ok, little late to the conversation here thanks to a hectic weekend on the Snowdon Race then catching up with all the posts (and what a lot of posts!) - however, the timing has serendipitously provided an idea.
As part of the research process for the Snowdon Race and the Snowdonia Marathon, I send out questionaires to the competitors, and one of the questions is ‘do you speak Welsh’. Because our coverage is for S4C, we can then contact the Welsh speakers if we need interviews. There are two interesting points:
1 -. Even people who have stated they are fluent/1st language will often, when approached for interview, say “oh, but my Welsh isn’t good enough”. It is, of course, but it just shows the effect having a camera in front of you and effectively ‘public speaking’ can be daunting even to people who otherwise confidently use their Welsh 24/7.
2 - (and this is the idea bit) Many respondents often put things like “no, but I’ve always wanted to” or “no, but I wish I could”, or “I’ve tried but just can’t pick it up”. Many others say “no, but I know ‘bore da’ (or other similar basic phrases)”
Obviously I try, where I can, to SSiW them myself ;-), but it got me thinking - events like these have printed race programmes with information about the race, but also plenty of advertising space. Perhaps we should think about print adverts in these to try and ‘catch’ this group?
These races are usually organised by volunteer groups, so of course they need to attract sponsors and paying advertisers in order to fund the events, but if we’re lucky maybe we could wrangle a small ad for free or reduced rate to start with.
Irish has the same issue. It comes down to one (or both) of two things- quality of teaching or quality of curriculum.
I don’t know how kids can be expected to learn any language when all they get is a couple of hours of textbook learning a week with days between each session.
And not. perhaps, very exciting textbook learning! I have a thing about history and lack of knowledge thereof among most people in most places. I was very bemused about why people on quiz shows seem to know so little history, but, despite the past being full of excitement, discovery, thrills, spills, violence and - er - sex…I realise now that, in school, it is often full of boring dates and, well, not like the Horrible History I’ve seen on Kids’ TV!! In school, I had a Latin teacher who gave us all Latin names and used books which let us talk Latin rather than just translate boring sentences. It was all wasted on me, because it seemed very false for a language last spoken rather a long time ago - oh, unless they chat in Latin at the Vatican? But none of us Girls were going to end up there!!!
p.s. I last studied any language in school in 1958. I hope things have improved!
Some time ago I read through a thread on here asking, “Why are you learning Welsh?” (Why are you learning Welsh?)
The reasons given fell broadly into the following categories…
Intrigue or challenge / fun
Family or friend tie
Historic interest
Wanting to feel more Welsh / part of Welsh Culture (/ fight against globalisation of culture)
None of these reasons are really mentioned in official Welsh promotional material. Official promotion seems to emphasise extrinsic motivations for learning e.g. more job opportunities. However it seems like most people learn for reasons much closer to their hearts. So we could refocus promotions to look at these topics.
And we can probably drill down a little further with that - @helenlindsay did some brilliant analytical stuff on a collection of those threads and comments…
My last lesson in school was in 2000. Compulsory language classes consisted mostly of listening to dialogues from a book, having some grammar points explained by the teacher, possibly stumbling through the same conversation we’d just listened to with another classmate and then a list of vocabulary to take home and learn. From what I hear from my nieces, not much has changed!
Sixth form was much better, though- classes were taught entirely in German and were simply discussions on a variety of subjects. Not many people made it that far, though- there were eight people in my German class by that point.
It’s entirely possible to teach a language without the default instruction language being English, and I think that this could be really helpful in holding kids’ interest and getting them using the language naturally from their first lesson. The reason we don’t see more of this is likely due to the fact that creating a curriculum along these lines would require actual work from education ministers- saying ‘just teach them this book by the end of the year’ is much easier than developing a whole new kind of course.
Great stories can help bring Welsh history to life, predict our future, how Wales will one million Welsh speakers will function, and bring current Welsh culture to life.
Those stories can be turned into TV programmes, films, animations. All increasing the cultural offering.
Show success stories to prospective learners;
People are more likely to start learning if they think they can succeed. So tell stories (via print/film/video/radio/tv etc) of people who have followed a route to language success.
I wonder if some people might be put off by the length of the lessons that stops them even trying the first one. Perhaps a short, taster lesson might help?
A 5 minute long lesson that by the end one has learnt a single long sentence.
I hope the idea which I put forward in another thread fits here. (To be honest, I’m finding it more and more difficult to identify the right threads for my posts. I put it down to being 107 years old. ) Unlock your inner Welsh
That’s not quite right. He finds learning Welsh really difficult but recognises that learning any language is more successful when you have to do it to eat/drink etc. This is why the boot camps work so much better than other courses where it’s easier to resort to English if you’re struggling
Sorry to misquote, misremember. With so many associated threads it’s difficult to find original posts. However, the idea of differential pricing, done in a fun way, with it being made easy for the customer to get it right, still stands. Learning a whole language just to order a beer might seem a little un-necessary. But being able to order a beer, when you couldn’t this morning, might feel like a minor triumph and a step on the way.
I think this might work as an event - Tafwyl for example. Have a couple of stands that say “cwrw siaradwyr - £2, beer £3” or something. Kept it fun to encourage people to learn how to order in Welsh. Then it might encourage them to enquire about going beyond this.
Long term price difference in pubs would just be discriminatory.
When looking to increase the overall number of learners, perhaps we should target groups of people most likely to suceed in becoming speakers and then going on to support speakers.
I have in mind parents with kids at Welsh Language primary schools. They already have awareness of Welsh, they have a good reason to learn, and have a potential support network around them already (school/other parents). Also if they do succeed, they go on to support their child and make Welsh a living, used at home language.
We have limited resources, so identifying target groups with the highest potential impact is probably worthwhile. Does anyone disagree? Can anyone think of any other good target groups?
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