Why is the Welsh language dying?
...Among Welsh speakers aged 16 to 24, half consider themselves fluent
and only a third use Welsh with friends. Another report, cited in the
Welsh-language magazine Golwg, found that, of all the adults who
attended Welsh classes, less than 1 per cent emerged fluent. I know many
who consider the whole industry a racket.
Read entire article at New Statesman
So why, even though most people in the world speak more than one
language, does Welsh seem to be failing so miserably? A journalist
acquaintance, who went to the same school as I did, believes that even
those who make an effort are treated with the same sort of disdain as
the “Mudbloods” in Harry Potter. Certainly, an English person in
Gwynedd, the county in which I grew up, will encounter some prejudice.
This was the heartland of Llewelyn, the 13th-century last prince of an
independent Wales, and more recently the arsonist avengers Meibion
Glyndwr – although the only things they’re lighting these days are their
fags. They say, up there, that Wales stops after Aberystwyth and
incomers of any kind are regarded with a wary eye. The last time I
visited, one of the gift shops was selling golliwogs....