Welsh language since Big Brother

Welshy · 27 Sep 2006 at 12:59

Welsh may be currently dying out, but there are some websites and companies doing something about it. Look at the BBC for starters, they're making Welsh equivalents of much of their websites. The student loans people are making Welsh equivalents of all of their documents etc...

Ron Burgundy: Your head is so far up your ignorant arse mate. Run down? with no skills? I'm not even going to get started.

The language just needs to be kept alive for our children to learn, though all this english media isnt helping

semi-pro waster · 27 Sep 2006 at 13:14

AndyPants said:
I agree with my fellow Sheepmeister Taliesyn. English is dying not Welsh. At least our language is still one complete language, not mixed with Chinease, Mandarin, Urdu, etc etc etc... Hell man I live in MankyChester and I dont think ive heard one of these speak proper English either.

English is dying, how do you come to that conclusion? The most successful(I use successful here to denote a language that survives) languages are the ones that adapt and English is better than most in that regard, it is currently the most widely spoken language in terms of areas of the world that speak it although it is not the most spoken language(that honour falls to Mandarin). A language will not necessarily survive forever and some fall from pre-eminence however I don't think English is in any immediate danger, it is known as the language of business and has become the lingua franca for a vast percentage of international communications.

Generally most of the foreign students I know describe it as an easy choice to pick a second language, if you go for English then you open up huge areas of the world and that is something that no other language can guarantee on the same scale.

So in summary, yes it can be disappointing seeing English mangled with text speak and the like but it is one of the things that helps to keep a language vibrant and alive, if it stopped evolving it would die. I'll leave you with the thoughts of Mark Twain - "I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.".

Ron Burgundy · 27 Sep 2006 at 13:19

Welshy said:
Welsh may be currently dying out, but there are some websites and companies doing something about it. Look at the BBC for starters, they're making Welsh equivalents of much of their websites. The student loans people are making Welsh equivalents of all of their documents etc...

Ron Burgundy: Your head is so far up your ignorant arse mate. Run down? with no skills? I'm not even going to get started.

The language just needs to be kept alive for our children to learn, though all this english media isnt helping

I'm only having a laugh matey, no offence intended. I've lived in Cardiff for a long long time now, its just the Valleys that scare me (Merthy Tydfil especially), which you can't deny, has the highest number of incapacity benefit claims in the history of planet earth. Can you tell me why that might be?

taliesyn · 27 Sep 2006 at 13:40

semi-pro waster said:
..it is currently the most widely spoken language in terms of areas of the world that speak it

Can.. you.. speak... English....?

The most widely spoken language in areas that speak it? Well of course it is, as by definition areas that speak it are speaking it aren't they?

I bet you couldn't say the same about areas that DON'T speak it eh?

daz · 27 Sep 2006 at 13:44

Nos da to this thread.

Psyk · 27 Sep 2006 at 14:07

How many speakers does cornish have these days? I heard that there's only about 10 people who speak it as their first language. Everyone else has learnt it for historical or "cornish pride" reasons.

semi-pro waster · 27 Sep 2006 at 16:15

taliesyn said:
Can.. you.. speak... English....?

The most widely spoken language in areas that speak it? Well of course it is, as by definition areas that speak it are speaking it aren't they?

I bet you couldn't say the same about areas that DON'T speak it eh?

Ok, not the best phrasing ever, what I should have said to clarify for the pedants out there is "in terms of geographical areas covered English is the most widely spoken language in the world". Better?

Chronos-X · 27 Sep 2006 at 19:29

Welshy said:
Welsh may be currently dying out, but there are some websites and companies doing something about it. Look at the BBC for starters, they're making Welsh equivalents of much of their websites. The student loans people are making Welsh equivalents of all of their documents etc...

Ron Burgundy: Your head is so far up your ignorant arse mate. Run down? with no skills? I'm not even going to get started.

The language just needs to be kept alive for our children to learn, though all this english media isnt helping

The BBC do their Newyddion pages because they have to. Same for the Student Loans co. How many welsh forms do you think they actually recieve? How many welsh driving license applications do you think the DVLA (In swansea!) actually get?

I think its the greatest waste of my education ever that I was forced, due to nationalists, to learn Welsh for 11 years but I could drop French after 2. I've had several French encounters since leaving school, I've never had one conversation in Welsh. And yes, I lived in Wales (before moving a year ago).

Just let it die, butt

daz · 27 Sep 2006 at 19:32

My flatmate Pete would make us watch S4C every now and then, god that was boring. At least spanish soaps have fit women.

~J~ · 27 Sep 2006 at 19:38

Don't speak it, but have to listen to it everyday

Furton · 27 Sep 2006 at 19:39

Chronos-X said:
The BBC do their Newyddion pages because they have to. Same for the Student Loans co. How many welsh forms do you think they actually recieve? How many welsh driving license applications do you think the DVLA (In swansea!) actually get?

I think its the greatest waste of my education ever that I was forced, due to nationalists, to learn Welsh for 11 years but I could drop French after 2. I've had several French encounters since leaving school, I've never had one conversation in Welsh. And yes, I lived in Wales (before moving a year ago).

Just let it die, butt

Then how about you go to an English school or learn to appriciate different cultures of the UK, you are a total philistine!

And just to correct you, the amount of people speaking Welsh is growing, just the percentage of people living in Wales speaking it is shrinking because of people moving to the country who couldn't care less about learning the native language.

Another point to make you look stupid, who has one of the largest cultural events in Europe? That would be the Welsh, thanks

Ex-RoNiN · 27 Sep 2006 at 19:40

But what about Scots Gaelic and Cornish, what about Irish and Ulster-Scots? All these languages including Welsh are minority languages in the UK

Aren't they all the same, i.e. Celtic? :confused:

WotDa · 27 Sep 2006 at 19:40

daz said:
Nos da to this thread.

I was going to say that! :mad:

I could, look at my media studies GCSE result paper for some mroe though.

Went to North Wales a few years back for a school trip, was a right blast, one of them adventurey type trips. One of the instructors spoke it fluently, so we blatantly abused him for some phrases.

Then theres the weird bunch from WoW, Lisa is always saying *** da, and swearing at me in Welsh, but there others don't really seem to speak it at all.

From my perspective it really does seem to be fading into history.

Lopéz · 27 Sep 2006 at 20:04

Chronos-X said:
The BBC do their Newyddion pages because they have to. Same for the Student Loans co. How many welsh forms do you think they actually recieve? How many welsh driving license applications do you think the DVLA (In swansea!) actually get?

I think its the greatest waste of my education ever that I was forced, due to nationalists, to learn Welsh for 11 years but I could drop French after 2. I've had several French encounters since leaving school, I've never had one conversation in Welsh. And yes, I lived in Wales (before moving a year ago).

Just let it die, butt

Forced, due to nationalists? So by that reasoning, people in England learning English being forced to do so by "Nationalists"?

It is the language of the country, surely you can see that it will be part of the National Curriculum?

Chronos-X · 27 Sep 2006 at 20:21

Lopéz said:
Forced, due to nationalists? So by that reasoning, people in England learning English being forced to do so by "Nationalists"?

It is the language of the country, surely you can see that it will be part of the National Curriculum?

In what way is it the language of the country? As I say, for my 20 years living in wales, the only place I heard it spoke was in the Welsh classroom.

Do you not concede that something is wrong there?

Should our friends over the pond learn to speak Native American? How about Aborigine for the Aussies? After all, its the language of the country.

Lopéz · 27 Sep 2006 at 20:30

Well I heard Welsh every day of my life when I lived there for almost 20 years. In work, in school, in University, on the street, in shops.....

Chronos-X · 27 Sep 2006 at 20:38

Where did you live, Upper Cwm Taff?

PaulStat · 27 Sep 2006 at 20:38

Chronos-X said:
Should our friends over the pond learn to speak Native American? How about Aborigine for the Aussies? After all, its the language of the country.

Yes and yes.

Tbh it really infuriates me that people call for an ancient language to die out, along with 1000's of years of culture.

I grew up in Wales, and although I don't speak the language (slightly hypocritical I know) I have a lot of respect for it. And I really hate the fact that past goverments have tried to force kids not to speak Welsh in the classrooms etc.

Welshy · 27 Sep 2006 at 23:04

Ron Burgundy said:
I'm only having a laugh matey, no offence intended. I've lived in Cardiff for a long long time now, its just the Valleys that scare me (Merthy Tydfil especially), which you can't deny, has the highest number of incapacity benefit claims in the history of planet earth. Can you tell me why that might be?

hmm sorry mate, didnt detect your sarcasm.... *runs away quickly*

Alasdair · 27 Sep 2006 at 23:14

I'm all for the preservation of languages that are not widely spoken, however I feel this devotion to Welsh in Welsh schools can only be to the detriment of the pupils. Learning French or German at school can open doors to you, the two official languages of the EU and the UN are French and English, and Germany has one of, if not the largest country in the EU.

There are approx 83 million Germans, plus the Austrians and Swiss. There are approx 60 million French, plus Quebec, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and a good proportion of Africa. It's impossible to say that learning Welsh will be better for you in the long run than learning another European language.

As for learning Polish at school, what's the point? English is taught worldwide as a second language, so it makes more sense for native English speakers to learn a language that will give them an advantage or keep them at par with others who are lucky enough to have a good language programme at school from an early age.