Bbc Wales Programme - Make Me Welsh

Someone in work told me about this programme on BBC Wales last night that I missed, about non welsh speaking children who’s family have moved to Gwynedd and their time in an intensive 12 week course before joining their local primary school:smile:

It’s on iplayer for about a month, just watched it and its pretty inspiring and very sweet.Well worth a watch.

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Yes, it was inspiring and hopefully a lot of parents will want to see their own children having the golden opportunity to learn the language without the fear there’s something pointless about the experience.

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I totally agree. I watched it last night and was very encouraged by the children who learnt so much in such a short time and had fun. Most inspiring.
I intend to watch it again soon

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Agreed with all of you!! I was so very impressed when I watched it the night it was ‘on’!! I just couldn’t get over the difference from when I was a kid!! When schools teaching in Cymraeg began, only children who spoke it went to them, I think!! Plant Cymru were thrown into speaking English in my day with not much more compassion than the days of the “Welsh Not”!

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the narrator said that Gwynedd was one of 2 counties where all schools teach in Welsh, which is the other one?

Not sure, Carmarthenshire maybe?

I was delighted to have found this programme on Youtube today. A thoroughly enjoyable way to spend an hour. I came away from it feeling inspired and encouraged to keep learning too.

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I don’t think so, as the number speaking Cymraeg just went below 50%. If anyone knows, I’d love to find out. I tried on line and failed!! Oh, could it be Ceredigion?

Ceredigion, I think.

I thought it was Ynys Mon

Btw, I was just chatting with a friend who is a school teacher in Caerdydd and she said that if the parents decide to send their child to a Welsh medium school when they move over here, the child will also go through a 12 week intensive prep program.

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Sorry folks!! I am so old fashioned, I forgot Ynys Mon is no longer part of Gwynedd!!

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It was. to my mind a wonderful piece of programming. The only thing I have seen recently to compare was a section in the otherwise very bland offering from Sian Lloyd? where she visited the overwhelmingly Cymraeg housing estate in, or near Caernarfon

It was bland…but. like you I did enjoy the section filmed in Ysgubor Goch in Caernarfon…Especially the part where the group of women mentioned how strange it was for them to talk together in English. I worked with a lot of good people from that estate twenty years ago and in their daily life I was the only English person they would talk to during their day…

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If the BBC had any vision - or money - they could produce a whole series about that estate. it would present a very different version of Wales from the disgraceful portrayal of life in Merthyr put out by Ch 4 and similar clichéd, lowest common denominator efforts we have to apologise for…the money and time spent on cariad@iaith could, I will say, be better spent making connections with ‘ordinary’ day=to=day lives

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I watched this today - thanks, @wendysargeantson , for pointing out it was on YouTube! I really enjoyed it, and like many of you also found it inspiring and encouraging. It would be fun to see a follow-up of how those same children are doing in a few years…

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I’ll second that. I get the impression that most who contribute to this page are, like me, proud of being Welsh but angry that the attitudes of our childhood prevented us from learning it properly. I intend to rectify that and am attending Welsh classes this year.
‘Make me Welsh’ was an inspiring programme that’s still available on YouTube. The whole of Wales should adopt their policy.

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