Welsh Languge
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Posts
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I’m sorry Benjamin but in your own post you state that the language should be allowed to die a natural death and that no public support should be given to it. Welsh may not be dominant in Wrexham but in some parts of Wales English is the second language.
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My posts are entirely consistent on the topic.
Those that wish to be contacted through the medium of Welsh should be free to do so……as a choice.
Common sense tells me, that if over a period of time, many would find it to be not worth the bother and yes, the language would, in all likelihood pass into history to join scores of other archaic languages that fulfilled a purpose at their moment in time.Whilst I myself sometimes find it annoying to have to sort out the Welsh from the English language on some items that come through my letterbox i would hate to lose the Welsh language. Why not have everything printed in Welsh with an option to choose English. Road signs for ease should have different coloured writing to make it easier for people who choose not to learn their own language. They don’t appear to have a problem in Quebec using 2 languages although French has priority.
Perhaps someone would be kind enough to tell me, what useful or necessary purpose does the Welsh language have in the 21st Century. Does it help trade or commerce or is it an unnecessary burden on businesses?
I live on a street that has a Welsh subtitled name, but I can say, hand on heart, that if asked what it was,I would not have a clue.[quote quote=98260]Perhaps someone would be kind enough to tell me, what useful or necessary purpose does the Welsh language have in the 21st Century. Does it help trade or commerce or is it an unnecessary burden on businesses?
I live on a street that has a Welsh subtitled name, but I can say, hand on heart, that if asked what it was,I would not have a clue.[/quote]
The European Union has twenty four official languages, and yet you say that Wales can not cope with two. On your theses perhaps we should all learn Chinese as China is the fastest growing economy on the planet and obviously in due course there will be very little need for English.
Unfortunately Welsh has a number of factors going against it, and IMO will all but die out (if not already considered to have done so).
The first is that on the scheme of things, the native Welsh-speaking population is tiny. There’s just over 3m in Wales and only a fraction of this will be those with Welsh as first language.
English, whilst not the most widespread in terms of numbers, at least in terms of international business and industry is dominant. Being our next door neighbor, it would be inevitable that there would be a movement away from Welsh to English, I think.
On the subject though, I do think (at least in Wrexham, for instance) it should be opt-in. If it’s still compulsory up to GCSE then I also disagree with this. I absolutely hated it at the time as I thought it was a waste of 2 hours a week as I saw no conceivable use for it. Retrospectively I don’t “hate” it now, I think it was positive to have some sort of cultural awareness, but not to that extent.
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Perhaps someone would be kind enough to tell me, what useful or necessary purpose does the Welsh language have in the 21st Century. Does it help trade or commerce or is it an unnecessary burden on businesses?
I live on a street that has a Welsh subtitled name, but I can say, hand on heart, that if asked what it was,I would not have a clue.The European Union has twenty four official languages, and yet you say that Wales can not cope with two. On your theses perhaps we should all learn Chinese as China is the fastest growing economy on the planet and obviously in due course there will be very little need for English.
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Actually part of the problem is our proximity to England. By contrast to many languages English is very straightforward and has a good international presence so the world often defaults to it. It can even preferable to Chinese which can sometimes be difficult for native Chinese, but compared to Welsh/Wales, China has a huge population to cope with this
Living in Wrexham not only have I worked amongst people who have Welsh as their first language but also on a social scale. Perhaps their problem is that they are far too polite to speak Welsh if they know that there is someone in their midst who speaks only English but then of course if they do speak in their own country in their own language they are accused of bad manners.
[quote quote=98274]Living in Wrexham not only have I worked amongst people who have Welsh as their first language but also on a social scale. Perhaps their problem is that they are far too polite to speak Welsh if they know that there is someone in their midst who speaks only English but then of course if they do speak in their own country in their own language they are accused of bad manners.
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I agree with you zinger. There are far more people in Wrexham who speak Welsh than most people realise. Because most of the population speak English that is the language which is used. If it was publicised that Welsh was spoken in commercial premises I am sure that its use would be more widespread.
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