The Welsh, and the English language.

[Trufflehound]

I get bored pointing out to people that Britain officially went metric in 1975. I started at primary school in 1967, and have no recollection of ever having been taught in anything other than metric.

The only reason I am 'bilingual' in metric/imperial today is because of Luddite parents, friends and shopkeepers.

 

[glasfryn]

And to quote Paul Calf (aka Steve Coogan), "There's no such thing as Welsh, they make it up as they go along just to piss the English off"

I have lived in Wales for exactly 6 years now and I think you have an element of truth there.

Another way to waste taxpayers money, create division and pander to petty nationalism.

Oh and being hypocritical about british nationalism.

your first statement could be nearing the truth

Isn't the idea of using both languages exactly so the individual CAN decide which one to use?

It's not really a question of preserving national identity, it was originally about pulling Welsh back from almost complete obliteration. It's not long ago that children who spoke Welsh at school were beaten and made to wear a sign around their neck (and when I say "not long ago" I mean within the last 70 years, it's that recent).

Thanks to the efforts of some dedicated individuals, Welsh has not only been preserved but is flourishing. It's an object lesson in how not only to preserve a language but to actually increase its influence. Linguists from all over the world study what's been achieved in Wales to learn how to preserve other languages (BTW, I highly recommend a book called Spoken Here by Mark Abley that looks at threatened languages).Those bilingual roadsigns, council forms and postage stamps are all part of the process and have led to that success.

I won't go in to detail but the same thing is now happening(not the beatings) to English school kids who have moved to Wales and go the Welsh schools are being forced to learn Welsh.

The most recent census figures (2001) presented in "Main Statistics about Welsh"[8] by the Welsh Language Board, indicate 582,400 (20.8% of the population of Wales in households or communal establishments) were able to speak Welsh and 457,946 (16.3%) can speak, read and write it. This compares with 508,100 (18.7%) for 1991. Increasing use of the English language had led to a decline in the numbers of Welsh speakers. Since the introduction of the Welsh Language Act 1993, giving Welsh equal status with English in the public sector in Wales, this has been slowed.[citation needed]

The results of the "2004 Welsh Language Use Survey" indicate that there are 611,000 Welsh speakers in Wales (21.7% of the population living in households, a lower figure of 19.7% is given in the same paper), 62% claim to speak Welsh daily, and 88% of those fluent in the language speak it daily.[8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language

Sussex is South Saxon (sort of Frisian/Belgium language), no placenames in our county are Welsh, except perhaps Lewes.

Languages of the United Kingdom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

all this learning Welsh at school for WHAT to end up working in England where it does them no good other than to speak in Welsh to other welsh people

During the seven years I lived in Newport, I think the only Welsh I ever heard was the national anthem. The last time I was there, it could be heard spoken on the streets. The place even has Welsh speaking schools these days.

most of the people we know who come from urban areas(Cardiff,Swansea,ect) are called English by the people in the area I live

I get bored pointing out to people that Britain officially went metric in 1975. I started at primary school in 1967, and have no recollection of ever having been taught in anything other than metric.

The only reason I am 'bilingual' in metric/imperial today is because of Luddite parents, friends and shopkeepers.

me too.


the thing that most pisses me of about this welsh language think is the way when you speak to anyone in official offices councils, hospitals ect they ask what is your first language and they have already got sick of me when I answer English is the first language of the UK isn't that where we live or has the principality got independence overnight.

And on independence they have no chance even in my granddaughters life and she is 11
education,health,job opportunities,tourism,ect all in a shambles,they have little or no chance other than to fall at the feet of Europe with the begging bowl.

having said all this it is a great place to live and the people with a few exceptions (my neighbours) are very excepting of the English "politely nice" would be the words although you do feel there is always this envy of what England have you only have to watch the local TV news they spend a lot of the time making comparisons which IMO is totally unnecessary we are after all,all of us BRITISH.






are we not?

 

[Gwylan]

I won't go in to detail but the same thing is now happening(not the beatings) to English school kids who have moved to Wales and go the Welsh schools are being forced to learn Welsh.

That's just not true. There are English schools where the language of teaching is English and there are Welsh schools where Welsh is used. It's true that English kids in a Welsh school would have to learn Welsh but that's scarcely the same as being forced to learn - there are plenty of English language schools. That's not the same as the situation that existed before where English languages schools were the only option.

After all, if people moved to France and sent their kids to a local school should they be moaning that they were being forced to learn French?

As for learning Welsh, there are benefits in learning any language. It makes learning other languages easier. I went to school in England and spent five years learning Latin - and that certainly wasn't in case I bumped into any Romans.

 

[Pavilionaire]

It seems daft to be teaching kids a language that has absolutely NO use outside Wales and where everyone IN Wales already speaks English.

Of course this is not to mention the technological aspect, e.g. 'digital camera' in English is 'camera digidol' in Welsh. I mean, what IS the f***ing point??

Even the French have seen sense and adopted "un PC" and "un DVD", not to mention "le camping" and "le weekend".

 

[Hove Lagoonery]

I won't go in to detail but the same thing is now happening(not the beatings) to English school kids who have moved to Wales and go the Welsh schools are being forced to learn Welsh.

That's really terrible. In fact, I've heard the same thing is happening to East European kids in English schools, being forced to learn English.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

What about Esperanto?

 

[glasfryn]

That's just not true. There are English schools where the language of teaching is English and there are Welsh schools where Welsh is used. It's true that English kids in a Welsh school would have to learn Welsh but that's scarcely the same as being forced to learn - there are plenty of English language schools. That's not the same as the situation that existed before where English languages schools were the only option.

After all, if people moved to France and sent their kids to a local school should they be moaning that they were being forced to learn French?

As for learning Welsh, there are benefits in learning any language. It makes learning other languages easier. I went to school in England and spent five years learning Latin - and that certainly wasn't in case I bumped into any Romans.

try telling that to a 15 year old who has his curriculum already set and moving to an area where his nearest school is a Welsh one and having to fit in learning Welsh when he knows full well that if he gets the "A" levels he want he will be going to a university in England and working in England when he gets his degree....it was the school being bloody minded firstly for not allowing him to move to an English school and making him study Welsh ...the outcome was that he refused to learn Welsh and studied another subject while in that class ,passed his "A" levels and went to university in England .

they then had the cheek to use him as an example as he had passed so many "A" levels.

It seems daft to be teaching kids a language that has absolutely NO use outside Wales and where everyone IN Wales already speaks English.

Of course this is not to mention the technological aspect, e.g. 'digital camera' in English is 'camera digidol' in Welsh. I mean, what IS the f***ing point??

Even the French have seen sense and adopted "un PC" and "un DVD", not to mention "le camping" and "le weekend".

well put

That's really terrible. In fact, I've heard the same thing is happening to East European kids in English schools, being forced to learn English.

because they want to live here and ENGLISH is the first language of the UK

I am not against the Welsh speaking and learning their own language but not when that time could be used to learn something useful it should be done on a "in your own time basis" and as far as I can see the reason why its not is to fulfill some sort of Welsh ideology when the education of the children of Wales falls behind and the fact that most would not bother to learn it in their own time.