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.

It is compulsory in schools in Wales until they are 16.

I live in Gwynedd, Welsh is a living spoken first language here. Any suggestion that it is irrelevant would strike most of my neighbours as ridiculous and offensive. I moved here from abroad so has zero knowledge of Welsh , but my ds thrived in his Welsh medium education. He will be selecting GCSES next year, and would happily ditch maths and keep Welsh if he could. Unfortunately for him some subjects are required for a reason!! To suggest that a nations language or shouldn't count is rude in my opinion, just because some of you never hear it doesn't mean it's never spoken.

It's not a minority language here in the North where I live. Just because the Welsh can also speak English doesn't mean there are no Welsh speakers about. My Dd (age 10) has just completed a 10 week intensive Welsh course at a small village primary and it's improved her Welsh immensely. Her local primary is 50/50 welsh as a first language and even though she only moved here 18 months ago it looks like she will probably go to a Welsh speaking high school.
Back in the 50/60's my Step father was punished for using Welsh in school all the children had Welsh as a first language, it seemed they were trying to get rid of it. I'm glad it's come so far and I hear more and more Welsh spoken in town, not just little old ladies like when I was a child, but young people, teens and small children.

Sorry for typos, on my phone!

To the person who says Welsh is not spoken in Cardiff. I live in Cardiff too and know several Welsh speakers. In fact my name next door neighbours speak Welsh.

I don't think Wales is part of England. but the WAG is not self-supporting so I am helping pay for what they do, do it's my business too.

Nobody can tell me why it has to be compulsory if it is so popular.

Or why Welsh Not justifies compulsion long after.

Or why people who have had no choice about moving to Wales are deprived of choice now.

There's an undercurrent here; a suggestion that if you don't know Welsh you aren't really Welsh. Which is not the case, is it?

I'm in eastern Powys and hear Welsh every day too.

Most of the people I know who did Welsh as a second language continue to be able to speak it, most to a very good standard.

I think it has to be compulsory because it is so popular. They have to teach on the assumption that pupils may remain and work in Wales, where even conversational knowledge of Welsh will benefit them and give them an edge over people moving to Wales with no knowledge of Welsh. And it reduces the amount of people insisting that they've walked into a bar and everyone has suddenly switched on their AngloRadar and started talking Welsh because they can sense an English person a mile off

I found picking up French ridiculously easy, because I was used to translating things from English to Welsh and back again - adding another language in was just easy. I've found Welsh so beneficial.

It's not WAG anymore, it's Natural Resources Wales... just saying.

I travel all over the UK and my heaviest client base is Wales - all of it. North Wales is the place where I'm most likely to hear Welsh spoken - also West Wales. South Wales, not at all. That's not an indication of where Welsh is spoken, just that I don't hear it but as an English speaker, my clients wouldn't speak Welsh in meetings that I'm in.

I also have a professional membership colleague, born and bred in Salford - fluent Welsh speaker. Puts me to shame.

My daughter HAD to do welsh at her school in South Wales.

Even GCSE Welsh was compulsary.

In our area you also had the choice of opting for welsh medium schools.

I didn't realise it wasn'tcompulsary in all parts of Wales but it certainly was in our area/county.

My family are Welsh speaking, from the north. For my grandmother's generation Welsh was their first language. Of her three children only one speaks Welsh fluently - although all their cousins do as they stayed in Wales until university. None of the grandchildren (my generation) do, despite have frequent family gatherings where Welsh is spoken as much as English - we were all educated in England.

I really do not understand the animosity towards Welsh. Lots of subjects I did at school weren't of great interest to me personally, but I don't spit bile over them, I just got on with it and then forgot about it after. No issue.

In my area the Welsh medium secondary schools consistently out perform the English ones at exams so I dont know where the idea they are underperforming comes from.
I'm in the South of Wales and the children I know who go to Welsh schools speak Welsh in the playground and beyond.
I'm proud to be a Welsh speaker.

Andrew, by your logic we shouldn't need to teach English as its 'so popular'. What's the harm in Welsh being compulsory? Lots find it useful, if you dont then you just drop it after gcse and never speak it again.

Andrew, the only person who has suggested that 'if you don't know Welsh you aren't really Welsh' is you.

The only undercurrent here is the one you're trying to whip up.

Also, arf at people moving to Wales being 'deprived of choice'.

So if you moved to France, you'd expect to find an English-medium school in every town, and no need to ever learn French at all?

Why is Wales any different? Welsh is our language, it's what we speak.

of course it is compulsory, it is one of the core GCSE subjects.
Entire thread based on a false premise.

I live in the north in an area where absolutely everyone speaks welsh. Welsh medium school is compulsory, which is bad I think as they do worse compared to English medium ones. Also the amount of 20 somethings I know who can barely conduct a conversation in English is shocking.

Teach welsh as a language, yes, but to conduct the whole of a child's education in a language which is mainly colloquial and seriously lacking in vocabulary is not good for them.

Unfortunately mine have no choice as the nearest English school is 1.5 hours away.

" I wonder how many of the Welsh Second Languagers show any interest after GCSE. "
FYI some 'incoming' children are fascinated by it.
EG my son is now chatting quite fluently to the local farmers and so on. They appreciate it, and as he says. 'well if I am going to live here I really should know the language'.
But then we did not bring him up to be closed minded to other languages. English is his dad's fourth langauge.

i went to school in rural South west wales in the 1980s. Welsh was absolutely compulsory up to GCSE. I just looked at the school's website and they've gone one step further now and pupils are not allowed to speak English at all, even in break time. So I'd say it's still compulsory!

" which is bad I think as they do worse compared to English medium ones. "
you 'think'? How about some hard stats there? IN our town, the Welsh medium school regularly outperforms the English one.

Ifyourawizard "The amount of 20 somethings I know who can barely conduct a conversation in English is shocking"

If they're planning to live and work in that Welsh-speaking area of Wales the rest of their lives, what is the issue? How is it any different to French 20-somethings struggling to converse in English? Or Spanish, or Italian, or any other language?

Moomin Welsh us what about a fifth of you speak.

If course I would not expect an English-medium school in France! I would expect a French-medium school. French being the main language of France as English is of Wales. Nor would I want my child force-fed Breton or Basque where those were not the main languages.

but Andrew, Welsh IS the main language round here.
Just because Welsh speakers have to be bilingual, does that mean that their language should be sidelined and mocked?
I really do not understand why so many English people feel so threatened by Welsh.
English is not going to go away ffs.

I spend a week in Ceredigion every year, surrounded by sheep, cliffs and farms, and away from phone signals. I love listening to the local Welsh-speaking people. Don't understand a fekkin work of it, but am happy to just sit on a beach and listen without letting on I'm one of those English outsider people. 2 weeks to go until I'm there again ... bliss!

Surely if you're a Welsh speaking person, the best way to ensure it doesn't die out, rather than rely on the school system, is to raise your children to be bilingual from birth? My son has a friend who has a French mother and an English father and he's fluent in both, I love it when he's chatting away and drops a random work in the middle of an otherwise English sentence