The Sprout

Coming to Wales from outside, I have formed a strong opinion about Welsh Language campaigners. It is not a positive opinion.

The oppression of Welsh speaking a few generations ago was definitely horrendous. Today, it might even qualify as a crime against humanity - like the oppression of Kurdish speakers in Turkey. But that does not justify the nonsense that goes on now.

Welsh is not a dying language now. In South Wales, it is a previously deceased language that is being revived primarily in order to create and embed divisions. (Things are different in the North & North West of Wales, where the language is alive and kicking). And the reason Welsh language schools are florishing in the South has nothing to do with heritage or patriotism: Welsh schools have been better funded, so parents who want their children to have an edge - upper & middle class parents, mostly - send their children to Welsh schools. The Welsh language has become a tool for class segregation in the South.

Now that the language is no longer the language of working class people, it is being revived by upper middle class and upper class Welsh people. People who would not dream speaking with a valleys or Cardiff accent, because that would sound "common". People who are the closest thing to English toffs you can find in Wales. People for whom Plaid Cymru is too left-wing, and the Conservatives not Welsh enough.

They are campaigning about the language, instead of anything that makes a positive difference in the world (human rights, environment, poverty, stuff like that), because it enables them to get cushy jobs for themselves and their friends. (They're the sort of people who, if they campaign about the environment at all, it's probably a NIMBY anti-wind-farm campaign, all about selfish house prices, rather than a pro-environment campaign, about making the world a better place)

Welsh translation jobs are booming. "Ability to speak Welsh" is an increasingly prevalent requirement on job descriptions, not because of actual demand for service and content provision, but because of successful lobbying / bullying by the Welsh Language Board, and legislation. In South Wales, anyone who speaks Welsh can also understand and speak English without a problem. There is no real demand for Welsh language provisions except by lobbyists. The reason they are lobbying so hard? It enables even the most mediocre of them to get well-paid jobs. Someone who can read and write Welsh needn't have good grammar or spelling to get a job as Welsh editor / translator.

There's an example to illustrate the nefarious intentions: A few years ago, someone (the Welsh Assembly Government, if I recall correctly) suggested Google Translate could be used to speed up the process of producing Welsh materials: materials would be translated by Google, and then given to a human editor / translator to fine tune and correct. This would save time and allow each human translator to be a lot more productive, and the more they correct, the better Google would get at translating. The translators and Welsh Language campaigners went ballistic at the suggestion: they have no interest in being productive. Their main objective is ensuring lots of cushy, overpaid jobs for their underqualified pals. What are they called again in Wales? The Crachach?

The article above, finally, is the only other argument for promoting the Welsh language in South Wales: stubborn, racist, anti-English bigotry. Let's find artificial ways to "not be English". Let's even go to the length of using a different language just to "not be English". What sort of a negative national identity defines itself more by "not being" like the people next door, than about "being" anything specific?

So, an example of nationalist anti-English bigotry, or the new Freemasons: a tool for giving yet another advantage to the children of a well-off elite, with easy and unproductive jobs lined up and waiting for them. In South Wales, the Welsh language is not really alive, nor entirely dead. It is undead and evil.

basha

Commented 43 months ago - 22nd October 2012 - 10:38am

i am welsh but cannot speak welsh so i agree but i think it because schools don't give enough welsh lesson and don't teach welsh from a early age

SamuelPatterson

Commented 43 months ago - 23rd October 2012 - 23:48pm

It is with great misfortune that I find myself disagreeing with both the initial article and the come-rambly response left by Federhirn.
Unfortunately, the topic of culture is a really hard one to discuss as it is difficult to define what exactly culture is. How does one define their culture? Is it enough to simply be born there?
I was born in Wales: as were my parents. I have lived in the same Welsh house with my Welsh parents and my Welsh sister for the past 20 years of my Welsh life. Can I speak Welsh? Enough. I studied it for A-Level I got a D but the grade isn’t really important. But the answer to the question - “can you speak Welsh?”- is completely irrelevant anyway. Certainly in my view.
Language is just a way of communication. The ideas that we communicate are the truly important thing. I could tell the story of Llewellyn in any language I so desired and it would still be the same story. The ideas are the important things. The communication is just a way in which they are shared with other people. And language is just that form of communication. It is the easiest form of communication because our vastly phenomenal brains are capable of holding different semantics to different individual words. They are then capable of also holding information on sentence structure and grammar in order to make the transfer of information and ideas as fluid, easy and seamless as possible.
Unfortunately (and yet magnificently at the same time!), the English language seems to be dominating the globe, and this is because – in my opinion- a global language that allows people from different countries, continents and cultures to communicate collectively is an incredibly convenient and useful achievement! Imagine going to any country in the world and being completely understood.
However, I also understand the pride people hold in having, understanding and speaking their own language. There is something wonderful about understanding one’s history and one’s roots. My roots are in Welsh culture although I wasn’t raised in a Welsh speaking home and don’t know all the words of the national anthem. However, I still feel and identify as Welsh.
I took Welsh at A-Level for a variety of reasons; none of which were to do with appreciating my Welsh heritage. However, as my course developed, and as I learned more about the fight the Welsh people have put up against a tirade of English abuse, I felt a deep passion for my Welsh roots. A particular revelation came to me upon reading a poem called “Hon”. (Look it up, it’s great.)
My Welsh is passable. Passable at best. But I still consider myself to very Welsh. What constitutes a national identity? It’s a question that many people have asked for many years! In my eyes, a simple acceptance of one’s roots, and a desire to understand a culture, is enough.
As I’ve said, language is just a tool for communicating ideas, and whilst I agree with Federhirn that the Welsh language has in recent years been “forced down people’s throats” (that’s not what he said, but certainly what he meant), I feel this has only been done because those who strongly identify as Welsh and want to protect the Welsh cultural identity (rightly so) do not understand that the language is not the important thing. The Welsh language will never die because it means too much to some people.
Federhirn’s assertion that the Welsh language is “evil” (something he did actually say) is preposterous. In the same way that Pokemon cannot be evil, but only have evil masters, the same can be said for language. Language (as I repeat yet again because it is a very important point to understand, but one that few people seem to understand!) is just a tool, a key, a code. A code for transmitting and understanding ideas. The ideas can be evil. But a language? That’s just nonsense.

Excellent comment Federhirn. It is now mainly the wealthy left wing intelligentsia who speak the welsh language. I have not great issue if people who want to speak welsh learn the language, but what angers and sickens me is the fact that Welsh schools recieve far more funding from the Welsh Assembley than your standard english speaking comprehensive. I find it funny when silly Welsh nationalists complain that the English language was 'forced upon' them; if that were the case, would use of the Welsh language not be growing as power is unfortuantely devolved from Westminster? Also, is it not ironic that it is now the 'average Joe' who is being forced in his average comprehensive to sit through lessons of a pointless subject, at the cost of what could be an extra Maths or science lesson?

If somebody wanted to speak good Welsh, they should go to a Welsh school. The amount of money the Welsh Assembley has wasted in a feeble attempt to revive the corpse of a long-deceased language is atrocious.

Hello,
Having registered with the website, there was no option in terms of where I live outside Wales. And yet many people forget those of us brought up in Wales (very proudly), that for various reasons live outside Wales. I live in Spain. I live in a part of Spain that speaks a language other than Castellano. i.e. Valenciano. It is only spoken in the Communidad de Valencia. So naturally, although it has been easier to learn Castellano (Spanish), alot of people in my area speak Valencian which is a mixture of Spanish and French.
I am so proud to come from Aberystwyth, Wales, having been brought up there. I have a constant supply of Welsh flags because my Spanish friends think the flag is fantastic. Who couldn't think it was fantastic, a very proud dragon, the Celtic history and myths, the pride, despite often coming second best to England, Ireland, and Scotland often in BBC reporting. A tiny. beautiful country with a huge heart.......and the country will always be in mine, and I will always, despite where I am always be apart of the country, Wales!