I think your thoughts on micro-commitments is a great idea. It allows people that may feel ‘beyond the learning years’ to be more comfortable with bite sized pieces of Welsh to learn.
I am Canadian and one thing that we do is have any mandatory information on labelling (warnings, directions for use etc) in both english and french. That way it becomes part of everyday life in an unobtrusive way but it reinforces the bilinguality of the country. I don’t know if the labelling is the same in Wales, but it is a handy way to pick up vocabulary.
I think that it is very exciting that the Welsh government is looking at this. I wish that I was there.
I agree. Welsh needs to be seen everyday everywhere in Wales. If not Wales then where else? There needs to be more Welsh websites, popular TV, music etc all in Welsh and promoted by the Welsh. This can’t just be a quaint movement. I think there should be programs on TV for pre-school children in Welsh only. I don’t live in Wales so I don’t know if you have these programs or not. But shows similar to Sesame Street that are in Welsh only. Ingrain it early and subliminally as you mentioned.
Fight the good fight people. For what little it is worth, you have my support.
Some great suggestions in this thread and I am glad to say that I had already seen and responded to the consultation.
I largely echo what has been said previously; important points which I feel could help achieve 1,000,000 speakers:
A Welsh first approach on public announcements/correspondance
An emphasis on conversational Welsh in English-medium schools over formal written skills (which will inevitably develop from speaking and listening)
Incorporating Welsh language history and Welsh history (i.e. pre-England/UK) into Welsh language lessons
Make Welsh more interesting by recognising the global influences it has had e.g. Tolkien’s Sindarin, World of Warcraft etc
Using ‘Cymraeg’ instead of ‘Welsh’
A positive Welsh media to counter the current England-dominated media which we overwhelmingly hear in Wales. Which, incidentally, seems to jump on every chance it gets to patronise the Welsh and our language (views which accurately reflect White middle-class English attitudes in my experience).
Promote resources such as Duolingo and SSiW which make learning in your own time far easier than commiting to classroom sessions
Promoting cool contemporary music artists such as Kizzy Crawford, Swnami and Candelas (particualrly on English language programmes in Wales) which I think are fantastic adverts for Cymraeg and could appeal to young people
A Welsh subtitle option on Welsh language programmes
Using Welsh language interviews on BBC Wales news with English subtitles would definitely help normalise hearing Welsh
Welsh speakers continuing to be supportive of Welsh learners and recognise that many of us weren’t fortunate enough to be brought up with Cymraeg spoken at home etc
Promoting all Welshies (learners and first language alike) to try to use Cymraeg on Dydd Dewi Sant
That’s my two pennyworth - if you agree with any of these points, please feel free to add them to your own when completing the consultation form
I’ve been learning, or have learned Welsh over the past several years, starting on my tenth year now. So I started before SSIW existed, possibly even before it was a twinke in @Iestyn and @aran’s eyes.
So in that time I’ve met dozens if not hundreds of people learning Welsh on the way. Over the past month, as we are getting to ‘start of term’ time, I’ve been asking if they have signed up for classes.
No, I’ve given up.
No, the classes are too far away.
No it’s too hard.
Somebody told me that for every 100 people who start at Mynediad 1 only one gets to Uwch. Now I know that some get to a level that they are happy with, but so many fall off the wayside thinking they are failures.
They are not failures. The system is failing them.
Now I know I am preaching to the converted here, but by golly it’s making me angry.
With all do respect, I believe you who of those authorities are checking this topic, it might worth to check this topic too. You might get some suggestions and picture of the whole situation with classes and courses for adults.
Maybe it comes the time for just doing something not calculating too much if your country is about to get that 1.000.000 speakers in the future. Implementing Welsh in schools in Wales, teachers training for doing that job … all this opens new jobs and gives perspective to the language. What about to go from this point on rather then looking into the past and calculating how many teachers there was/is to teach the language and how likely would kids and their parents agerr with learning Welsh. It’s Wales so the country of the language …
(will not go further as it was all said already …)
I think that a hypothetical schedule will help with decision making, because if we need a certain number of additional pupils enrolled per year, we can look to see which areas will be the easiest to start with, where there is likely to be the most support and focus our efforts and resources there initially, rather than spreading things thinly over the whole of Wales.
Some parts of Wales simply won’t want it initially, so don’t force it when there is no real need. Also get people in areas that buy in to this, to tender and campaign for it to happen in their area.
doing things this way, we will be reponsive to demand and not flogging dead horses in places like Tredegar for example and risk stirring up resentment and vocal opposition.
Ladies and gentlemen, please leave this thread for your actual submissions to the Government, and put any discussions over in the other thread (it’s very tricky for me to unpick discussions which may have elements in them which you’d like to submit formally).
-encourage buy-in from younger people by promoting Welsh websites run by young Welsh speakers dealing with topics that interest their generation
-promote Welsh poetry submissions by youth in public spaces ie buses, bus stops, in local newspapers etc
-promote local Welsh talent with contest submissions for skits, singing, music etc, all in Welsh on TV. Winners can get 30-60 second spot on TV or some such.
-ensure labelling on products is in Welsh and English
-ensure tourism industry is bilingual
A further thought: All businesses, large and small, serving the public should be required to display prominently a standardised notice/sticker saying something along the lines of one or other of ‘We speak Welsh’ or ‘Sorry, we don’t speak Welsh’. It would underline that the language is an important issue, in a similar way to the food hygiene gradings displayed by cafes etc, and it might also provide a nudge to businesses to consider seriously whether they could try to offer a service in Welsh.
Rather than people wondering if they’re wasting their time trying to spot some voluntary ‘We speak Welsh’ sticker which may or may not be there anyway, with every business displaying one or other notice the standardised notices would soon become familiar, and so quicker to spot. Also a requirement for all businesses to display one or other notice would ensure they were all treated equally as well as being amore practicable to administrate.
I learnt Welsh five years ago and a now pretty proficient, but when I go to Wales, even in the North, the first language used to me is English. When I reply in Welsh then sometimes I get an answer in Welsh,but sometimes in English again! Yet I know these people can speak Welsh. They just choose not to. As well as encouraging more people to begin to learn Welsh, we need to encourage those who already can do to actually use it! They don’t seem to see the point, or value their native tongue. Somehow we need to stir up some National Pride in the language of heaven. It is the motivation we need to work on. If people really want to speak Welsh they will do so, even if they have to spend time learning it. How about having some roving Welsh language spotters? These people would mingle in crowds, incognito and occasionally give out say £100 when they heard someone speaking Welsh. If this became known I bet the frequency would rise.Those who can speak Welsh but generally don’t might take to speaking welsh in public just on the off-chance they might be lucky and be overheard, in a cafe, or at a match, or in a shop etc… After all, why not? It would not cost them anything. The names of the “winners” could be announced, or if they did not wish this, they could be referred to, like with the lottery, as " a resident of Cardiff".
Perhaps a bit late in the day, but I’ve noticed that news on BBC Wales often fails to mention items concerning the Welsh language that appear on BBC Cymru Newyddion (please bear with me - I realise it’s not within the Welsh Government’s remit to instruct the BBC, but there is some relevance to policy!).
It’s inevitable that editorial decisions taken separately by BBC Wales and BBC Cymru lead to differences in content, but if Welsh language stories/issues were to be given higher priority by BBC Wales News it would surely help boost awareness of the importance of the language etc by those using BBC Wales but never BBC Cymru and hopefully also strengthen support for the language and lead to an increase in the number of learners.
Although the Welsh Government (rightly) doesn’t have power to direct the BBC, they should be able to make strong recommendations and use their powers of persuasion on BBC Wales with the aim of making coverage of Welsh language issues/stories by BBC Wales mirror more closely that of BBC Cymru
I recently spent a week in Gogledd Cymru (mostly on Ynys Môn, but took a couple to days to visit Aberystwyth and Pen Llŷn) and noticed that many businesses in this part of Cymru appeared to be taking part in a bi-lingual door sign scheme. (I’m now kicking myself for not taking any photos of the signs!) If Welsh was the dominant language in the shop, “Ar Agor/Ar Gau” featured prominently on the sign (with “Open/Closed” in a smaller font immediately below); the converse was also true. I don’t remember noticing this scheme last year when I visited, but to be fair I hadn’t started learning Welsh at that point so I wasn’t exactly looking for something like this.
I found this scheme to be a great help when it came to speaking Cymraeg “in the wild”. For this American, it took the guess work out of “did the person behind the counter say ‘helo’ or ‘hello’ to me?” when I walked into a shop. I simply assumed they said “helo” and responded with a quick greeting yn y Gymraeg myself and the rest of the visit was conducted mostly or—as I got more comfortable—entirely in Welsh. I found shopkeepers and workers to be tremendously supportive of my efforts. It’d be great to see more businesses—especially those outside traditionally Welsh-speaking strongholds—voluntarily subscribe to this subtle, but important scheme.
