It’s census time. And this isn’t an official post on behalf of SSiW, it’s just something I feel I want to say.
If you’re in Wales (the census forms for elsewhere don’t ask - 
) some of you may be reluctant to tick all the speak/understand/read/write Welsh boxes - and of course I’m not asking you to supply false information if you really haven’t reached that stage yet - BUT please don’t underestimate your ability. This isn’t about perfection. If you can hold a two-way conversation (mistakes and all), read Welsh (even with a dictionary handy) and write Welsh (even with dodgy spelling), don’t be afraid to tick all the boxes. You count too!
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I intend ticking the boxes because they all apply. (It’ll be almost a year to the day too since I embarked on my Welsh adventure.) Very proud to have got this far.
Pity about the questions on the census elsewhere in the UK - my mum and sister in England are also learners but their efforts may not be counted? Had online learning not been a ‘thing,’ they wouldn’t have had the opportunity. Definitely a lockdown positive.
As a side note, are there any studies/statistics into Welsh speakers outside of Wales?
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Not that I know of - there are estimations out there perhaps. It would be fantastic to know how many there are, but enormously difficult to find out for certain. Including the boxes on other UK census forms would be a small step in the right direction, but then they still wouldn’t cover the rest of the world.
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The point of the modern census (well, the main point) is to spot social and geographic trends so that public services can be planned with these in mind. If the UK government does not intend to start offering Welsh language services to the population outside Wales, then there doesn’t seem to be much point in finding out how big and where that population is. Having said that, what might be useful would be an indication of how many Welsh speakers are being ‘lost’ to Wales via out-migration and why. But I’m not sure whether the census is too blunt an instrument to answer the ‘why’ question anyway.
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Nia has just posted this in Slack - maybe it’s an option for those outside Wales to do this instead.
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Just had Ifan Evans read my message out on Radio Cymru. I wrote to say how excited I was that I had just completed my first census form in Welsh after starting to learn Welsh with ssiw during 2018.
WoooHooo!!!
Go me!!!
… in my excitement, I forgot to put my name on the message. Dammo! 
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Briliant!!!
Thanks @siaronjames you have given me the courage to ‘tick all the boxes’. I just hope that there is a huge increase in numbers of Welsh speakers since the last Census. Hopefully it will give more incentive and support for the Mentor Iaith etc. and learners of course. 
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