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

So would you be adverse to S4C which recieves government funding being cut back to free up some funds?

I dont want to abolish Welsh language just think they waste a lot of money that could be divided more fairly.

If you look at the signs then there aren't more of them - they just have extra words added. Besides it's fun reading Welsh road signs. Breaks the journey up, you know? I may not be fluent but I know what "Pop cerbyd" and "biniau arian" and "gwasanaethau" mean.

Before anyone nice and polite tells me I need to get a life, like the lady who explained about eisteddfodau was told, I am being light hearted.

Ariesgirl may I kindly ask why you are not fluent? it seems very important to you why don't you do a course they are run free and are only 2 hours a week in the evening and day you might enjoy it it will be fun.

Blimey.Just popped off to polish my coracle and all hell has broken loose.Each to their own. My point is why should WAG foist compulsory Welsh GCSE on kids that can barely write/speak English correctly.

Yes you can ask kindly :). It's because I learned in school up until Year 9, and as I've mentioned I now live in Cornwall where they don't teach Welsh. I've done some Cornish classes though, but they're a lot less useful. I already said that if I still lived in Wales I'd be going to Welsh classes as I like learning languages.

I agree RattusNorvegicus I got brilliant grades in all my GCSE but because Welsh was forced on me a subject I am not adept at I now have a failed GCSE that could of been a pass if I had been allowed to choose a subject.

By forcing that GCSE subject on me I am not fleunt, I know very little more now than before GCSE the only effect it had on me was to make it so I could not pass all my GCSEs.

I see I can speak French but sadly I found Welsh to be very different and I can pick up any other language but just not Welsh . You can do them online.

Indeed Noorks, you are correct - Welsh courses, can be done online. But it would be impossible to become fluent from the Internet. I have never pretended to be a fluent Welsh speaker.

And of course you found French easier than Welsh. It shares so much vocab with English. And Welsh will be naturally very different to French, it being Brythonic Celtic rather than a Latin/Romance language. You can pick up any other language than Welsh? That's quite impressive! How's your Finnish?

I don't call a 2% increase by forcing it on children for years up and coming sorry.

I am not suggesting we abolish it just the double siding (as barely anyone is unable to speak English and only Welsh)and costs millions because 13% prefer to read it in Welsh (but a Welsh book) and S4C which is only in buisness because of government funding and has vertually no viewers be scrapped.

I also don't disagree with Welsh schools or teaching Welsh in schools from a young age and I do teach my son what Welsh I do know only that it is not forced as a GCSE. People who are good at Welsh will either already be fluent or choose to take the subject. So you are just trying to force it on people who are not good at the subject and if 12 years of trying to learn Welsh has not done it what good will a ferther two years do?

Yes arts and museums are being scrapped but there still is not enough funds to provide sufficent hospital facilities in a near by distance, It doesn't matter whether Welsh is part of britain it is less important than adeqaute hospitals.

"Would you have told the Lithuanians or Latvians that they should just have bowed down and taken on Russian culture as their own including the language and just scrapped their own?"

Well no as Lithuania and Latvia are sovereign countries. Wales isn't - it's part of the UK. And it's fair to say that the majority of Lithuanians or Latvians don't speak Russian as it isn't the official language of that country where-as the offical language of the UK is English.

I'm afraid your analogy doesn't stand up.

Again, I have no problem with cash being spent on Arts or what have you - there are lots of things that we spend money that we may or may not see value in. I just don't see the point in spending money propping up a language by printing material in a language when virtually everyone using that material will speak the original language. We don't print road signs in Pictish so why Welsh?

No No No you misunderstand I studyed a bit of different languages in my lunch time my school taught only Welsh and French and the few words that were taught I picked up easier than the few Welsh words that were taught me but I am not fluent in other languages but I suspect I would find it easier to be than Welsh.

Ariesgirl - if we stop servicing the debt, then no one will lend us the money to cover the deficit, and we gave to make even bigger cuts. If you stop printing Welsh what happens?

You still don't get it Windward do you? Because no one speaks Pictish.

Oh and you're probably right Noorks - Welsh is hard. No one's denying that. Didn't your school even teach German? Where was it if you don't mind me asking?

Bigofnoorks, you have done a fantasatic job, of pointing out the waste of resources, and in questioning generally the entitlement that seems to come from welsh speakers.
The real questions are pointedly ignored because even some of the language fascists have difficulty defending such ludicrous use of resources.
what they keep doing is defending their right to speak 'their' language. Most welsh people i know are first language english speakers, and hate the way welsh is forced upon them (for instance the compulsary element in schools, and the way that all the cushy jobs are reserved for those who speak welsh, despite the fact that they may be practically illiterate as as far as maths and english is concerned.

You dont get it you are asking about 80% of the people in Wales to make sacrifices so people can read government reports in their preferd language. So that they can have a Welsh channel that no one watches.

You are asking the majority to sacrifice for the minority.

Curry you do know that Welsh schools also teach maths and English, not just Welsh don't you? And that their GCSE results are on a par with and often better than English-medium schools? FWIW the Welsh speaking people I know speak English beautifully and are far from illiterate.

Well I'm not going to change your aggrieved mind anyway.

Well only 0.8% of the UK speak Welsh and 99.99% of that 0.8% speak English.

Comparatively speaking, no one speaks Welsh. We'd be better of printing stuff in Hindi - there's more fluent Hindi speakers in the UK than Welsh.

And if you don't like my example of Pictish - what about Jèrriais - I think that's still hanging on in there on the channel Islands - should we print everything in that too?

They're may me light at the end of the tunnell though.
With the current climate as it is, the welsh assemly are under pressure to make cuts. S4C is already being looked at (yay), and hopefully all of the money thrown at the language lunitics will start to shrink as well. Cant be too far off:-)

More people speak mandarin too.

Sorry It was the valleys and I have been to many schools here 5of 6 only taught Welsh and French. I am only 22 and many of my friends little siblings are still in school it is still that way. Not just with language but other subjects we were taught:

Maths
English
Science
French
Welsh
Physical education
Religious education
Art
Graphics
Woodwork
Metalwork
That is all the subjects taught in most schools in the valleys. No drama, cooking, needlework that is it.

Yes they do teach english,- but as a foreign language. psml

Sorry Information Technology too.