'Nobody knows the words to Auld Lang Syne' - really? Laura Waddell

‘It’s in just how assuredly and with what easy, breezy confidence Scots language and its speakers are excised’

I recently caught a festive repeat of a Radio 2 interview with American actress Karolyn Grimes, who at just six years old played Zuzu, the little girl in It’s A Wonderful Life.

In the famous final scene, she is held by her father George, played by Jimmy Stewart, beside a Christmas tree as Auld Lang Syne plays. Gently teased by interviewer James King about seeming unsure of the words, she responded “I’m so embarrassed. I’m embarrassed to this day when I see myself mouthing these words loudly, and I don’t think Jimmy Stewart knew the words either because he stops singing and laughs at me, so that gives him an excuse not to sing.” Otherwise, she’s incredibly complimentary about the star. “I just thought he was hot butter melted. He was great.”

She commented on how the filmmakers chose to leave the moment in. “I’ve always been embarrassed by that, he could have taught me the words, you know?” Bless. Her little voice can be heard faltering among the crowd. The scene is the emotional climax of George coming together with his family and community. Auld Lang Syne is sung as they express their gratitude for one another. It doesn’t matter remotely whether the words are exactly right, and no one is demanding accuracy from the lips of a young child, but Grimes’ enduring care about the matter is endearing, and a testament to her professional integrity.

By contrast, in Vogue’s December issue themed ‘Great Britain: Traditions & Revolution’, contributing editor Alexa Chung offered 40 pieces of what’s described as “priceless advice” on turning 40. Mostly these are milquetoast reflections on wearing sunscreen and accepting that moths will eat cashmere, nothing much to take either umbrage at or inspiration from, but number 24 claims ‘nobody’ knows the words to Auld Lang Syne. Nobody? Nobody at all? That’s nonsense, but it’s true many people don’t, and we can see this when the beating sentiment in the song nevertheless spreads internationally at new year.In China, where the melody is popularly associated with a landmark movie of classic cinema and played in the present day at landmark celebrations such as graduations, Auld Lang Syne is known as You Yi Di Jiu Tian Chang, which means Friendship Forever and Ever. In Bangladesh, it inspired the folk song "Purano shei diner kotha" or "Memories of the Good Old Days”. The stirring sentiments at the heart of Auld Lang Syne are touching in any language, testimony to the song getting something right in the first place about people connecting. It gets right to the heart of holding onto one another, hitting a tender spot. Poignantly, MEPs sang it in Brussels after approving the Brexit withdrawal agreement, hitting particularly hard the Scots who didn’t vote for it and those who hope Scottish independence might be a way back into the EU. The sliver of political mischief among the sentiment - the idea Scots might reprioritise their auld acquaintances, choosing European over English union.

But then the former it-girl’s ‘pearl of wisdom’ lands. To get around the supposed problem of ‘nobody’ knowing the words of Robert Burns (fashion magazines love nothing more than presenting solutions), the suggestion is to memorise a standard English alternative, which Vogue redundantly prints a few lines of. Here’s Chung’s lesson in full: “Nobody ever knows the lyrics to “Auld Lang Syne”, so here’s one to remember (plus, it’s a beautiful meditation on honouring times and friends gone by, and welcoming the future): “We two have paddled in the stream/From morning sun till dine/But seas between us broad have roared/Since auld lang syne.” That this is the fourth verse (in Scots, it is burn rather than stream) only adds to the mystery why, if making the extra effort of learning by rote anything for future scenarios of singing Auld Lang Syne, it would be this and not the original.Ah, and now I see the Great British tradition at play here. While probably intended in a spirit of ‘you do you’- no one, in reality, cares what words anyone else is singing, especially not in a moment of celebration - it’s in just how assuredly and with what easy, breezy confidence Scots language and its speakers are excised.A flippant but authoritatively stated disinterest in anything outside the M25 is the oblivious, empty-headed British medialand successor to linguistic imperialism of the kind that in the lifetime of Burns punished Scottish children for speaking Scots at school. The many SEO-scoring articles from global outlets about how nobody knows the words to Auld Lang Syne beyond dismissing it as archaic generally don’t connect the dots or reflect deeply on why that might be. The closer to home, the more wilful the ignorance.Conversely, I was charmed by coverage of the dedication of New York YouTuber Arieh Smith, known as Xiaomanyc on his language-learning focused channel which has amassed over a billion views. It’s something he picked up after school and so the 33 year old enthusiastically shares the message that adult language learning to proficiency is possible. Welsh is his latest passion, and he told the BBC "Welsh to me was very exciting because, as an American, I don't think we typically think of the UK as being a country that, in addition to English, is full of other languages that people have been speaking for thousands of years.” Indeed - and as seen in last month’s Vogue, an assumption not exclusive to overseas.