Welsh language policy: dragon or draconian?

**This may not be an issue many people in an English university are too aware of, yet for a
pseudo-Welshwoman and Welsh speaker, the continual disparaging of the Welsh
language is irritating and disheartening. I am not Welsh by blood; I was born to English-
speaking, Cornish parents who had moved to North Wales for work after they married.**

However, like so much of the prejudiced waffle peddled by the _Daily Mail_, [Roger Lewis’ recent article](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238472/Save-Wales-Welsh-Children-told-loo-ask-English-Architects-shunned-plans-arent-Welsh-ROGER-LEWIS-nutty-Welsh-Language-Society.html) on the Welsh language has gotten my hackles up. I am not a Welsh
nationalist nor, since leaving for university, do I live there anymore, yet I was born and
raised in Wales and learned the language from a young age, right up to an A* in my
GCSE. While living in the West Midlands I read articles and books in Welsh to keep it up.

So I’m sorry, but ‘the Welsh Taliban’? A little far, don’t you think? A militant religious
institution associated with human rights abuses such as human trafficking, massacre
campaigns and oppression of women being compared to the attempts of a society to
revive its ancient and beautiful language is ridiculous. Welsh is an intrinsic part of the
country’s songs, poetry and legends and if it dies, Europe loses one of its oldest surviving
languages and a link to the past is left to wither. Although I have little chance to speak
Welsh at the moment, I am proud of my ability to speak it and I know the skills I picked up
while working out why ‘c’ can become ‘ngh’ have helped me in my pursuit of other
languages throughout my academic career.

{{quote Any child who cannot say Ga I fynd ir toiled, plis just is not trying hard enough, and I doubt they are all sitting there wetting themselves }}

Nothing but good can come from learning a language from an early age. Britain is
notorious for being behind when it comes to foreign language learning and it may be
keeping us from jobs in the EU, according to a BBC article earlier this year. If children
growing up and going to school in Wales experience bilingualism from the age of three or
four, it seems likely that they will be drawn to other new languages at GCSE and beyond
and already have the skills to study it. It’s definitely worked for me, and along with Welsh I
speak a high standard of German, have a smattering of Italian, Hungarian, Japanese and
Spanish and will have a certificate in beginner’s Russian by the end of this academic year.
While obviously I have a personal interest in languages and how they work, I believe this
was encouraged by excellent Welsh teachers at school and the framework for language-
learning given to me by studying a language compulsorily.

Throughout primary school we were encouraged to speak Welsh, although it wasn’t
officially a Welsh-medium school. We answered the register in the language, sang Welsh
hymns and songs in daily assembly and yes, we did have to ask ‘yn Cymraeg’ to go to the
toilet, a practice which Lewis brands ‘tyrannical’. It is simply a way to maintain the Welsh
identity, not an exclusionary ‘Welshifying’ effect which is apparently confusing and
upsetting people throughout Wales who Lewis may not have had the same experience
decades ago, but he should not undermine the attempts of Welsh-speaking communities
who do not want to lose a vital, unique part of their culture.

Roger Lewis, there isn’t a corps of Welsh ‘ethnic cultists’ trying to oppress you: just an
ailing language trying to preserve itself and its culture, and succeeding. The number of
Welsh speakers increases every year and Besides, any child who can’t say ‘Ga I fynd i’r
toiled, plis’ just isn’t trying hard enough, and I doubt they’re all sitting there wetting
themselves.