Aibu to feel sad that welsh is not compulsory in schools in Wales .

[Dowser]

Says it all really.

It's part of the heritage and it's a worry it will die out.

Don't understand it myself.

I always ccall it "meicrodon" (the over the O)

"everyone" says it's pobty ping but I've never known it be actually used

I thought that in North Wales, not only is it taught but the schools are all Welsh schools and all lessons are taught in Welsh.

My cousins brought up near Bangor did all their GCSE's in Welsh.

Excellent point altered. I think many people forget how recently the appalling oppression of the Welsh language by the English happened. If the English had behaved in a less colonial and oppressive manner towards the language over the centuries we wouldn't be in the position of needing laws to protect it.

ifyour, it's a shame that you have had such a negative experience of living here. You should be proud of yourself and respected for learning and using the language. Please don't take it personally when people speak about historical facts such as the Welsh not and Treweryn. As discussed by previous posters, many of the oppressive acts carried out by the English towards the Welsh and our language are within recent history and living memory. It is, understandably, a very sensitive and emotive subject to those affected. I'm sure that no Welsh person is holding you personally accountable.

It does genuinely baffle me why people continue to live in Wales and educate their children here if they think the system is so terrible. I think I'm right in saying that the teaching of Welsh (not Welsh medium teaching) has been compulsory to key stage 3 since about 1990 and key stage 4 since about 1999. It's hardly a recent development. Do people not research these things before moving here or sending their kids to school here? I'm Surprised that why, if it's so important, people aren't queing up to cross the border East.

I have never known anyone seriously use the word 'popty ping'. I wonder where that came from? It's always been meicrodon here :)

Calico that's what a welsh medium education is.

I've never heard anyone use popty ping either.

I call it the popty ping - much better word - I also call the toaster the toasty pop ........

Because we have family here. Because we went to school before Wales went OTT with the language thing. Because our memories are not of that. Why shouldn't we live here? It's been predominantly English speaking for as long as I can remember and is as much our country as yours - you don't get to question who lives here. I came back as my parents are getting old. I didn't realise the extent to which things had gone otherwise I wouldn't have. But isn't it a shame that my elderly parents would have been denied my vital support over that? Saying that I very rarely hear Welsh being spoken where I am and the kids don't have to do it anymore so it doesn't really affect us.

It's attitudes like yours Frolic that will keep people from moving here and keep this country insular and small minded. We might not be queuing up to leave but people are leaving when it's convenient in terms of family commitments (in my case I'll go after my kids go to university - I do thank the Welsh government for the subsidised university fees).

why is it ok to be racist against modern day English people because of historic events? I don't think its acceptable for many other countries.

I think banning children from speaking their native language in their own free time is disgraceful and I can't imagine at an English school the teachers telling, for example, an Asian child off for not speaking English whilst playing outside of lessons. There would be an outcry.

These attitudes don't appear to have changed since I went to school in Wales in the 80s and is precisely why I left, and despite loving the country and speaking the language, will not return whilst I have school-age DC.

If it is their heritage and used at home then it won't die out. I can't see why you need to keep it alive artificially with people who will never use it. The Welsh people that I know don't speak Welsh.

I agree with you Happyringo. So here's another person that won't come back while she has school age DC. Wales has got this wrong if it is turning off people coming back to their home country. Isn't this what we want? More people coming here to live and contributing to the economy? More diversity with people of all backgrounds attracted by the life Wales has to offer and who want to come here and work? The language teaching should not be acting as a deterrent, but it is. Wales can't be only for the Welsh language loving people.

Can I hijack this thread for two seconds please? Are there any Welsh speakers who can help me with something?

There's absolutely no point in an across the board policy of compulsory Welsh as it's proven not to be working. It's not making the vast majority bilingual as most give it up as soon as they can and then never use it again. Anyone interested will go that much further with it.

Is this what the people that are talking about culture and heritage and keeping a language alive want? To hold a gun to people's head to make them learn it? What's the point of that? It's not making significantly any more people value it or use it or care for it. It's just strange. Truly narrow minded.

Google translate might be able to help you Missda. I'd ask my son but he'd just say take the English word and put a couple of "f's" in the middle or an "o" on the end of the word. Standard school kid joke around here before everyone takes offence.

What do you need help with missda

I am not Welsh. I live in a very Anglicised part of South Wales. Most people I know speak no Welsh, although I do know a few who went to Welsh medium schools and speak it fluently. But English is the first language of everyone I've met who comes from here. In 17 years I've overheard Welsh spoken in conversation a handful of times.

I resent my children having to spend their time at school learning a language I expect they'll never need. I suspect I might feel differently if it was taught to a higher standard - but after 6 years of doing a half day/week at primary my kids can hardly hold a basic conversation.

If people want to study in Welsh, speak in Welsh then provision should absolutely be made. But why make those who don't want to do it take a GCSE? It's not a life skill like Maths and English.

Obviously you can't make people continue learning Welsh after they leave school but it's sensible to give people a grounding in a language that is very beneficial.
It's just the same as providing pe lessons as part of the curriculum, not all people will continue to do a form of exercise throughout their life but that doesn't make it pointless

But babbity it is a life skill in certain areas of Wales. In exactly the same way as English is.

"The language teaching should not be acting as a deterrent, but it is. Wales can't be only for the Welsh language loving people."

Quick! Someone get hold of the First Minister and tell him to rip up the national curriculum! 2 of the 3 million people in Wales don't like Welsh being taught!

It's not a language that most think is beneficial though mama.

As BeeBaw says if you go to an English medium school it doesn't teach you enough to be bilingual, just to pass a GCSE (maybe this is the Welsh government's measure of success, who knows). If anything I'd say it puts people off learning other languages, certainly hasn't helped in our experience.

I think that at primary one language is as good as another. Atleast if you learn Welsh in Wales you have more chance of being able to practice.

It's not as though English schools have a long history of being able to teach French or Spanish or German effectively.

"It's not making the vast majority bilingual as most give it up as soon as they can and then never use it again."

What about all of the adult learners? What about those that do the basics, then decide to add to them much later in life? You're extrapolating your tiny sample across the entire population! (The census is often the reason given for continuing religious instruction in schools too - it's notoriously inaccurate.)

Well I guess I find it hard to empathise with people who think like that.
Because I live somewhere where Welsh is spoken every single day in every job and interaction in would consider anyone who didn't think it useful as close minded.
I understand it might be harder to see the benefits if you live somewhere where it isn't spoken so much. But I would like my children to be able to live and work wherever they wanted in the UK so I would be encouraging them to take the study of Welsh seriously no matter where in Wales they lived.

That's a very good point Disappointed I know many, many adults going to Welsh lessons.

DisappointedOne, the evidence is there that's it's not been a success. And this is why I think the Welsh are being rigid and small minded. You laugh about 2 out of 3m not wanting to learn the Welsh language but you refuse to accept the fact that in 20 years the number that say they can speak it has gone down. Despite the resources ploughed into it! That's so funny that you make up one statistic and joke about it when ignoring the big (factual) one

One of my DC's was recently at the Senydd along with quite a few hundred other kids for some event. Loads questioned the First Minister about why they have to learn Welsh to GCSE and the waste of time they thought the Welsh Bacc was. He trotted out the party line. But there you go.

So where's the facts on adult learners then Disappointedone? But they you wouldn't be able to separate out those that work for local government and have been told they have to go on a Welsh language course (compulsory for adults too where the government can get away with it), such as a friend of mine, and those who genuinely love it and want to learn it.

Mama, you live in a Welsh area. We can't keep saying yes it makes sense where you are. You don't have to keep arguing it as where you live is not representative of where the majority of the population live.