distance from that - but even so I question the need for such a law, demanding such things seems unnecessary and overly bureacratic - anyone know when it was passed, was the language requirement debated and deliberately included? Is it only cheques? Must businesses reply in Manx to Manx language queries etc etc.

 

The story says businesses should know the law - I can say quite honestly I haven't got a clue about this law, can anyone enlighten me? But I feel it should be a dead letter not a relevent part of Manx jurisprudence!

[Gladys]

I listened to the Sunday morning programme (not a chance in hell in getting the spellling right) and I think it was a hasty change to a banking law that provided that cheques written in Manx were valid.

 

Brian Stowell's point, IIRC, was that he had written several cheques in Manx and all except this one had been accepted. I did try to text the programme (forgot the text number) to say that the reason the other cheques had been accepted was probably because banks tend not to actually read cheques any more, (my first job was in the IOM bank in Onchan and a clerk's morning task was to verify all cheques in the cleared cheques for words and numbers tallying and signatures, but later experience elsewhere shows that banks just do not read cheques and would rather meet the odd claim than employ hundreds, if not thousands of bods to do just that) so the Manx bit wouldn't have been picked up.

 

Bit daft in my book, keep the language alive as an interest for those that want to, but don't lets go down the Welsh route.

[Lost Login]

I have no problem of going down the welsh route provided that for many Manx is their natural first language and they are more fluent speaking Manx than English and it is in everyday use. In parts of Wales that is the case and there are still many of the older generation in Wales away from towns who struggle with English.

 

That is not the case in the IoM where it appears to be an academic exercise to re introduce a "dead" language. I believe all adults who currently speak Manx are not natural Manx speakers. By that I mean that they did not pick up the language as a baby by listening to their parents etc talking which is the way most of us learn to speak.

 

Whilst I understand the academic need to ensure that the language is not dead completely, just as other "dead" languages are understood by a few researchers and enthusiasts I would prefer if the time and effort was spent not in teaching the language to kids in school etc but teaching them more Manx Culture and Heritage and making the Island appear more Manx and not like another English County. Here I would go down the welsh route and have bilingual signs etc etc. These could be introduced on new signs or as they require replacing. For public bodies such as the Government and local authoritie this would be compulsory, for the rest of us it would be a matter of choice.

 

It would also in my opinion be a better way of introducing a few words of Manx to the population as a whole as if we saw them every day we would soon pick up common words. Atter all I reckon the majority of us know the word for water and that is purely from the water authority having it on the side of their vans or on their bills.

 

To me it is embarrasing that a couple of my staff who are Manx born and bread know more words of welsh than they do Manx. This is because they where soap addicts and used to watch the subtitled Pobel Y Cwm, the welsh language soap opera, by watching that they have picked up more words of welsh than they know of Manx. To me that is a very sad indictment of the past and current policy and where time and effort has been directed

 

Bit daft in my book, keep the language alive as an interest for those that want to, but don't lets go down the Welsh route.

[Tugger]

A complete waste of time and effort

[Lonan3]

Although it is good to know that enthusiasts are doing their best to keep the Manx language alive, to suggest that it has any relevance as a form of communication in today's world is a nonsense. It is unlikely to ever be anything more than a novelty, or a subject for study.

Give children the option of learning it by all means, but it should never have a place on the curriculum at the expense of something more relevant to today's world.

[b4mbi]

Although it is good to know that enthusiasts are doing their best to keep the Manx language alive, to suggest that it has any relevance as a form of communication in today's world is a nonsense. It is unlikely to ever be anything more than a novelty, or a subject for study.

Give children the option of learning it by all means, but it should never have a place on the curriculum at the expense of something more relevant to today's world.

 

 

Totally agree with above.

 

I may write a cheque in Sindarin Elvish and see if the bank process that...

[b4mbi]

yay! I'm a regular (after over 3 years!)

[TerryMcCann]

Sounds like attention seeking to me.

 

I might write my next cheque in Latin and see if I can get in the news when it is rejected

[rallybug]

"Island banks and businesses..."

 

If a cheque written in Manx Gaelic hasn't been returned due to the inability of the bank clerk to read Manx, then island banks hardly need to be told to check that they speak the lingo.

 

In this case, the beneficiary returned the cheque, not the bank, so he would appear to have no beef with the banking community in this instance, but still wanted to have a dig at them.

[immortalpuppet]

Slightly on topic, the pre School at Willaston teaches children Manx which i think is fantastic.

[bluemonday]

I may write a cheque in Sindarin Elvish and see if the bank process that...

 

Lol, I wonder if my bank can read Klingon.

Anyway seriously, It can't be practical to do business in Manx, daft in fact; though the idea of making the language more visible is maybe not a bad idea ( in principle )

Certainly getting Kids aware of the language ( Post above this one ) is a really good way to go.

[oldmanxfella]

The point is that these are not "Manx banks" they are British or global banks that operate on the IOM (even the Isle of Man Bank is a trading name of RBSI) so in an English speaking counrty why the hell should they process cheques written in Manx? Do they process ones written in Somali or Hindi?

 

If a fraudulent transaction went through because some cheque processer in Jersey failed to notice the written amount failed to match the digits what would he do then? Probably moan.

 

Strikes me this is just an attention seeking man with too much time on his hands.

[mojomonkey]

You can hear the excitement in his voice, he seems so pleased that after years of trying someone has questioned him.

[TerryMcCann]

Apparently in next weeks news he will be ordering a pizza in manx and will express his surprise at being told 'what the fuck are you talking about' by the person on the other end of the phone

[Frances]

not quite - it will be in Polish!