Wilma from Canada is ravin’ aboot Doric TV

I have just subscribed to Doric TV  and find the folk you interview to be really interesting.

I was brought up in Peterhead and went to Peterhead Academy. I left Peterhead as soon as I could and moved to Aberdeen. Being an adventurous sort, I have lived in lots of different and diverse places across the world ie. Iran, Abu Dhabi, France, New Mexico and now I live in Calgary in Canada. I emigrated to Canada almost 20 years ago now and I used to come back to the North East every year until my Mum passed away, 9 years ago.

My mother was a natural Doric speaker. She had many great stories of when she was growing up and what it was like to live through the war and was such an entertaining storyteller that even though I had heard most of her stories before I always enjoyed hearing them over and over. I’ve come to realize over the years that it was the Doric that helped make them interesting because the words convey so much more to us that grew up in the NE.

Listening and watching Doric TV has given me a renewed interest in a language that I used to be embarrassed to know. I’m one of those people that can easily flow back into the Doric when I’m speaking to another Doric speaker such as my brothers. Like you and some of the people you have interviewed have said, I was also discouraged from speaking Doric at school and by my Dad who wanted his kids to do well in the world. I think it was more the Peterhead Doric that he did not like the sound of as he was an Aberdonian, himself.

I have been studying Italian for many years now and it has given me an interest in language and culture that I did not know I had. This has made me relook at my own language and I have come to appreciate it more and want to help in any way to preserve it. Language is so much more than just words. There is a rich heritage and culture that always goes with language.

My apologies for not writing in Doric but I find it harder to read it and write it as I was never taught to do either. Hopefully in future episodes of Doric TV you can post some of the poems and song lyrics for those of us that would like to see Doric in the written form. 

Wilma Henderson, Calgary, Canada 🇨🇦