English .....second language?

[Slough Seagull]

The Welsh langauge is more British than the West Germanic language that is English.

So if you wish to be a true Brit, speak welsh.

maybe they should add proficiency in Welsh as part of the UK citizen test...

 

[glasfryn]

FYI, Welsh was spoken hundreds and hundreds of years before the English language was invented.

So we were here first! Maybe the English should think about adopting THEIR own language eh?

English is widely spoken all over the world
welsh is spoken by SOME of the welsh

 

[glasfryn]

I can see where some of them are coming from. Imagine if the european union evolves into the united states of europe and we're all forced to learn French as our primary language.

Would you be happy? Would you honestly take the attitude 'well, we're all citizens of the US of E, we should speak French. Forget this English nonsense...'?

no because English is spoken by most of the nations of the world whereas welsh.......or french

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

maybe they should add proficiency in Welsh as part of the UK citizen test...

Good idea, might get rid of those bloody angles and saxons finally!

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

no because English is spoken by most of the nations of the world whereas welsh.......or french

But english is one of the most ridiculous languages on the planet.

We should be discouraging it and all its stupid rules and words, not encouraging it.

know
no

toe
tow

here
hear

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

But english is one of the most ridiculous languages on the planet.

We should be discouraging it and all its stupid rules and words, not encouraging it.

know
no

toe
tow

here
hear

Yeah, because English is the only language with words that sound the same, or has strange grammar rules.

The whole world should learn Esperanto.

 

[strings]

I think the whole world should be forced to learn pig latin.

or

Iay ink-thay he-tay hole-way orld-way ould-shay e-bay orced-bay o-tay earn-lay ig-pay atin-lay

 

[wehatepalace]

A couple of years ago I was travelling up to Snowdonia and I stopped for fuel at a real old fashioned petrol station, when I went in to pay, the staff and a couple of customers were all speaking Welsh, once they realised I was English they started speaking English to each other which I thought was very polite.

PS one of my friends is Welsh and works as a nurse in Cardiff (poor girl), she is fluent in Welsh but she say she hardly ever has to speak it !!

 

[wehatepalace]

I think the whole world should be forced to learn pig latin.

or

Iay ink-thay he-tay hole-way orld-way ould-shay e-bay orced-bay o-tay earn-lay ig-pay atin-lay

orced-fay

 

[strings]

orced-fay

Very true - I found it a lot harder to type pig latin than I do to speak it.

cause-beay Iay m-aay a-ay ucking-fay uppet-may

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I can understand why the Welsh Government would want to keep thier language. But it does seem to be a bit of a waste of time on an international level.

You might say that but something a lot of my mainland european friends have said is that having learnt two languages......learning subsequent languages is a lot easier. Most of them can speak German and English as standard but third and fourth languages come very quickly to them.

Conversely I am learning German but find I am also learning a lot more about my first language as well. I guess two languages makes you more informed about language was a whole?

 

[User removed 4]

FYI, Welsh was spoken hundreds and hundreds of years before the English language was invented.

So we were here first! Maybe the English should think about adopting THEIR own language eh?

yes, in fact england is known as the " lost lands " in welsh, we came , we saw, we conquered you, get over it druid !!

 

[Gully]

I think the whole world should be forced to learn pig latin.

or

Iay ink-thay he-tay hole-way orld-way ould-shay e-bay orced-bay o-tay earn-lay ig-pay atin-lay

hen-way i-ay as-way a-ay id-kay e-way alled-cay hat-tay ack-bay lang-say, otn-ay ig-pay atin-lay!

 

[NMH]

It still does if you use public transport.

Good point, well made

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I read once that Mongolian Chinese is the widest spoken first language, probably due to the numbers of people there, and English was the widest spoken 2nd language world wide.

I think you mean Mandarin chinese

 

[dougdeep]

English is widely spoken all over the world
welsh is spoken by SOME of the welsh

Most people use Microsoft, doesn't mean it's any good.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Can't see the problem myself, granted I can't speak a word of it, but I think it would be very sad if minority languages like Welsh were allowed to die out.

You say it's not useful- I accept that may be the case in terms of international business etc, but plenty of people in North and mid Wales speak it in everyday life- I've got three mates who speak only Welsh when they go home to see their families.

I'd love to be able to speak other languages fluently, whether French, Spanish, Arabic or Welsh. Non English speakers usually love it when people make an effort to speak to them in their language, and even if it was of little practical use on a daily basis, I'd be more than happy to pick up a few words of Welsh if I was going there. Just to be sociable, nothing wrong with that.

Besides- can you imagine how stroppy they'd get if the Government told them they couldn't make it compulsory in their schools? Uptake of Welsh classes would rocket, just to prove a point

 

[BensGrandad]

I think you mean Mandarin chinese

You are correct of course got me M mixed up thanks for the correction.

 

[bhaexpress]

A couple of years ago I was travelling up to Snowdonia and I stopped for fuel at a real old fashioned petrol station, when I went in to pay, the staff and a couple of customers were all speaking Welsh, once they realised I was English they started speaking English to each other which I thought was very polite.

PS one of my friends is Welsh and works as a nurse in Cardiff (poor girl), she is fluent in Welsh but she say she hardly ever has to speak it !!

I had the opposite experience to that a good few years ago. I walked into a shop with my brother in Mid Wales. The people there were talking in English yet once they heard our accents they started speaking Welsh !

As far as I'm concerned Welsh schools can teach whatever they want just as long as don't expect English tax payers to subsidize it. I wonder if Scottish and Northern Irish schools want to teach their pupils Gaelic ?

 

[Acker79]

no because English is spoken by most of the nations of the world whereas welsh.......or french

See, you are already fighting the idea. You don't want to lose your native language, neither do the welsh.

At one time latin was the most widely spoken language.

Take my initial question and replace french with 'Mandarin/Chinese', since that is the most widely spoken language in the world, in the United States of Europe we recognise America is falling and China is becoming the bigger superpower and we want to be able to work with them, and to be fair to every country in the U.S.E. (everyone has to learn a new language, rather than just those that don't speak English) the national langue will be Chinese.

Will you willingly give up the English language now your argument about the popularity of it no longer applies?