My fear with this would be that the di-Gymraeg, born and bred in Wales may find it difficult to swallow if a Welsh language event were to become very commercial. The knock of that would be that they may be even more resistant to the Welsh language.
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Colin Charvis publicly started learning but that didn’t start a wave of learners.
Sam Warburton’s sister-in-law speaks Welsh. She knows my partner. That could be a route.
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You see, there always is some way of start … It doesn’t need to be persuading, just way of unobligatory chat and you never know where it ends. And if you don’t try, you never know if it might succeed.
I gave 4 SSiW cards last year and they were all given as a part of little chat in occassion when I greeted people in Welsh. As I see things now the thingy wasn’t too successful as I managed to inspire all but no one was inspired for such long time to really check the things up and maybe start learning. However, if I wouldn’t give those cards out and try to make people interested in the thing, I would never know if those given the card would join us or not.
With speaking the language it’s the same: if I’d not speak first - I took this right for granted since I was in Cymru and felt almost obliged to speak Welsh before asking if anyone is speaking it at all - I’d never know if one of those I encountered maybe doesn’t speak the language or maybe is willing to learn it. I agree, I could very easily be brutally rejected or even escorted out of the business, but you never know if you don’t try.
Phiew … I always say I don’t even know in how high society I am mooving around … 
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I think this is a very interesting viewpoint, because I’ve been thinking about Spanish in Los Angeles. Employers want applicants to be bilingual. But frankly, Spanish is strong here without being used much outside the home. Taco trucks, church, Doyer (Dodger) Stadium and home. It’s a private language. Kids become translators for their parents but the same kids speak to each other in English. It’s really interesting when compared to Celtic language efforts.
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This is a bit of out there, but thought I’d mention it…
Appeal to large English audience;
- Promote Welsh course in borderlands, especially those with historic connection to Wales. e.g. Oswestry, where many people probably wish they were in Wales
. - Promote Welsh courses in Cumbria, where Cumbric (which is apparently very close to modern Welsh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbric) was once spoken.
.
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This rather overlaps with previous suggestions in this thread, but short ads could be useful on English language TV in Wales with Welsh-speaking/learning ‘celebs’ not generally known as Welsh speakers talking about what being able to speak Welsh means to them or why they’re learning etc (could the new grant scheme perhaps finance a few if the TV companies weren’t willing to offer slots for free?)
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My husband and I enjoy watching the series 3 Lle on S4C and some of the well known people on there learned Welsh as adults. Many people will not be aware that they even speak Welsh.
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A quick thought - maybe it would help if, instead of describing non-Welsh speaking Welsh folk as di-Gymraeg, the description could be changed to convey somehow ‘not yet Welsh speaking’?
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Oswestry would be a good to target. The hospital doesn’t stipulate speaking Welsh as even desirable. Appeal to their Trust to encourage Welsh as a desirable employment quality to represent the large draw from Wales for specialist Orthopaedic surgery
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I can confirm that Cymru will have one extra welsh speaker in a few years time.
Even though my son is not yet 6 months old he is already registered with a welsh primary school literally one mile drive from our house.
Now that is my contribution, bringing welsh back into my family after we most probably lost it a few generations ago.
It’s such a satisfying feeling to think his children and children’s children may all have welsh as their first language, a transformation which had started with my son growing up and speaking welsh.
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Quite simply, getting new Welsh learners will be key. There needs to be a way for people to learn quick outside of working hours. I was actually thinking about this the other night. Fluent speakers too need to pull up their socks in this and get involved. But first they need the skills. Whilst SSIW is amazing, many people still go to courses or would like to, but have difficulty in accessing them.
-A Welsh teacher could train 10 or so fluent speakers how to teach Welsh.
-These trainers than can then start advertising courses in their village/neighbourhood etc. Leaflets/posters can be left on shop counters, pubs, church, notice boards at leisure centres, supermarkets. etc etc
-Courses need to be cheap and deliver excellent bang for buck. If teachers are good then by word of mouth more people will come and make it worthwhile. Most people can generally do 7-9. I’ve had to quit my course Uwch as I can’t make it for 6pm…
Learners want to be able to practise Welsh. This may sound a bit controversial but there need to be events where non speakers feel as though they are missing out.
-Neighbourhood events such as BBQ, Fete’s, sports, arts and crafts, theatre, panto, whatever should be advertised. The advert should be bilingual as you want to draw in everyone but don’t want to exclude children- they shouldn’t have to miss out for something they haven’t had a chance to change). BUT, it should state that the medium of the event will be in Welsh. I can remember seeing like this in Pontcanna when I just started learning. The leaflet was only in Welsh, so non speakers wouldn’t attend.
-Once there, everything should be in Welsh, and Welsh courses could be advertised, it’s a bit of Trojan Horse approach. One event a month should be a constant reminder that there exists a community which they could be part of.
When I came to Cardiff, it was tough to ‘find Welsh things’. This needs to change.
It’s going to require time and effort from people learning and from some dedicated speakers.
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The Indy Fest events in Cardiff were a good example of naturally integrated bilingualism I thought - it wasn’r advertised in advance which were Welsh (except obs Bragdy’r Beirdd and a Welsh language book launch) but they’d laid on simultaeneous translation so at ANY workshop the contributors could use Welsh or English. I think that’s important so as to get away from the “one person doesn’t speak Welsh so the whole event has to be in English”
It costly I guess hiring the equipment but it means it’s the people who haven’t learned who need to take the extra measures to be involved rather than the Welsh speakers having to be the ones who change their choice of language.
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In our village on Gower, classes were run very successfully by a lass from north Wales who had married a southerner and had no more than a very brief induction course on teaching! Maybe she was a natural, but we all got on fine, nobody dropped out! OK we learned a bit of Gog because she tried to follow the course notes and teach southern, but, if asked a question, would answer with what she knew!! Unfortunately, she found the classes too much to manage after another baby came along, we couldn’t get enough numbers to travel to any one village within reach and I wasn’t willing to commit to long, wet Winter drives through floods and fogs etc.So that was the end of my courses to try to revive my Welsh!
Oh yes, Leia, how often whole villages have suffered that! Could the Senedd help with funding the translation, I wonder?
Bron-Gymraeg?
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Please explain to the confused elderly (knowing nothing about cricket!).
Sorry @henddraig - I was back in a world where the test cricket was on LW R4, and the lovely chaps went on about cake and took everyones names and stuck ‘ers’ on the end of them. I jumped very quickly from people who are Bron, to Bronning, to Bronners and suddenly it went all crickety.
As you can see it is not you who is the confused one!
Imagine - you would be Henners! Shame to overwrite the Draig though, eh?
And I would be Nockers. Doesn’t do it for me I’m afraid.
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Yes, there was Jonners (Brian Johnston) and Aggers (Jonathan Agnew).
And Henry Blofeld has just retired. Google tells me that he was “Blowers”.
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