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.

How do you pick up on the 'singy song thing' of a language on an internet forum?

sorry but dismissing a language on the grounds that it is not 'nice' just smacks of .....I dunno....how can I put it....idiocy?

I would go further and point out that I now work and live oop North and my company was desperately casting around for someone who could speak Welsh well enough to convince a client we could work bilingually. They were very disappointed when I wasn't any use.

oh on MEN!! ha. Typo.
I don't find men speaking in a Welsh accent sexy. Maybe Richard Burton, the rest. Nope

Sunny Frankish is not the language of France!

Improbable - yabu

Rhod Gilbert can trim my leek any day.

ummm yeh I know that andrew. Why do certain English people start acting as though anyone who supports the Welsh Language is stupid?
lol @ trim my leek

My dc have to learn Welsh at school and to be honest I'd rather they learnt something more useful (e.g. Spanish) to anyone outside of Wales... I also find it impossible to learn Welsh myself, it's all back to front as far as I am concerned (and I'm fluent in four other European languages).

But I am in awe of the history of Welsh and do feel it should be kept alive. I like the fact that at one point Welsh was spoken across most of Britain - something I like to quote whenever someone bleats on about minority language etc.

'Welsh evolved from British, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Britons. Alternatively classified as Insular Celtic or P-Celtic, it probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth.' (Wikipedia)

it is not the easiest language to learn as an adult is it jewelfairies?
Still at least you have tried! Even just to be polite or understand placenames.
And thank you for the link about how widespread this language once was. Boudicca would have spoken Cymraeg you know! and she is claimed as a British folk heroine. IN fact we still have a version of her name here.

I'm not against learning the Welsh language being compulsory, but I AM against Welsh medium education being compulsory, as it is here.

I'm another one in favour of learning a traditional language, but I'm not so sure about Welsh medium schools, as opposed to English medium where Welsh is taught alongside everything else

Whether we like it or not the language is of very limited use outside of Wales itself, and I worry about the effects on literacy for those who want to work/live elsewhere in the future. Nor is this just an academic interest; I've worked in recruitment and seen the effects this type of education can have, though to be fair they might just have been the less literate candidates in any language!!

should have done your research better then really shouldnt you?

people learning welish are disadvantaged wow so people from Europe most European countries must be incredable disadvantaged as most nations its compossary to learn the minium of 3 langauges and the poor people in luxenborg they all have to learn 4 langauges through out there school life they must be in school 18 hours a day no play time and they must be backword etc.....

Its absoultly shocking that the Uk is one of the worst nations in the world with less then 20% of people speaking/learning fluently a different lanaguge in school with the only western nation worse then the UK is the USA......

in todays modern world just knowing English is a massive disadvantge compared to most European countries that not only speak/write fleunt english but other widely spoken langauges like french /spainish and portiguse etc

So arguing that Welish medium schools are disadvantaging pupils I care to argue that English medium schools are disadvantaging pupils more as they normally have abyismal forgien language class/reasources etc (the only good thing Mike gove has done for teaching is made a forgien langauge composry as it should be in such a globalised world

worridmum I completely agree that foreign language teaching in English schools can be disgraceful and needs to be improved - as does the all-too-common English attitude towards learning anything else

However I don't think that's quite the same issue as children being taught most of their curriculum through such a minority language. Even just within europe there are a number of languages which are far more (for want of a better word) portable, and surely more useful to all except those who want to stay in the same place all their lives

Unfortunately, Welsh isn't one of them

Haven't read all the thread. Just some thoughts. The pushing of the Welsh language is having the effect of making Wales seem small and insular. We will be leaving when DD finishes her secondary education in a few years.
My friend's DD yr 7 is in a Welsh Medium school. Despite the huge amount of funds thrown at it ( to the detriment of the majority english medium schools) it is under performing.
She has just come back from a residental weekend. She, along with three of her friends were constantly told off for speaking English to each other in their dorms at night. Bloody scary stuff

should have done your research better then really shouldnt you?

Was this aimed at me? What research? And why so aggressive?

Annie the survey was conducted by Wales Online, from August 2014. Ysgol Plasmawr and Ysgol Glantaf topped the list, followed by Cardiff High and Radyr. Not sure of the order.

The best-performing state school was a school in Aberaeron-a bilingual one. The best in Caerphilly was a Welsh Medium one, and the best in the Rhondda Treorchy Comp, which has "significant Welsh".

I was a bit surprised not to find Cardiff High at the top of the list. It makes Welsh medium education a real viable alternative and you don't even have to have a particularly deep pocket to live in the catchment

mamapants - every one I know that has a job with the Welsh government where Welsh is one of the requirements to get the job hasn't used it in their jobs. Only a small cross section of 5 but while they say it helps job prospects in terms of getting a job in reality it doesn't seem to be used. In some roles I'm sure it is though (before you list them). Outside of government posts I don't think it matters as other qualifications will.

Frolic - isn't that the basis for making it compulsory though? That the people in support of that are worried it will die out? You might not have referred to it directly but isn't that the worry? Thank you for the detailed explanation about my utility bills. I should have put that in a new paragraph after my last post where I referred to you. I wasn't expecting you - or anyone - to answer it for me, it was more a thinking out loud question. If I could go paperless, obviously I would. Outside of Wales Welsh doesn't help your job prospects at all. Fine if you want to stay in Wales but the cream of the crop will probably leave.

Disappointedone - I've heard it's diabolical. I've heard if people can afford it they take their kids out sharpish. Some of the things I've heard would make your hair curl about Cardiff High. Why it's considered the best I do not know.

I was a Welsh assembly employee for 14 years and a knowledge of Welsh was EXTREMELY helpful, even when seconded to London.

Have lots of hols in Caernarfon. Totally Welsh speaking - Kids in the playground speaking it wholly naturally. No unfriendliness towards English speakers. Like visiting any other European City as non native speaker where you only recognise the odd word. Maximum friendliness to tourists.

All English speaking when I went as a child. A bit of Welsh and a fair bit of anti English attitude when I visited as a teenager. Now - totally cool. The contrast is wonderful.

I think it is interesting to see how antagonistic the English still are towards the Welsh. I am really baffled as to why. A strange primal fear of the oppressor towards the oppressed? They don't seem to have quite the same attitude towards the Scots, perhaps because Scotland is considered posher? Whereas the Welsh, oh yes, lovely beaches, a oh look a wonderful rustic farmhouse for the price of a Walthamstow studio, we could buy that if only we didn't have all those Welsh people nearby going around either singing or speaking their strange unsexy sing-song language, with coal encrusted curls above unwashed proletarian faces. Not at all like those cheerful peasants we saw in Tuscany darling.
ifyourawizard- WHY did you move to Wales?

notsogoldenoldie - in 2013 67% at Glantaf got 5 A*-C grades (the 2014 figures aren't available as far as I can see on that Wales online survey); Plasmawr got 66% for the same year. Cardiff High got 74.5% that year (down 8 percentage points from the previous year), Radyr got 71.4% so both Cardiff High and Radyr beat the two Welsh ones on the measure that most will look for.

Yes, that survey had some other banding measure that put the two Welsh ones above the English medium ones by a couple of points but it's not a government measure - it's a Wales online measure where they seem to have taken into account Attendance and Finances. The 5 A*-C level is the one people look for as it shows the educational attainment. Saying that all were above the national average including England.

Personally I know people with kids at three of these schools and none were happy with them - hell holes I think they were described as, or best of a bad lot.

SirVix "I think it is interesting to see how antagonistic the English still are towards the Welsh"

That's a rather a sweeping statement, if it was turned around and an English poster made a similar statement to generalise about the Welsh, there would (quite rightly) be uproar.