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Welsh language

The Welsh Assembly Government is working hard to promote Welsh language learning among all age groups of the population. Welsh language classes are running locally, under a special initiative and in tandem with Cardiff University. This promotion means that classes are free of the usual restrictions on LEA-run adult education and community learning programs. So even if class numbers are small, the subsidy means that tutors and groups can keep running. What’s more, terms are longer than other LEA-run language courses and there are more levels and conversation classes/learning opportunities too. All this is meant to promote appreciation of Welsh history and culture and so, of course, is A Good Thing.
But is it appreciated? Do Welsh people want it? The 3 generations of a family sitting behind me on the train to London yesterday didn’t. They were unanimously against it. The Gran told her son and daughter-in-law about a school she knew of in Cardiff, where they were ‘trying out’ teaching Spanish instead of Welsh and that, if it worked, the scheme would be spread out across Wales and would reach their schools, too, in the south Wales Valleys. The son-in-law commented that “if people want to learn Welsh they can go to the Welsh schools”.
This unbidden and unprompted exchange surprised me. What about you? What do you think? Should the WAG keep spending upwards of £30,000,000 a year

promoting Welsh language? Or, are Welsh children being deprived of the opportunity to learn other more mainstream European languages? Does it matter?

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About acyiqeb

I am a partially retired health policy academic. I married a Welshman and settled in the UK in 1969. I love my adopted country, and am continuously fascinated and intrigued by how it works! This blog is part of an ongoing attempt to understand it better.

2 responses to “Welsh language”

  1. acuriousexplorer's avatar
    acuriousexplorer says :

    Nice post on an interesting but controversial topic. I think that the crux of the problem is that basically there are now 2 wales. You have a Wales (most of the South East) where everyone wants to speak English, and sees Welsh as an unwanted intrusion, and a waste of money, in their part of the country. Then, you have a minority of people who speak Welsh first language (mainly in the North and West) and desperately want to see the language maintained as a community language.

    Problem is, there’s really no one who can win from this conflict. On the 1 hand, you can sympathize with English speakers who have barely heard a word of Welsh in their lives, and for whom its irrelevant, but conversely, I don’t think many native speakers of any language would be very comfortable seeing their language gradually being encroached on by another.

    So its a difficult situation really, with no easy answer. We’ll Just have to see how things play out in the next 20 years.

    Reply
    • acyiqeb's avatar
      acyiqeb says :

      Thanks for a really interesting comment! I also suspect that people may feel differently at different stages of their lives, and who my be affected by decisions to promote the language and how strongly that promotion is leveraged. So people with schoo-age children may wish them to have a more mainstream language as well, or even instead, while those who find themselves with more time on their hands may wish to develop their interest in their heritage and language more deeply. I am not surprised to hear non natives express their concerns about the level of resourcing but am still shocked when I hear people who are obviously native to Wales express their condemnation of the promotion of the language.

      Reply

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