AIBU to expect my kids to not to told off for speaking English in a welsh medium school?

[Hairyfairy01]

I have 2 dc in year 3 and 6 who attend a welsh medium primary school and have been taught in the welsh medium since they started school. However both dc are brought up in an english speaking household. English medium education at primary level is not available in this area of wales. Both dc have reported to me that they get told off for speaking English in the classroom, corridors, lunchtime and playtime by both teachers and pupil members of the school 'welsh' council. Now I have no issues with encouraging the welsh language and totally support their scheme of rewarding pupils for speaking welsh in social situations. However I do have an issue of telling kids off for speaking english, not so much in lesson time, but more at lunchtime / playtime. Surely at these 'downtime' occasions kids should be able to speak whatever language they like, be it French, Chinese or whatever. I can only imagine that this is what happens in other primary schools where children's home / first language is different to the main language of the school occurs? Are they all told off for speaking French / Chinese etc? Feeling furious but not sure if iabu?

Geography, I think. My husband would call himself a Yorkshireman before an English man. My cousins would call themselves Brummies, my aunts East Anglians. I suspect the culture is more regional in England than in the smaller countries.

I meant they feel less of a national identity.

Which schools in Gwynedd are English medium?
Someone posted earlier that there were 11, I cant think of any.
Am very intrigued which school this is, agree standing against wall is harsh but immersion and gentle encouragement to speak Welsh in yard is normal and part if the county's language policy, I think.

My daughter has lost points for speaking English. I'm not a welsh speaker so I support the idea she's immersed every day all day

Anglesey is a strange place. I worked in a bank a few years ago in gwynedd and was sent for a few days to work in a branch on the island. I met a woman who was very proud of the face that until she was in her 20's she had never left the island. I also have a friend who was raised in Anglesey, her grandparents were English but moved to the village, ran the village shop, raised their family there etc, they were still outsiders when they died. Horribly insular place to live I imagine. But then again the village I live in is getting worse. Just need someone to buy my house so I can move, I'm hoping moving further east and closer to the sea will be better.

I am sure there are just as insular places elsewhere in the UK but it seems to be bash the Welsh day on Mumsnet.

There are insular villages all over the UK, that’s for sure.

I went through Welsh medium education and have managed perfectly well educationally. In fact, it’s one of the things I’m most thankful for because being completely bilingual is amazing and the Welsh language and heritage is a truly beautiful thing. I’ve got to say, there is a massive ignorance of history on this thread and a complete failure to understand why some Welsh people might have slight resentment at times! The English government effectively tried to stamp out the Welsh language and eradicate it from the education system. Even today it’s seen as ‘hilarious’ to mock the welsh language: ‘are any of your words real or do you just randomly hit the keyboard and see what comes out?’ Jokes like this etc. The new Severn Bridge is about to be called The Prince of Wales Bridge and Roy Liddle wrote a hideously offensive article about it but there wasn’t much uproar because it’s just the Welsh and apparently we’re a fair target and it’s fine for us to be the butt of the jokes. I live in a tourist area and watch the slow cultural erosion of language and community as more and more of the area becomes a second home haven. People suggesting we get rid of the Welsh on road signs etc.

As for Welsh on the schoolyard etc, the more kids turn to English then the fewer use Welsh and Welsh becomes just a classroom language and that’s exactly what we don’t want because we want the language to live on and thrive, not be reserved for learning at school whilst all real chat takes place in English.

I can’t help feel if it was any other minority’s language then there’d be a sense of pride but for some reason when it comes to Welsh, people think it’s fine to sneer and deride it.

If you don’t like the idea of a Welsh medium education, then Gwynedd is probably not the best place to live.

"There are no words for anything new in Welsh"

Janet Street-Porter

I live in a tourist area and watch the slow cultural erosion of language and community as more and more of the area becomes a second home haven

I remember being told something like this at a local village event in England, where many moaned that it was "a wonder it happened at all with all these new people here". Ironic, then, that it turned out most of it was actually being run by the newcomers because the longer term residents couldn't be bothered ...

I meant they feel less of a national identity

On what grounds do you say that?

Cornish, northern, southern, it's more regional.

Yorkshireman, Lancastrian, Brummie, Geordie, Janner, and the list goes on, I suspect we are more tribal than we think.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_regional_nicknames

You really think people have a regional identity rather than an English one, instead of in addition to it? Really?

The Welsh side of my family have multiple identities- British, Welsh, from South as opposed to North Wales, etc. The Scottish side of my family, too- British, Scottish, Europeans...

I am intrigued by the claim that English people are lacking a national identity because it's all about the regions! I have never heard anyone assert that before. That's really strange.

Bravo CeriBerry.
My DGF was born in the Welsh community in Patagonia. Some Welsh people felt they needed to go to the other side of the world to preserve their language.

I wonder if people in regions of England feel disconnected because of modern politics? Perhaps the media who emphasise more about things which affect life nationally..... Perhaps living in small regional places means we know chat, or socialise, with our neighbours, postie, milkman, shop staff. We stand at school gates where schools are much smaller... Life is simpler if we don`t have to commute for hours each day, we are not as time poor.

You really think people have a regional identity rather than an English one, instead of in addition to it? Really?

Absolutely, for the members of both sides of my family and the one I married into. With no links and hundreds of miles between them that can’t be coincidence.

DH’s family would cut Yorkshire adrift from England if they could!

I wonder if people in regions of England feel disconnected because of modern politics? Perhaps the media who emphasise more about things which affect life nationally..... Perhaps living in small regional places means we know chat, or socialise, with our neighbours, postie, milkman, shop staff. We stand at school gates where schools are much smaller... Life is simpler if we don`t have to commute for hours each day, we are not as time poor.

You mean people like "us", no otherness?

It is a fascinating subject, we need someone with expertise in Demography to perhaps answer the questions I ask myself.

I am sure there are just as insular places elsewhere in the UK but it seems to be bash the Welsh day on Mumsnet

It's always bash the Welsh day on Mumsnet racism is unacceptable in the UK but it's OK to say the most shocking things about the Welsh.

I haven`t seen anything shocking about the Welsh or I would have said something. When son lived in USA and said he was from Wales anyone who knew where he was talking about would come out with the usual sheep type jokes as if we had never heard them before.

As I've said, I class myself as Welsh and most people have been very welcoming and helpful, teaching me the language. However there are a small number who, despite selling their properties to the English as holiday homes, then spend an extraordinary amount of time berating them for 'taking over'.
The best example I can give is at a Christmas party for the children of the village I helped organise, we had an English Santa (Sion Corn) who used his limited Welsh whenever he could but did converse mainly in English. A local, after finishing his third free bowl of cawl complained about it. The English volunteer was the only person to come forward when we asked for help, this man and his family make all their money from renting their properties to holidaymakers, give nothing back to the community but complain the loudest.
In my experience, its the incomers who are trying to create the community feeling, organising events etc yet the locals don't like it

In the beginning the Lord God Almighty turned to the Archangel
Gabriel, and said:

“Today I am going to create a beautiful part of the Earth and I will
call it Wales. I will make a country of breathtaking blue lakes, rich
green forests and dark beautiful mountains from which from time to
time will be snow-covered. I will give it clear, swift rivers that will
overflow with salmon and trout.

The land shall be lush and fertile on which the people can raise cattle
and grow their food, as well as being rich with precious metals and
stones that will be sought after, the World over.

Underneath the land I shall lay rich seams of coal for the inhabitants to
mine. Around the coast I will make some of the most beautiful areas in
the World. White sandy beaches and cliffs that will attract all manner
of wildlife, and lots of islands that will be paradise to all who visit
them. In the waters around the shores there will be abundance of sea-life.

The people who will live there will be called the Welsh, and they will
be the friendliest people on my Earth. They will have magic in their
blood, and songs in their souls. Their Voices when raised in song shall
challenge the choir of angels.”

“Excuse me, sire” interrupted the Archangel Gabriel, “don’t you think
that you are being a bit generous to these Welsh?”

The lord just smiled and replied “You have not seen the neighbours
I’m giving them!”