Dw’in dysgu Cymraeg ond dw’in ddim siarad Cymraeg da iawn.
I am learning Welsh because I live in Wales. I speak French because I lived in France. I speak Spanish because I lived in Spain. I believe that learning and speaking the language of the country that I live in is essential.
At no time did I mix with the English community in these countries. I had nothing but joy from speaking these languages. So, the next step is naturally to learn Welsh, however difficult it may be. It is important for children, I believe, to learn languages in school. As a Welsh person said to me, we need to learn about the traditions and culture of that language. Languages open all those doors for us.
Now we come to the main debate and the main problem. Wales can manage as an English-speaking country. However , Welsh is the language of Wales and there are Welsh-speaking schools.
Let us take a look at France. France is a French speaking country. So when English or Welsh children go to live in France, they all go to French schools and they have to learn everything in French.
A fine example of this is Escape to the Chateau. The Strawbridge children were seen doing their homework and the boy was doing his Maths homework and Dick Strawbridge was helping him and they were doing the sums in French because all lessons are conducted in French. We all know this. It is obvious. This is how children become bi-lingual which is great for their brains.
Very often, the English parents or Welsh parents do not speak French and so cannot help their children nor is French spoken at home. But, it is great for the children. It is not a stumbling block.
When I started learning Welsh, there were English- speaking adults who started the Welsh course because they wanted to be able to help their children with their homework in Welsh as their children go to a Welsh-speaking school. Marvellous.
Because of my life living in other countries, I understand learning to speak languages. When I was very young, I lived in Malaya, as it was called then because it was still under the British Empire. I had a Malay nanny, or amah. She only spoke Malay to me. I learned and spoke fluent Malay very quickly and in fact would translate for the family. However, my school was an English speaking school so it was due to my lovely amah that I spoke fluent Malay.
Children can pick up languages very quickly at a young age so it would be only to children’s advantage that they learn Welsh in their early years.
I am of Asian and English heritage. My mother came from India after the war as she had married my father in India.
Racism was rife in Britain at that time so my mother was very nervous. She could pass as white although my aunt and uncle could not. She decided that she would not do anything Indian once she moved to England and so, to my great sorrow, I never learned Hindi or Urdu. My mother only spoke English in the house. The only thing she could not disguise was her accent so she said that she was Welsh and thus she was accepted into English society. The amusing addition to this story is that many years later, when we lived in Cwmdare, our lovely Welsh neighbour and friend, May, would introduce my mother as Indian because she couldn’t bear to introduce her as English. We used to laugh about that , the three of us.
Professor Dai Smith says,
“There were more Welsh speakers in Glamorgan in 1951 than in the rest of Wales altogether. The notion of English suppression is a convenient distorted excuse for a complicated process of social and cultural change.”
Fiona Collins, a Welsh storyteller, says,
“Listening to young bilingual speakers moving effortlessly between the two equal languages of Wales is inspiring and their competence and fluency bodes well for the future of the spoken and literary arts. To be able to express oneself in not one but two mother tongues merits celebration.”
I am not a fanatic about speaking Welsh, but I do enjoy learning it and I believe I should learn it for my own self-respect.
Now I have a question for all natural Welsh speakers. I discovered that the word “PENGUIN” is a Welsh word as Welsh explorers saw them first and named them white heads. The word “CORGI” is also a Welsh word meaning dwarf dog.
Do you know any more international words that are of Welsh origin? I was ecstatic when I discovered these two words. There surely must be more. It’s very exciting.
Come on Llanelli Standard readers. Join in and share your Welsh expertise to flaunt your knowledge and educate us.
