Welsh road signs ,Does anyone use the Welsh language

KaliMa

I have Welsh friends who have struggled with English when they moved to Cardiff, as they speak nothing but Welsh at home, but I assume they would have been able to read English road signs aside from this.

For me personally, when I started to learn Welsh the signs were really helpful with getting the pronunciation of the letters and letter combinations right so I quite like them!

toontron

moggylover wrote: »

I'm one of those damned Saes invaders:D , I really do not mind the signs at all (although think from my travelling backwards and forwards days that they should be one way around or t'other all the way through Wales as they can be downright confusing otherwise). I do, however, object to the bills - because of the waste of money AND paper. Would it not be more sensible to ask each customer which they would prefer and then just send that .

I also get annoyed at the local Urdd - who insist on sending paperwork out inviting your children to attend this or that, but with no English translation on it at all for those parents who are not Welsh speakers:mad: . I understand that they are very much interested in promoting the Welsh Language - but this sort of inconsideration just puts my back up. Both my sons speak Welsh, and the eldest is going to the Welsh Medium secondary already and hopefully little un will join him there (so not anti the language) but I do like to be able to read and clarify for myself:o .

I too live in Wales and the fact that everything from council bills to DVLA stuff comes twice, once in Welsh and once in English is a huge waste of time. I also agree that they could just ask what format you want to receive. I don't speak Welsh myself (am from the other side of the Severn Bridge), and my children who are 10 and 7 don't speak or learn Welsh at school either. I believe there is the option to take the language at the senior school they will attend, but not till year 9, interestingly it is offered as a choice, the other being Latin. Apparently nobody chose to take Welsh this year.

pollypenny

Toontron, are you living right on the border? Some schools have been granted an opt out of compulsory Welsh. However, I've never heard of a school where it is not taught.

toontron

pollypenny wrote: »

Toontron, are you living right on the border? Some schools have been granted an opt out of compulsory Welsh. However, I've never heard of a school where it is not taught.

No, not on the border, I am about 6 miles from Swansea, my Kids go to Private School so maybe the rules don't apply? They do languages at their primary school, they do French and Spanish up to the end of year 6, then when they go to the senior school, they continue with those languages up until year 9. DS (yr 6) is hoping the option boxes changes because he didn't fancy doing a foreign language at all.

valleyboy74

Have to admit this thread has made me chuckle. Welsh is the language of Wales always has been. I think it was Henry VIII who set in place a law to abolish the language and forced people to speak english, so for the welsh language to have survived shows what a great race we truly are and that we should embrace our native tounge.
Rather than argue at what a waste of money it is to have billingual paper work and roadsigns, why not view it a different way and thank how considerate the government is by giving you the option to read the forms in English, when by right everything could be in welsh with no translation offered whatsoever.

Wales is a country in its own right that has suffered under the rule of english kings for years yet the Welsh language is finally on the increase.

Other countries within europe can speak english just as well as their own language yet there is no outcry for those countries to have english only signs so why should we?

At the end of the day the only people that moan are the ones who do not speak the language or are too ignorant to appreciate that thousands of others do, also amazes me when people on here say that flyers from the government printed in welsh go straight into the bin, well mine goes into the recycling bag along with the english version as its always rubbish.

By the way I am an english speaker that regrets not being able to speak my native language, no i'll rephrase that, im disgusted that i cant speak it but i am trying to learn it and my son now goes to a welsh school.

rhosynbach

this thread made me laugh also but it also made me cross with peoples atitude to the welsh language after all you would not go to france and tell them to speak english or have road signs in english. It is also wrong to say there is a pretence by some welsh people that they cannot talk english I know some older gereration welsh people who know nearly no english when i met my husbands nain she knew none. in north wales we have a high portion of welsh speakers my children are all first language welsh. We have a lot of english incomers to the area and some have terrible attitudes one lady told my husbands boss not to let him and a friend talk in welsh as they might be talking about him..
if welsh could be counted as an ethnic minority i am sure they would have a lot more respect and this very old and beatiful language would be protected and not treated in such a rasict way
CYMRU AM BYTH

ajuk

Not really if literally everybody can speak one language and 20% can speak the other, and when I saw ARAF painted on a road I cringed, as if you need to be told what slow means in welsh, yeah I'm sure, and Stop translated the international sign for stop, patronising if anything. I mean is there really a danger or accidents if these translations aren't there (aside from the problem of cluttering up road signs which really need to as uncluttered and as possible) or is it about preserving the language, because that's really not the purpose of road signs.

pollypenny

Much of the discussion here verges on rude.

Many people in Wales speak Welsh, many as their first language, and it is their perfect right to be able to use that language; whether they can speak English or not!

mountainofdebt

Lets face facts......the welsh language is only being kept 'alive' by artificial means....ie by an Act of Parliament.

The sad fact of the matter is that it is universally recognised that the earlier a child starts learning a new language, the easier it is .....yet children in Wales don't learn a useful language until its far too late but starts learning welsh almost once they start school.

Personally I don't think that the Welsh doesn't help themselves especially as the welsh speakers look down on those who can't or have no inclination to speak welsh

pavlovs_dog

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Lets face facts......the welsh language is only being kept 'alive' by artificial means....ie by an Act of Parliament.

Which Act of Parliament is it which is driving hundreds upon thousands of parents to choose Welsh medium education for their children instead of an English medium school?

The last census showed that the number of young Welsh speakers was on the rise. By the time of the next census that figure is expected to be higher still, and that is before we take into account the fact that it is now trendy to have your children educated through the medium of, what is in your opinion, a useless language.

mountainofdebt wrote: »

The sad fact of the matter is that it is universally recognised that the earlier a child starts learning a new language, the easier it is .....yet children in Wales don't learn a useful language until its far too late but starts learning welsh almost once they start school.

it is also universally recognised that the cognitive benefits of bilingualism and learning a language are far reaching, and go much further than knowing two different words for the same thing. It is your OPINION, not FACT that Welsh is useless. As a Welsh speaker (and one who had the 'useless' language 'forced' upon them in an English medium school at that) I have found the language to be extreme useful in all elements of life. Work, play, culture.. It is now part of who I am. I will never give it up and have every intention of raising my children multi-lingually.

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Personally I don't think that the Welsh doesn't help themselves especially as the welsh speakers look down on those who can't or have no inclination to speak welsh

I would agree with you here. There are some people who have a very poor attitude to others' refusal to learn the language, just like there are some people with a very poor attitude to those of us who have successfully mastered the language. That is something that needs to change. However the racism, abuse and criticism that I encounter on a daily basis because - shock horror - I am capable of going about my life in a business in a language that is not English also needs to change. A significant proportion of the world's population routinely uses more than one language on a daily basis. the UK's attitude towards languages and language learner is nothing short of a disgrace.