Leanne Wood on HWB, talking (mostly) in Welsh:
and here talking in English, about Welsh:
and here in spring 2015, beginning a speech with about 5 minutes of Welsh before changing to English:
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Yes, of course it is (to the extent that it matters whether itās OK or not or whether such a thing as it being OK or not even exists).
I need to tread carefully here, because these things are incredibly contentious and Iām about to mix in stuff that people might take personally, but I do find that there are people who learn/are learning Welsh (like taking an interest in many hobbies, I suppose) and then seem to need to post-justify the process by investing extra personal meaning into it. This can involve taking extreme political positions.
Conversely, there are people who learn Welsh because of their political position, and I have no doubt at all that there are people who are genuinely politically awakened by the experience of being a new Welsh speaker.
Weāre all individuals, we all have different motivations and we all experience the same things in different ways with different outcomes. All of that is natural and āOKā. However, if you want to learn Welsh without consciously taking on the baggage of political history, then youāre more than welcome to try, but since language and culture and politics and history are all inextricably entwined, Iām not sure to what extent you would be able to avoid it. 
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Itās interesting how difficult it is to be involved with learning Welsh without political opinions being made overt. As you say, much is post-dated.
Some, like me, discovered our ancestry, looked at history and learned the language because āItās the birthright we were robbed of!ā
Some learn because itās another language in their collection and histiory doesnāt interest them one bit.
Some learn because itās on the āendangered languageā list, and a bit more saveable than some!
Some, like @tatjana learn because they like rugby!!
At the end of the day, whatever the politics and history, I think Welsh has survived because it is a blā¦dy good language and people love it. It is that love for the language that will keep it going and will make people want to continue fighting for it. Lots of things have happened throughout the history of Wales and of Britain, but the language has somehow endured. A lot of the politics that affected the language were never directly about the language itself - the blue books was about asserting Victorian values and the power of the Anglican church over a rebellious non-conformist Wales in the aftermath of the Rebecca riots and the Chartist uprisings.
@henddraig, I donāt think I learned for any of these reasons. I learned Welsh because I found myself living in Wales, almost by accident. I could just as easily have ended up elsewhere in the UK where we could have afforded housing. In fact I had 2 interviews in Aberdeen in the three months before I got a job here. I learned it, after several years, in order to communicate with my patients, but now I use it to communicate with anyone who will listen to me! Well, to be honest, not anyone and everyone, but to quite a lot of people, including my patients.
In the process of learning the language, at least the way some of the content at higher levels is produced, of course you learn about the politics. The blue books. The earlier and later Eisteddfodau. The setting up of S4C. All the time where Welsh, language and people, have been, or are being, relegated and downgraded.
I have one or two Welsh born learner colleagues who have not liked the version of history we have learned, feeling it is too Nationalist. Having lived almost half of my life not in England, with relatives all round the world and with only one English parent (North American mother) I have certainly come to see a different view of the history I might have had inculcated into me had circumstances been different.
I once met a woman who had learned Hebrew in Israel. I think it was using the Wlpan idea that Welsh for learners was based upon (until 15 years ago?). She said that all language learning is political and I have to agree with her. Every thing we are taught is political. Everything that is omitted from our education is political. Everything that we choose to emphasize or neglect.
End of sermon.
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Thatās an interesting take. History and politics is such a ready source from which to glean material to base lessons.
I have an issue with history taught solely from a nationalist perspective (my terminology here is more based on approaches to history). For me itās too āus against themā to capture the nuance of the situation.
Like you @margaretnock Iāve learnt language for a different reason too. Itās because my fiancĆ©e is a Welsh speaker, and her nearest and dearest. Itās the language we hope to use to raise our family. I have a great-grandfather from Amlwch but my he died before my Mum was born.
The politics of the language is fascinating. The treatment of the Gorseddās decision over the football team, fuelled by the Wales online, highlights the hostility from some elements of the non-Welsh speaking community. There was the recent BBC piece on the Welsh language that interviewed some people in Blaenau Gwent (as well as Iestyn on one of the bootcamps) who do not view the language as part of their community.
I think it would be impossible to attempt to separate history and politics, as the various elements (land dispossession, educational policies, the attitude of London) inform the present-day situation, the question being how that legacy should be treated. In the past, there was a tendency to retreat into isolationist nationalism, and attempt to recreate an impossible nirvana. Now, however, advocates for minority languages are increasingly learning from common European experiences, hopefully lowering the potential for division in the process.
The āshort courseā definitely does more harm than good - quotes from my 16-17 year olds whoāve been through it:
āI feel very strongly about this topic as I feel as a Welsh person I should speak Welsh and that in a way the schools I have been to have let me down.ā
āTry to make Welsh the first not second language also donāt make someone do it, make it feel like a possible option and more.ā
āI feel that in schools Welsh isnāt taught properly as they donāt really give you a lot to do. Usually youād get given a piece of paper with some words and youād have to translate it. Which I think is wrong and should be corrected. I also think the government should bring Welsh lessons free to the public for them to get a basic understanding of the language. Maybe after work/school hours which would be good and would get the language out there more.ā
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Maths is a good example actually - also much loathed by young people in some quarters but mostly because:
a) Itās very often very badly taught
b) There are incorrect assumptions made that some people are inherently good at it and others arenāt
Sound familiar?
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Iām not sure that hostility is quite the right word. I know that in eastern Radnorshire (much, much more than in the west of the county where we encounter natural Welsh speakers as part of our daily lives), there is a self-consciousness amongst people who feel that the existence of the language and their distance from it is a kind of āthreatā to their Welshness. I donāt think anyone has ever actually told them that theyāre less Welsh because they donāt speak Welsh and donāt ever need to (and if someone did tell them that, they would be an idiot), but nevertheless there is a recipe there for defensive over-reaction. Iām presuming that similar feelings exist in places like Gwent.
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If thereās going to be such a thing as the Short Course, it should be speaking and listening only. Examined by a half hour chat on a subject of the studentās choosing with another young person (a university student would be ideal). No point whatsoever in anything else.
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Within the last week I met a 16 year old who had done the short course TGAU/GCSE in Pembrokeshire. This person didnāt feel they spoke Welsh.
No I agree that many arenāt aggressive. The defensiveness is definitely true. The article came across as aggressive. Iāve heard so many rants about how rude the Gogs are. Itās not something Iāve ever come across even before I started learning, let alone trying to use my Welsh.
This sense of perceived āus against themā has definitely contributed to Plaidās struggle amongst the non-Welsh speaking communities.
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Short answer: yes.
Long answer: yes, because these are separate topics. I started learning Welsh because of my (then) girlfriend, and continued because I liked the language. I could very easily have learned the language and not learned anything about the history surrounding it. However, I also feel very strongly that people should be taught what their government has done on their behalf. Not from a nationalist perspective, but because believing that your government can do no wrong is incredibly dangerous.
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To both your mailings - agree! Agree! And to @robbruce that is exactly what the exam should be!! Tell the government in the Senedd!
Thatās a very succinct way of putting it, I like it! Thatās an interesting way of viewing the situation too, particularly in light of some of the more recent ārevisionistā approaches to politics we have seen. Far too much harking back to the good old days.
What good old days? From 1947 to 1957 were OK in a lot of ways, but had the 11+! Oh, and the Korean War, I think. Suezā¦oh, the start of the Tryweryn flooding, Bill for purchase by Liverpoolā¦there are no good old days. Just a few very lucky people who do OK and a lot looking back at imaginary bliss!
Precisely my point 
That touches a tender nerve, because I had problems with many maths teachers, and yet I was interested in the subject. But I needed time to absorb the ideas, and most of the maths teachers I came across only had one way of teaching it, and that was aimed at people who āgot itā quickly first time.
The three exceptions to this, and for that I remember them warmly were:
- an evening class aimed at adults (although I was still at school)
- a further education college course, aimed at day-release students
- a polytechnic course, aimed at day-release students.
(a common factor here, although not the only one, was that you were treated like a grown up).
Trying to steer back to the topic, although language teaching isnāt the same, perhaps the thing it has in common with maths is that people learn in different ways, so to teach successfully, perhaps teachers have to find out how their students learn best, and accommodate them.
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