Cymru am byth - we love Wales!

[honesty]

Didn't like Dolgellau, they tried to charge me 20p for a pee...

tried to? Did they succeed? What did you do?

Cycled up the mountain and went behind a tree!

[Cyril Haearn]

A Welsh Rugby player died and found himself queuing to get into heaven. He was a bit afraid that he might have to spend a few years in purgatory because he had been an enthusiastic tackler

Come right in, mate! said the angel wearing a hi-vis vest who was standing in the sentry box

Thank you so much, Saint Peter! said the sportsman

No no, said the angel, Peter is on holiday, I am Saint David

[Cyril Haearn]

The Grauniad reports from Llangennech where a school plans to stop using English and only offer tuition in Welsh, apparently many school in Wales are doing likewise

Is that good for the children? I guess most of them learn English from telly etc. But what about the plentyn who only speak Welsh at home, whose parents only watch S4C (like me), when might they learn English, could they be disadvantaged?

I think one can have both, there should be no need to choose

Vocab: plant: child, plentyn: children

[pwa]

The Grauniad reports from Llangennech where a school plans to stop using English and only offer tuition in Welsh, apparently many school in Wales are doing likewise

Is that good for the children? I guess most of them learn English from telly etc. But what about the plentyn who only speak Welsh at home, whose parents only watch S4C (like me), when might they learn English, could they be disadvantaged?

I think one can have both, there should be no need to choose

Vocab: plant: child, plentyn: children

I'd be worried if my kids went to a school where they were not going to learn how to write in English, using good grammar and spelling. Unless they find some non-existent Welsh-only community to live and work in they will need a good standard of written English, whatever anyone thinks about that.

[meic]

Unless they find some non-existent Welsh-only community to live and work in they will need a good standard of written English, whatever anyone thinks about that.

The country is bilingual, you seem to manage fine with only one language.

Of course the article would be a load of hype (or more accurately [rude word removed]). It is just a primary school, English will be taught formally at Secondary School, I havent read the article but I imagine that English will also be taught in this primary school, just as it is in all other Welsh medium primary schools and the Guardian (or Cyril Haearn) is misrepresenting the facts.

Failing that almost all Welsh language children do learn English through osmosis to a level that makes it look like English teachers are taking money for nothing.

[meic]

A more informed article here.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/polit ... y-12604880

Let me explain to the uniformed that removing the stream that teaches through the medium of English does not mean not teaching English. It means that everything including English will be taught through the medium of Welsh. Just like happens in all the other Welsh medium schools, like the one attended by my (fluent in English (son at an English University studying through the medium of English)) own children.

[MikeF]

In the 60's I was in digs with two chaps doing teachers' training at the local Welsh Primary School.
They were looking at what the children had submitted one day, and several had used the spelling "cwd". Perfectly logical of course. Beautiful - dual language!

[pwa]

I have to say, as someone who has lived in Wales for two decades, that I believe the best way to deal with language issues is to listen to what local people want. People in Monmouth or Chepstow will not want what people in Tregaron or Carmarthen want. So if people out West want primary education through the medium of Welsh with English as a subject, it's their kids and it's their choice.

[Bowedw]

Surprising the real growth in Welsh schools is mainly from East Wales, probably because in the West it's prone to be taken for granted. This is mainly due to the parents but does meet opposition from English medium schools as their pupil numbers decline. Also local Authority Education departments are not committed and parents have to work hard to convince them. They also get the cast off school after the English medium school gets a new one.
Young children are like sponges and mop up all forms of information given to them. I have great pleasure in hearing the quality of Welsh spoken by younger people from these areas,where the language has been virtually eradicated. In Newport and Cardiff I have been approached by a small number of, mainly younger people when they cotton on to my heavy accent.
I also know severable people who have expanded their language base by several more languages to the extent they teach them abroad. I also have attended several Welsh language courses to improve my skills, on two the teachers have been born in England and I don't like to admit the best pupils where often the same. Three hundred years of Language oppression is engrained in us and it's a difficult burden to shift but the youth seem to be overcoming it in a positive way.

[pwa]

Around here, not far from the M4, a lot of us are from England or Scotland. But any anti-Welsh language sentiment comes from English speaking Welsh people. Personally, I want people to live their lives the way they want to, and if that means trying to revive the Welsh language in areas where it has died out, fine. I almost never hear it on the streets around here though. Out West, beyond the Baglan bridges, is where it kicks in.

[Bowedw]

Nothing new about that, well worth a read of the history of the investigation of the state of education in Wales and published in 1847. Known as the Treachery of the Blue Books. (Brad y Llyfrau Gleision) Instigated by a Welsh hating Welshman no less.

[Cyril Haearn]

Many many years ago, my Welsh grandmother remembered, children who spoke Welsh at school were punished

Some of them had no English until they started school, then they learnt to read and write English but some were never taught to read and write their first language, an unhappy situation

Just been at a talk about another bilingual country, Canada. There too English was dominant for many years, higher education was scarce in Quebec until a few decades ago. Now there are laws favouring French. The language spoken there is different from *standard* French, old fashioned, the people speak slowly. Could be some lessons for Wales there. There is still a bit of Welsh culture in Argentina too

[pwa]

Given the small size of Wales it seems a miracle to me that it has hung onto its language and sense of identity so long. Other similar areas, like Northumbria and Cornwall, were absorbed into England centuries ago. The Welsh language will survive as long as there are people who want to speak it. There has been concern recently that in some areas where Welsh was commonly heard in public places like pubs a decade or two ago it is not heard so much today. People who have learned Welsh are not using it. My daughter learned Welsh to A level but does not use it. If she were presented with a form asking if she could speak Welsh she would tick "yes", and be seen as a sign that the language is spreading. But when she meets her friends they all speak English. Does it matter? I don't know really.

[ianrobo]

worked in Cardiff for the year and through cycling etc just love the place and people. The cycling is spectacular and rode in most places in Wales and all the major climbs.

[Mistik-ka]

Just been at a talk about another bilingual country, Canada. There too English was dominant for many years, higher education was scarce in Quebec until a few decades ago. Now there are laws favouring French. The language spoken there is different from *standard* French, old fashioned, the people speak slowly. Could be some lessons for Wales there.

There is still French/English friction in Canada, and in the 1970s when the provincial government in Quebec began to pass laws to protect and promote French culture through the use of the French language, it certainly caused some inconvenience and a great deal of outrage among some monolingual English speakers across the country, but by now most of the furor has died down. The Quebecois have a more secure sense of being "maîtres de chez nous" (masters in our own house), and I think our country has been greatly enriched by sharing the cultures of many nations — including, belatedly, the indigenous nations who were here long before Europeans 'discovered' the Americas.

We fell in love with Wales on the first of many walking and cycling tours in Britain. One of the charms that won us over in North Wales was listening to teenagers speaking Welsh among themselves — clearly it they considered it their own 'secret language' that most of the adults couldn't understand.

P.S. "The people speak slowly" — as a native English speaker arriving in Quebec with only the rudiments of 'schoolbook French', that is not how I would characterize the Quebecois speaking pattern!