Should school pupils in England be given the option to learn Welsh or Gaelic?

6 Comments

1. Cymro i'r Carn says:

   October 23, 2009 at 5:20 am

   Yes, People say its not usefull, What rings to my mind is the thousands of English people who come to Wales every year and canno’t pronounce anything correct and if they had a smattering of Welsh then they atleast would have a basic grasp, More English people come to Wales on holiday more regular than What go to France and Spain. Maybe Scotland should concentrate ond educating its own population just like Wales is of one of the native languages before teaching others. But definetly teach Welsh and Gaelic across Britain.
2. ♥BumbleBee♥ says:

   October 23, 2009 at 5:20 am

   I guess so, seeing as we can learn spanish, french and german.
3. wddftw says:

   October 23, 2009 at 5:20 am

   Personally I think that Spanish, French, and German would be much more useful than Gaelic and Welsh. Predominately because the majority of the minority that do speak Welsh/Gaelic do also speak English (and in most cases such as Wales it is a first language).

   Spanish, German and French, or Spain, Germany, and France respectively are close to home, so being proficient these languages is likely to come in handy in the future. (France especially). Germany is a very successful country business-wise (car industry for example), and Spanish is spoken all over the world, for example most of the countries in South America, not just Spain.

   So personally I don’t think that Welsh or Gaelic are necessary.
4. Addy says:

   October 23, 2009 at 5:20 am

   I’m Welsh-American, so believe me when I say that I’m not being biased: I think that the answer is ‘no’, because although cultural purposes are good ones, French, Spanish, German and Chinese (etc) are much more valuable in today’s world. I definitely think pupils should be given this option in COLLEGE, but as for now, because of the limit on teachers and the economy, no Welsh.
5. Chris says:

   November 4, 2009 at 2:48 am

   Bore da,
   I would say that it should be normal for at least a basic level of Welsh to be taught in England, especially the north and the south west.
   After all, it is the original language of Britain including lowland Scotland. Even until medieval times the north west was still using old welsh(Cumbric) in many areas. There are thousands of examples but just to make a point, even the town name Liverpool is Welsh, Ljerpwll. Many town names and local dialects in the north are directly descended from our ancient Briton ancestors. The north has had the Saxon and later Norman culture super-imposed upon it from the centralised political power in London.
   So, although in a global buisness sense it hasn’t much use to learn Welsh, I don’t think money and buisness are the most important things in life. Culturally i think it is very important in Britain.
6. Chris says:

   November 4, 2009 at 2:54 am

   p.s. by the way, forgot to mention, i’am north English, but more correctly a North Briton. To say English implies i’am Anglo-Saxon, which is not the case for many north Britons even if many don’t even realise it.