To not want my ds to have to take Welsh for GCSE

[slushy06]

He is only 3 but it has started bothering me the thought that like me he may not want to take and may be no good at it and may have to take it and get a poor grade when to be honest I just don't see the point of it and would much rather he learn something more useful if he doesn't like it.

I would have no issue with if he wanted to and I have no problem with Maths English and Science being compulsory but I just don't think Welsh is as important as those subjects and should not be compulsory.

I am posting this but I have to go out then so will reply when I get back. But I will be very interested to hear responses and maybe a reason as to why it is compulsory.

Well anyone who visits my house would find 3.5 Welsh speakers (I am the 0.5!).

Try visitng an Eisteddfod and then reassessing your view that it's a dead language...

slushy06 Thu 12-Nov-09 14:07:42
"If you ever come to Wales see how long it takes you to find a Welsh person who actually speak Welsh "

That would depend entirely on where you go wouldn't it? We travelled in northern Wales a few years ago and heard Welsh spoken every single day by different people. I'd say it took us about 5 minutes to find the first Welsh speaker.

I am always told I speak to fast the minute I meet someone who is English and they cant understand through my accent and they have to tell me to slow down which is why I can usually tell straight away.

Slushy please answer my question about what you would rather the wasted millions were spent on.

And please forgive me but i dont understand you post above.

Do they put it on for tourists in Wales like I know they do in the West of Ireland?!?! Just wondering?

Why not wait until your son actually gets to school and see what he thinks before getting too stressed about it?

Dumbledoresgirl, I am genuinely surprised that anyone would object so strongly to the fairly small amount of Welsh teaching that goes on in your average English medium school. One, fairly short, lesson a day and the rest being through 'incidental Welsh' such as posters and songs.

But then, we are deliberately living on the Welsh side of the border so that ds gets a more play-based curriculum, so each to their own and I suppose you and I have been lucky in that we've had the choice.

Yes as I said earlier I have heard it spoken in north Wales but no where else. I do not have a problem with the Welsh language even if it sounded like I did and I have no problem with my son choosing to learn it I just don't like the fact that he has to learn it.

This thread has become ridiculous.

Gosh I am a non Welsh living in Wales, and I love living here!!
I dont know where you lot have been, but I am in Cardiff (well just outside), and I regularly here mums speaking welsh to their littlies, one of my parters at work is fluent welsh speaking as are her children!

I have never faced any sort of exclusion for not being Welsh (other than being called the "foreign doctor" at work)!

I think its really sad that people dont want to learn things because they're "not useful" - i did the most bizarre concoction of Alevels - because I had to and they were the ones I enjoyed, and I have done very well and gone to Uni and got a good job....and all

When do the children start to learn Welsh?

Health care my A and E department will be shut down meaning the nearest one is 40 minute drive away because of lack of funding.

The Wasted millions could be spent on reducing class sizes, more special needs teachers, more teaching assistants,, teaching materials, extra classes for children with difficulties keeping up (especially as it's compulsary to start your child the first september they're 4 whether they're ready or not)

But it's none of my business as I'm not WElsh and don't live in Wales.

There's a lot of hypocrasy surrounding promotion languages.

As an aside - I did study a real dead language - Latin!! And loved it

My sisters children are learning the basics at pre school.

Its starts in nursery MmeLindt,through saying good morning etc & singing songs. It is not rammed down their throats but taught through play.

As soon as they attend any day care facility or nursery my sister went to a meithrin at 2 and they spoke Welsh (a meithrin is pre-nursery)

ds started at 4 in his english medium nursery this has continued into reception at his english medium catholic school.
I dont mind this, but would like him to choose it as a GCSE rather than it being compulsory.

Diagree that you have to go to remote parts of Wales to hear welsh. Its quite elite-ist here in Cardiff with the posh Pontcanna/BBC yummy mummy set mostly speaking welsh very loudly and sending their darlings to welsh medium schools.
Also plenty of non-welsh speaking families sending children to welsh medium schools

Well I confess funtimewincies that I did not look too closely at how much time would be spent on Welsh to make that much of an informed choice. To me, anytime was too long really but that is because it has no relevance to us.

My stronger, more considered reason for not living in Wales was not wanting to feel an outsider in the community which, from what Mosschops has said, does seem to have been a valid concern.

But I do think teaching Welsh to Welsh people and celebrating other aspects of Welsh culture (am at someone saying Welsh history is not taught) is great.

I always wondered about this "putting it on for tourist thing". My BIL was absolutely convinced that my family didn't actually speak Swedish, you know, really speak, for every day, like...proper speaking. He thought of it as some quaint national costume that we might put on for special occasions.

And I have had quite a few English friends who have been completetly taken aback and shocked when they've actually heard me speak it.

So if people can feel this way about the official language of a reasonably large country, then I can see how a myth of "they don't really speak it, you know" could easily grow about a minority language in an English-dominated country. The truth is that code-switching in bilingual populations is quite a complex thing, just because speakers switch between English and Welsh in conversation doesn't mean they can't really speak Welsh or are just trying it on to be annoying.

IME of teaching both sides of the border, Wales already has more of those things than it's neighbours in England Annasui !

INMo welsh is made up
they just talk gobbledigook
adnthen larf whent he english are gone

So Moss you managed to translate!

I find 5 hours a week the same amout I spent on English and Science and 2 hours more than I spent on Maths hardly a small amount.

All the Welsh people I know speak some Welsh