> Should you venture your way through Wales (an experience I hope many of the 'W > elsh Americans' on this list will have sometime), you will come across many s > igns to towns in English when there is a perfectly good (and older) Welsh n am > e for the town. You will, from time to time, find them sprayed over with a re > d symbol, something like a wavy arrow. This is the symbol of 'Cymdeithas yr I > aith'[The Society of the Language], a group set up to promote the Welsh lan gu > age and to defend its rights. > They are largely ignored. Please remember that the most Welsh people do not s > peak Welsh, and to be perfectly honest, don't care. There was a recent furo re > about the Welsh language becoming compulsory in Welsh schools - I missed i t > on the news, but I think many people didn't want it taught. Sometimes I fee l > similar to the Native Americans in America, except that it's my own country me > n who mock my language. 2> It is strange that the Scots, who are more blatantly nationalistic and regard > themselves completely above and apart from the rest of Britain, have all b ut > lost their language, Gaelic. Many feel Scots [a dialect of English] to be th > eir national language. How sad. They also get a lot more attention than us in > England. > This is why I have the utmost respect for the learners of Welsh in America. T > o persevere in a difficult language where many who live in the country actu al > ly feel negatively towards it. I hope your efforts are rewarded. Rant ends he > re. > Gyda llaw, oes unrywun yn gwybod unryw llyfrau barddoniaeth sy'n cael eu we rt > hu ar hyn o bryd yng Nghymru? 'Dw i'n edrych am ryw casgliad fel 'Palgraves G > olden Treasury' yng Nghymraeg. Diolch. > William Wright > wdw@cs.st-andrews.ac.uk > http://www-2nd-cs.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~wdw/Afalonrhithwir.html I feel that this posting may be a little misleading for many people on this list who have never visited Wales. Most, if not all, signs are now in Welsh and English even in the area I come from which is largely non-Welsh speaking. Also all official documents are issued in both languages eg. driving licences, bills etc. (I don't think this is the case in Scotland?). With regards to Welsh being taught in schools, I know when I attended school, it was compulsory until the age of 13. If that particular rule has been abolished then I am disappointed. I sometimes feel that Welsh language activists do more to put people off learning the language, rather than encourage it, because they are so extreme in their opinions/actions. You cannot bully people into learning something, they have to want to learn. This could be encouraged by educating people about the rich history of Wales and gaining their interest in that way. An example of how "Cymdeithas" have lost peoples respect, is their insistence on spray painting slogans on the front of the Welsh Office in Cardiff. What real good does this do? 2 Although I am not a fluent Welsh speaker, I would love to see a growth in the number of people speaking Welsh. I myself plan to start Welsh lessons as soon as I return home. This reminds me that one of the ways in which Cymdeithas could actually do something practical in trying to keep the language alive, is to increase the number of Welsh classes available. A few years ago, I wanted to take a Welsh course but only a beginners level was offered in my area. In order to take an intermediate class, would have meant travelling quite a way and having to leave work early, which in my line of work cannot be guaranteed. I do resent the attitude that some fluent Welsh speakers have about non-Welsh speaking Welsh people. They somehome think that this ability to speak Welsh means that they are more patriotic. I have never been able to figure this out because let's face it, they were just lucky to have been born to parents who spoke Welsh or have been sent to Welsh medium schools. They themselves didn't have to put any effort into it. I worked in Aberystwyth for a while and while most people I met were great, there was the occasional person who told me that I couldn't be Welsh because I couldn't speak the language! I must admit that at the time I found this quite intimidating and therefore didn't even attempt to speak my school girl Welsh. That's hardly a way to encourage growth in the language is it? I'm sorry that this posting has gone on a bit but I do feel that sometimes people from other countries, with Welsh backgrounds who are trying to learn Welsh or just more about the culture, may just be getting half a picture of how things are in Wales. On a final note I think that the perpetuation of the Welsh language is absolutely essential in maintaining our individuality as a country. However this will be a lot easier with a united rather than divided Welsh people. Remember that the inability to speak the language does not exclude you from being very patriotic and proud to be Welsh. Cymru am byth Jayne Dolman UMBC Baltimore