Very interesting - does that mean that the government’s target of 1M Welsh speakers is not nearly ambitious enough to assure the future of the language in the long term, and should be at least double that number?
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That kind of depends where those 1 million are… (Think of 70% on a community basis rather than nationwide.)
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the trend is for young Welsh speakers to move to the urban and generally non-Welsh speaking parts (‘anglicised’) part of Wales to work - many have even left Wales I know…
so 1 million may not be enough…however internet (and online shopping) etc has caused me know people thousands of miles away more! and become a stranger to my own local area (milltir sgwar)…very interesting times
I barely rely on people around me in small villages and towns for much anymore (it was life or death knowing your community in the past)!
Good point - Fishman was writing in pre-Internet days, after all. (And his views are just a concept rather than a tried-and-trusted way to effect change.) But I have to say I’m dubious about the idea of a language ‘living’ only in virtual space. I think for those of us who do still value our local community (for schools, jobs, shopping, socialising, leisure activities) the language element is vital. And it doesn’t have to be a rural/urban thing. My own experience stems from living slap bang in the middle of Cardiff.
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Loads of Welsh round us!
There is - we’re lucky! Having lived in the countryside, and found it a very isolating experience, I wonder how much the old prejudices about community (that towns are anonymous spaces but everyone knows everyone’s business in the villages) still hold. Now there’s an interesting piece of research…
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Well admittedly I’ve kicked off a bit of a discussion here haven’t I? So it wouldn’t be fair of me not to respond to my own question really.
I’ll answer it from two perspectives of my own personal experiences as I’ve only recently moved house.
Pre-Christmas 2016 - Pontypridd/Rhondda, South Wales.
Obviously with starting to learn Welsh, my ears were more attuned to hearing Welsh in and around town, however I still really felt that you needed to hit certain places to hear Welsh being spoken. Anyone familiar with Pontypridd will know there is a popular Welsh speaking bar in the centre of town where you can hear the language pretty regularly, there is also a market stall where the owner speaks Welsh and the town’s community owned theatre has a few Welsh speaking staff although you really do have to hunt these places out rather than bumping into them.
I found the same sort of true of Cardiff, the nearest big town - although you’d hear it on the street a little more often.
Whilst living in the Rhondda we lived next door to a first language Welsh family, however sadly they had moved away from a Welsh speaking community a few years ago and the two daughters were now attending English medium schools and slowly losing their Welsh and wouldn’t even speak to us in Welsh when we were learning despite being at least 400% better than us at it.
The above fact was sort of true sadly with a lot of the kids I knew in the area who went to the local Welsh school. Call it lack of confidence, lack of anyone else to speak it with - but a lot of them sadly just don’t use it outside of school.
Aberystwyth - Post Christmas 2016
Since moving up here, it has literally felt like the whole world has gone Welsh (and I know that for a lot of people in Ceredigion, Aberystwyth being the biggest town in the area, is sort of the most Anglicized part of the county!).
I hear the language on the streets every single day without fail and it is no longer a case of having to hunt out places, pubs and shops that do speak the language because the chances of stumbling into a Welsh speaker are a lot higher. I find I can generally say “Shwmae” in a shop or pub and my success rate is about 60 Yes 40 No.
Funnily enough since moving here, I’ve met more people from outside the UK who are learning Welsh rather than locals. “Bloody foreigners, coming here over learning our minority languages eh?!” 
Loads of chances to practice the language up here, from little things like saying “Rhif Pump, plis!” (Number five please!) in Llanrhystud petrol station to having full blown drunken discussions in Y Cwps and Yr Hen Llew Du (Both notorious pubs in Aber).
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I do know what you mean about Cardiff. I tend to have to go to the places I know. Chapter, local arts centre (more of a pub to me), has a lot of Welsh speaking staff. However, if they’re not wearing the lanyard I don’t try Welsh. Silly really. Should give it a punt.
I do hear more and more Welsh on the street here than I did in Cathays (student area). I think I hear my neighbours speaking Welsh yesterday but it was too fleeting to delve properly.
I also agree with @sarapeacock that I found the countryside to be quite isolating.
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He was pretty good on tactics, too - in particular on the importance of not getting side-tracked into doing things that won’t actually reverse the shift - he saw lots of activists get discouraged by the size of the work that was really needed, and settle for a kind of language activism ‘busy-work’… [which I’m guessing would sound painfully familiar to a lot of activists!].
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You remind me of a difficulty I have with “Byw Celwydd” (although I think it is an excellent programme in almost every other respect). All the politicians and special advisers, etc, speak Welsh all the time, unless it is understood that they are speaking (e.g. on the phone) to English-speakers, or perhaps visitors from outside the UK who could hardly be expected to know Welsh.
However, whenever drinks are ordered, or in any other interaction with the people who provide the ancillary services in the Assembly (i.e. probably the lowest paid people), they break into English.
I’m still not clear why this is. Is it meant to be a reflection of reality? I find that hard to imagine, since I’m fairly sure that not as much Welsh is spoken even by the politicians and SPADS in reality in the Assembly. So, is it some kind of class distinction? e.g. “These people are on minimum wage: they don’t have the luxury of learning Welsh” OR “We can’t afford to pay people who have gone to the trouble of learning Welsh, so we employ cheaper people who can’t speak Welsh”.
Or what?
And I am reminded that (in the recently finished 2nd series) Angharad had great difficulty in finding a replacement Welsh-speaking nanny.
Does anyone know what it’s like really in the Welsh Assembly/Government buildings?
BTW, I really had to stop and think for a minute how that word “punt” was pronounced! 
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I doubt it’s the class thingy, although I’m sure there would be an academic critique that would probably agree with that view. I think it’s that they know they’ve created a slightly artificial world inside the Senedd so they’re creating a more recognisable one outside. That’s my take.
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Is it possible that all the nannies and people serving drinks, cleaning etc. come from other lands, some in Central Europe for example? Up here in the wilds of Argyll, the nice lady who comes to clean for us on Friday afternoons is Polish. When I was working in London, a colleague at Imperial College put up and big ‘Do not touch this apparatus’ sign and was told all the cleaning staff could only read…oh dear, I forget which language, Hindi? Punjabi? They could speak English, just not read it! Most people coming to UK know a bit of English, but apart from those from Patagonia, very, very few know Cymraeg!
That topic was actually touched on in the previous (1st) series. Megan, the somewhat awkward colleague of FM Meirion, was quite rude to a non-UK lady caring for her mother. Somehow her rudeness got caught by someone with a mobile-phone camera, and was later broadcast to the nation, much to the embarrassment of Megan and her party.
As far as the Senedd ancillary staff are concerned, it’s not usually made clear if they are non-UK people, but I would guess is that in reality, as you suggest, they very often probably are.
There is probably a discussion to be had on that topic, but not in this forum.
I can assure you that there are plenty of British people working in bars in Cardiff. They aren’t all Polish or Aussies.
I think it’s to depict a more accurate version of Cardiff.