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.

My darling friend, who died a few months ago, conducting a choir as part of a project she did on welsh chapels.

Numerous people have offered their opinion on why it's should be compulsory.
DISAPPOINTED the teaching of religious doctrine is rather different, I'm assuming nobody denies the Welsh language exists.
dowser my point about France wasn't how much or how little English somebody might have but that most people agree that it is courteous and respectful to try and communicate in the native language. The same courtesy isn't offered to Welsh speaking Welsh in Wales, it is just assumed as they can speak English they should to accommodate others, pretty disrespectful I think

This a pic of me reading through the thread...
i4.walesonline.co.uk/incoming/article8720406.ece/alternates/s927b/oldwoman.jpg

you look well pissed off SirVix

That should be an official emoticon

You might have fared better speaking welsh

Merry mouse...I wish I could! And Spanish ! Italian! German! Russian!

I did try to solve the problem by learning Esperanto when I was in my forties. A fantastic language with a fantastic concept.

Everyone learn their native language , naturally and learn Esperanto in schools. In a generation, if all countries adopt it, we could talk to the world.

No need for expensive translations at European parliaments and so on.
It's such an easy language, my daughter also learnt it and we took a GCSE in it.

The beauty of it is as its a made up language there are no irregularities, EVERYTHING follows the rules and as it's not a native language no one has superiority in it.

La kato sidis sur la mato

The cat sat on the mat!

Ha ha ha vix

Mama I agree. I think there is an endemic lack of respect for Wales and the language in England. Look at AA Gills comments on the Welsh-
"Immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls". There was anger in Wales at this, but imagine him saying this about Pakistanis, or other ethnic minorities, and still having any kind of a career at all?
Although he does have rather a beautiful turn of phrase, worthy of an eisteddfod, fair play.

Dows, my bilingual Dad was an early esperanto speaker. And taught himself Russian to converse with his Russian penpal.

This is exactly what I always end up saying.

Hilarious, isn't it? Everyone's so modest!

I can see how such passionate resistance can build up. Believe you me I was astonished at the reactions I got when I told people that I was learning Welsh.

Oh yes. Normally in England, when someone tells someone else they've taken up a new hobby, the other person feels obliged to be polite. Unless it's Welsh! The only people who follow the customary social norms for showing polite interest then, feigned or otherwise, are people who are quite interested in languages in general.

That's a lovely long post of yours sirvix on page 17.

I too learnt Latin and have a GCE in it and it did help with lots of things, even Esperanto. I've also loved languages and I'm sad that at my great age the only one I'm fluent in is English.

Several years ago on a visit to Wales I bought some welsh books but without a tutor I had to give up. Because of our frequent trips to Spain I thought I would give Spanish a go but I've just had to give up. Just too old. That's why I'm so passionate about children learning a language while they are young.

Last night my five year old came up to me and said totally out of the blue ' bonjour'

I was a bit taken aback but managed ' bonjour, mon ami'

'comment ca va' she said

'ca va bien' I replied 'et tu?' parrot fashion , but her little face was a study.

Her mum said she wants to go back to French classes, ' get her there' I said!

On a recent trip to Caerdydd my cousin's girlfriend floored me when she told me she was educated at an all welsh school . I didn't know there was such a thing. Her English was perfect but I was so impressed.

If my dad had done what I wanted him to do and moved us to Wales I definitely would have learnt welsh. Now I'm english by birth, welsh by adoption lol.

If ALL my family would move , I'd be there in a heartbeat!

And I'm going on Sunday..Yeeeha!

Where are you going? Weather is nice today here by the sea. .

Small world Sirvix. I might even have bumped into your dad at the international esperanto conference in Brighton 25 years ago.

Going slightly off topic now but the lovely bar we go to in the canary islands has an Italian husband and a German wife. They are delighted to see us on every trip but because of a shortage of all languages after a happy greeting we sort of retreat into an uncomfortable silence. It's just horrible. A universal language would be great in situations like this. I had a Czech pen pal that I conversed in Esperanto with.

Caerdydd . Lol .

I'd love to live in the Dolomites. People there effortlessly switch between Italian, German and English and I was in heaven because I speak all three .

Actually this has been a really interesting thread. It's made me think.

I guess I resent my children having to take a GCSE because neither are interested in Welsh, and they would rather do music or something else that they feel engaged with, and they only get to choose so many in their GCSE years.

But reading the comments here, I've changed my mind about them being taught Welsh to some degree, especially in primary when combined with Welsh history or culture. I can see why it's important to the national identity. And they are Welsh by birth, if not blood.

I wonder if it's too late for me to have a go at learning? I've never been much good at languages, but as someone up thread said, living in Wales with all the signs etc in Welsh might make learning it a different experience from school French.

Beebaw ...if you could just pronounce the place names correctly..then not only are you speaking welsh but passing it onto grandchildren when they arrive.

I think that's a fab idea with the teens having their own language....how cool is that.

I'd be straight up for that one.

Give it a go. I'd have stuck with it if I'd lived in wales and had access to courses and hearing it spoken. You might only ever learn the basics but that's something.

I would love to have such a strong identity to my country instead of feeling like a mongrel.

My English friends ( now living in Cardiff ) put pictures of their girls dressed in traditional costume for welsh day and I was so envious.

We have nothing like that. What have we got. Stupid white faces with a red cross slathered on. Yeah right!

Looks really dignified that doesn't it!

I'm upsetting myself now!

it's never too late to give it a go, BeeBaw

there are courses all over Wales aimed at adults, some are free, some are cheap... it's worth a go :)

Talking of dressing up in traditional dress...

Aww what a sweetie!

Lovely that she has that identity.

She looks so sweet!

I'm Welsh and I am a little annoyed that it is compulsory up to the age of 16. Many secondary schools offer only a limited range of GCSE's so to have to take Welsh limits children who would prefer to take another language or different subject altogether.

Up to 14 would be fine

What a beautiful girl moomin.

I'm sorry to those who interpreted my last post as a racist, 'go home English' type statement. That's not what I meant at all. I'm just genuinely interested in why people who are so bothered by the education policy chose to educate their children here? I would not chose to educate my children somewhere I felt was sub-standard. Neither would I live in another country and not expect my children to have at least some of their education in that country's native language. Statistics about how many people speak or don't speak it mean nothing to me. As I've said time and again, language, to me and many others, is about heritage, culture, identity and so much more.

There have been some really interesting posts on this thread. It's a shame that so many people misinterpret discussion about historical facts and having a sense of pride in language, heritage and culture as being racist.