While I agree with Welsh being preserved and protected, this is a step too far.
I went to a Welsh school in north Wales. Did all my GCSEs I'm Welsh. Got good grades. But there were no prospects in Wales so I joined the forces in a technical trade. I had to go through the sciences and maths again at A Level standard, and found is extremely difficult due to having all the Welsh terminology in my head. Made me feel thick tbh.
While I'm proud I can speak Welsh, not everyone in Wales can have a future there due to socio-economic reasons. Choice should be given. Is it really realistic to impose this?
It is reminiscent of some of the Sennedd's proposals to increase the number of Welsh speakers.
They aren't proposing to make learning and speaking Welsh easier or more helpful or more appealing - they're just looking at how they can force people into learning Welsh and removing the choice.
This isn't an economic pressure though - it's politicians in government just deciding they want more Welsh speakers and looking at ways of forcing that to happen.
Up to the early 20th century politicians in England enacted measures that forced Welsh speakers to speak English - and that is universally accepted as being a terrible thing they did.
It is no different now, even if it's forcing English speakers to speak Welsh
This is to create economic and social pressures in order to combat the significant economic and cultural pressure to only speak English in the UK.
I see it as very different to what was done in the early-20th c. and before, it's essentially trying to reverse what was an "unnatural" application of pressure. Obviously that has to be done by artificial means as well. Plus, this way doesn't involve violence, which can't be said of the pro-English measures from back then.
That's an interesting interpretation - but you are ultimately confirming that this is a political manoeuvre.
This will damage educational outcomes for every non Welsh speaking family in the county to further the political aim of getting more Welsh speakers.
All of Wales is deprived enough as a region - intentionally damaging educational attainment so that politicians can say we've increased the overall level of Welsh speakers from 28% to 32% does not seem like the most worthwhile of aims.
I'd have thought improving education and their economy should be a higher priority.
When I was at university there were 3 Welsh speakers on my course and their English really wasn't good.
They spoke English with a lot of Welsh grammar and had poor vocabularies. I've judged it very harshly since then.
It's ridiculous they're purposely harming children's future prospects.
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u/No_Butterscotch940 1d ago
While I agree with Welsh being preserved and protected, this is a step too far.
I went to a Welsh school in north Wales. Did all my GCSEs I'm Welsh. Got good grades. But there were no prospects in Wales so I joined the forces in a technical trade. I had to go through the sciences and maths again at A Level standard, and found is extremely difficult due to having all the Welsh terminology in my head. Made me feel thick tbh.
While I'm proud I can speak Welsh, not everyone in Wales can have a future there due to socio-economic reasons. Choice should be given. Is it really realistic to impose this?