To wonder whether some Welsh should be taught in English schools?

[CruCru]

I’ve just finished watching HIdden and it has struck me how alien Welsh sounds (I grew up in the south east). For most western European languages, I will recognise a few words if I hear it spoken but pretty much none of the speech in Hidden sounded familiar.

A Spanish friend speaks Castilian Spanish but also speaks and understands a couple of other Spanish languages / dialects. It seems weird to me that there is a living language within the UK that I know virtually nothing about.

I know it isn’t as widely spoken as a few European languages learnt in school. However, I did French and German and can say that I can remember virtually no German whatsoever (I wasn’t very good at it). I have tried to speak it in Austria but the bar staff laughed and spoke back to me in English.

Yes to British Sign Language also.

South West *

I live in SW - it definitely isn't used more tgan English.

So do I. Carmarthenshire to be precise. It absolutely is used more than English here.

I am in Powys, having previously come from Monmouthshire and it definitely isn't used more than English here.

That'll be why I was confused - Powys is Mid to us.

Monmouthshire is little England so I'm not surprised it wasn't spoken there.

I’d love it if Welsh was taught across the UK. However, I feel like it should be something done as an extra, say in a lunchtime or after school club, rather than in the place of other subjects. As PPs have said, it’s of no real use outside of Wales, so would be the same as teaching Breton rather than French

ProfessorMoody my ILs live in and around Cardiff and always have, none of them speaks Welsh (his teen relatives are learning at school, his DD and older nieces/nephews never did). We go to watch Cardiff City, never heard anyone, apart from the announcer speak Welsh (announcements are done in both English and Welsh).

I agree missC. I have family in the Cardiff area and not a single one speaks Welsh. Simply no need

Utterly useless outside of Wales and tbh in parts of Wales too.

Oh, odd! I'm from Cardiff and it's a lot less there definitely, but spoken by a lot too.

Completely agree that it's useless outside Wales. I also don't think it should be forced on those who don't want to choose it.

I don't see the point in learning Welsh per se, but I do think that in a general citizenship of the UK type lesson, it should be taught that Wales has another language, and that it truly is not an add on to England! It should also be taught that ppl entering certain professions would need it if they wanted to include Wales in their job hunt.

Exposure to any additional language is beneficial. Perhaps a couple of lessons a week for a few weeks slotted in somewhere? And the same for e.g. Gaelic? Maybe even in connection with lessons on British history/culture, if they exist. We certainly never touched on Wales/Scotland/Ireland in much of anything we learned at school, IIRC. But then I didn't take history or geography after year 9.

If you don't have Welsh in certain counties, you can kiss government /healthcare/education jobs goodbye.

In that county yes, but nothing to stop you going elsewhere. Which must surely mean that the areas which insist on it have a smaller pool of people to select from,

I understand what you mean, OP. It would be a bit much to expect everyone to learn conversational Welsh, but a greater awareness of the languages and cultures of the island we live on would be very worthwhile.

I say this as someone born in England but now living in Wales, with children in Welsh medium schools. Most of my friends here are Welsh speakers, and I've learned a fair bit of the language myself. This is in Cardiff, by the way.

It depends, 5. My county is a very popular county to move to, because you get a lot for your money in terms of houses and land. A LOT of English people move here because of that and the coast, and it's a shame that they, and the non-Welsh speakers that grew up in Cardiff and similar counties don't get equal access to jobs.

Many teachers I know who can't move for various reasons have such difficulty getting jobs, as there are no roles at all that don't require some level of Welsh. I teach English Medium but we still have to use Welsh throughout everything, it's completely cross-curricular, which shouldn't be the case in English medium schools.

To add to Professor Moody’s point, I did a maternity cover contract at a biligual school, and knew that some of us had been chosen for the job based purely on our ability to speak Welsh rather than our experience of teaching the subject in question

Sure, as long as Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic are also taught.

I live in Carmarthenshire too
Welsh is widely spoken.

But it’s still only used by less than half the population
I think it is 48 %
Teach them something useful instead

Probably because of so many people moving here I'd imagine?

Why not Cornish too?

I really do like the idea of ‘UK culture studies’ or something similar. In school in NWales I learnt Welsh and English history but am woefully ignorant in Scottish and Irish, for example. For the school Eisteddfod we would have to learn Welsh poetry and songs, but again I don’t think I’ve ever studied Scottish or Irish National music/writers. Maybe learning about all the different cultures in our ‘country of countries’ would help break down some of the hostility between us that can sometimes happen?

*bf1000

I think British sign language should be taught in all schools.*

As someone hard of hearing who has learnt to sign, I fully agree this should be taught over and above Welsh or any other UK language. I'm guessing most speakers of a minority language in the UK also speak English; for many deaf people they can only communicate in BSL and the fact they're pretty much ostracised by most of society in their own country is outrageous. It should be a recognised language and some basics taught before pupils learn MFL.

(Off my soapbox now!)

I agree, SoozC, I believe that BSL should be a joint official language along with English. So many people lose their hearing as they age that an ability to sign would benefit everyone.

BF100 SoozC
I’m hard of hearing and agree completely. I was fortunate enough to go to a school with a specialist hearing impaired unit, and in my first year we were given some BSL lessons (Unfortunately, budgets were cut so they stopped after 6/7 weeks). These lessons were available to everyone, but it seemed that only the HI pupils were interested. When I spoke to my friends about it, the consensus was that they’d never need it so why bother

There was a guy who posted a photo of the train display at the station in wales (cardiff i think) and commented/joked that it must be what being dyslexic feels like.
Of course the PC Brigade found it utterly offensive to dyslexics and the welsh, but actually it is such a different pattern of talk/spellings that i got his point. It sounds similar to scandanavian languages to me. Doesnt sound like welsh english at all. You have a point.