to think that most welsh people should speak some welsh

[mumof2children]

i am no way fluent in welsh by know very basic welsh.

but sould more welsh people speak some welsh

Unfortunately the Welsh language was targeted by the English colonizers as a way of controlling the Welsh and keeping them down. Children who were caught speaking welsh in school had to wear a wooden board on a piece of string around their neck called the "Welsh Not". Any child wearing it at the end of the day would be beaten with a cane.
Add to that, welsh TV and papers were banned until the 70s when there was a small uprising demanding them.
IN addition, parents were very conscious that if their child spoke only welsh or had a heavy welsh accent they would not fare well in the job market so many refused to speak welsh to give their child the best chance in life.

It's very sad, there is some revival going, and I hope the language does not die.
I'm fluent BTW

Why "should" they? How queer...

YABU. I'm Welsh and totally support the Welsh language, but I don't speak any. Why should I make time in my very busy life to learn a language that nobody else I know actually speaks?

My son is being taught it at school as it is now a legal requirement. I think that's great but I am not going to go to evening classes and do the same just to sing a song about a jackdaw with him.

I think the fact that regional languages are dying out is very sad. But we don't solve that problem by making people learn it as adults. I have no desire to learn Gaelic even though I was born there

A few years ago the last Cornish speaker died - a very old woman who didn't speak English and had lived in the same village all her life.

"should"?

I'm Welsh and learned Welsh at school. However I left wales 12 years ago and now live in the midlands. Not sure what use welsh would be to me here?

I agree that it would be terrible for the language to die out, but I think we have to accept that it's a language which is of no use outside of wales. In this day and age the younger generations are more and more likely to move away for university or work etc, and unless they chose to raise their children bilingually then welsh usage will certainly dwindle.

I'm not Welsh but I love languages and I think it's brilliant that it's being taught as a legal requirement. I've been tempted to learn it myself.

Sakura is right, but it is making a come back now I think.

I think most people living in Wales know some Welsh but don't speak it everyday. I live in Wales but am English (I know I'm living dangerously!! ) and even i know some bits n bobs. For example I know the Welsh for "its raining, again" very handy in Wales!

I am an English person living in Wales and I speak a few words of welsh. It is great that the learning of welsh is so supported financially, but I would hesitate to start dictating to people what language they SHOULD speak.

If your OP said "It would be nice if more people could speak welsh" then I would agree.

I don't think you thought this through properly, OP

how do you define Welsh, for starters

It would be nice and there are plenty of opportunities for people to learn but like Sakura says the language was severely damaged by a campaign to stop Welsh being spoken. More and more people are learning though and parents who don't speak Welsh themselves still have plenty of Welsh schools available to them if they want to send their kids there.Start them young I say :)

I live in Scotland, I speak a little Gaelic, and my children are fluent (bilingually educated).

You can't say "should", I think, but it would be great if more Scottish people were even aware of Gaelic!

To let any language die impoverishes all the others, and I'm delighted that our family is contributing to the Gaelic resurgence in Scotland (my children's school is the largest in Glasgow - they are looking at splitting it to make a new school as the demand is so high).

I think as many people as possible should be bilingual - especially in Britain, where we are so poor at learnign other languages. My children are English/Gaelic bilingual, also speak enough Spanish to get by in a Spanish speaking country and my eldest dd is now also learning French. We should be encouraging this!

Where my husband comes from in the north of Scotland, people never spoke Gaelic. Some of them spoke Doric, most spoke a Scots/English dialect. And yet all the signs are written in Gaelic and English. Why? What a waste of money.

Dh is welsh and knows a lot of welsh words, but would be hard pressed to string a sentence together. Mil and Fil are fluent and speak welsh when together, in fact Fil only knew welsh growing up and learnt English in his 20s!

I am trying to learn, but find it hard going. DSD and her friends are near fluent and can have 'secret' conversations when in England - I find that pretty cool and hope DSD passes on her skills to her sister!

It shows the generation gap well, Mil and Fil in their 60s, fluent. Dh and DSil in their 40s, not taught. DSD in her teens, compulsory learning now.

My belief is that there will be as many Welsh speakers in 20/30 years as there was 50 years ago, and that's. Good Thing.

Bore da! (or is that good afternoon?)

The moment you make the language a requirement you're going to make people hate it. DH had to learn Irish at school because it was the only way of passing Leaving Cert and getting to university. He found it painful in the extreme - Celtic languages have far less connection with English than French or German ? and has left him with a lifelong hatred of it.

By all means teach it at school from an early age, but don't make the same mistake as in Ireland.

"Should"? Er, why?

mumof2children so you think everyone should know a second language? Stupid to say that Welsh people should speak Welsh as well as English when lots of English people only speak one language.

YABU.

Serendippy - If we all only spoke one language then the Welsh wouldn't speak English surely?

I think it a shame if any language dies out but I think the Welsh Assembly Govt has got it wrong. There is more demand for Welsh speaking schools where all lessons apart from English are in Welsh and I think that's fair enough and should be catered to if that's the path you want your family to go down. However, too many resources are being chucked at making kids from English speaking schools learn it when from what I hear most are very resistant, e.g. over a 2 week high school period there are 7 science lessons, 5 maths/English and 4 Welsh. Most drop it as soon as they can and I don't think the percentage of people speaking it in Cardiff has risen much from c10% since it was made compulsory (not sure how many years ago). Welsh A level is not recognised by universities in England. The language is flourishing enough not to be wiped out so I think it shouldn't be made compulsory. Agree with what Hermann says - as soon as you make it a requirement people start to hate it.

MrsHypDip I don't mind what language people speak and have always thought that if you visit another country you should not automatically expect them to speak English, in fact you should learn a few basic phrases to use to show that you respect their language. What mumof2children was implying was that if Welsh people speak English, they should speak some Welsh as well.I think this is not for her to decide, they can speak what they like, Welsh, English or both but it is not up to anyone to tell them, if they choose to speak English, that they should have a second language.

I take issue with the fact that she appreciates that most people speak English but wants them to speak Welsh too. We are lazy fortunate because most people speak English and we are not seen as disregarding our culture and heritage as Welsh people are if they don't speak their native language.

A very long-winded and badly put point!

Never mind 'Welsh' we need the OP to define 'some' and 'most'.

I can say some welsh place names almost properly and I've BEEN to Wales - do I count?

In general though, anything that strengthens national or regional identities is a bad thing.

serendippy I completely agree with you! (not the bit about it being long winded and badly put though!!)

I think I misread your first post or interpretted it incorrectly or maybe I just wasn't awake enough.......

mumof2 - given that I believe all children in Welsh schools have to study Welsh as either a first or second language, then if you wait a few years I guess that they all will (depending on how you define 'some Welsh') :)

"Under the National Curriculum, schoolchildren in Wales must study Welsh up to the age of 16 and many choose to continue with it in their A levels and college years. All Local Education Authorities in Wales have schools providing bilingual or Welsh-medium education. The remainder study Welsh as a second language in English-medium schools. "