Welsh speakers...patagonia

[Animals4me]

would be interested in contacting any female Welsh speakers aged over 30 in Patagonia preferably or those fluent in Welsh.Looked at sites but unable to find any so wondered if anyone could help.Diolch.

[DTCwordfan]

They are out there...

http://www.artisansof...6%20sheep_cropped.jpg

seriously, you may have to go out there and then contact them - or try the Argie Embassy

[New Judge]

I think you might struggle. There are not too many fluent Welsh speakers in Wales.

[horseshoes]

New Judge, it very much depends which area of Wales you are talking about. Where I live, Gwynedd, it is VERY much a Welsh speaking area, along with Anglesey. In 2004 it was about 62%. I would say that figure has risen to @ 70% if not more.

Just as a suggestion to the OP, you could try contacting the university at Bangor. When I worked there, a group of Welsh speaking Patagonians used to visit annually. Contact Mr John Wyn Jones, Director of External Affairs. O1248 383298 or e-mail [email protected] Good luck.

[NOX]

As horseshoes says it's only really South Wales where Welsh isn't spoken daily and fluently, everywhere else it's very much alive and well, certainly when we lived in Dyfed and later Denbeighshire, English was very much a second language.
Ammanford School used to have a teacher exchange things going on albeit about 15 years ago and I think one of their heads, Mr Isaacs, actually moved over there, so you might try ringing the school to see if they still do it or if they have any contact info.
Pob lwc:)

[New Judge]

So that would be 70% of how many exactly, horseshoes?

[NOX]

It represents about 80,000 people New Judge in Gwynnedd alone with about 800,000 people speaking Welsh ( and counting) in the whole of Wales.

[sherrardk]

I am from South Wales, do you have any idea how hard it is to speak Welsh?

[237SJ]

There are whole communities in Patagonia who use Welsh as their first language. I rode through their areas when I was horse trail riding. I don`t know how you would make contact though. Maybe you could Google (in Welsh).

[petal54]

ttheywent over as top miners,tv prog a few years ago

[Buenchico]

Around 100,000 children attend schools (in Wales) where all lessons are in Welsh.

Animals4me:
This website might be of interest:
http://www.menterpata...cymraeg/newyddion.php

Chris

[FredPuli43]

It's better New Judge (or worse, perhaps) than you may know. Apart from Ammanford,not far from Swansea, which is at least 75 per cent Welsh speakers (figure was that in 2001), parts of England have strong Welsh elements. My former brother-in- law is a solicitor in Herefordshire. Thirty years ago, he sent his children to the local school which taught in Welsh.

It's a sign of Welsh revival, that he is Welsh but had to learn the language, being brought up in Cardiff where his parents used English.His wife did the same. But his much older sister, brought up when they lived in Ammanford, spoke Welsh as a native. . That's a generational change; the Welsh came to want to learn, or revive their use of, the language.and that goes to explain why we say that the number of those claiming Welsh as their language is increasing.

[horseshoes]

@ newjudge 70% of the population of Gwynedd!

[cathfromsaron]

diddorol iawn, pob lwc x

[horseshoes]

oops sorry..... believe it's about 123,000 for Gwynedd and @ 70,000 for Anglesey.

It is simply NOT true that people don't speak Welsh. Go into any place of work here and it's Welsh you'll hear; phone the council, university, gas board, school etc etc, and you'll be answered in Welsh.

[NOX]

Indeed Horeseshoes- when we lived in Wales ( first near Ammanford, then Brechfa and finally Denbeighshire) Welsh was everywhere and four of my children who were littleish at that time are still pretty fluent in Welsh becuase it was SO prevalent when out of the house it was their main language.

[FredPuli43]

As an aside, if you drive into Wales via the M4 you'll see signs in Welsh and English, as required by law, but the first ones you see have English first. But the the further west, or inland, you go, more have Welsh first until that's the rule, reflecting local use of each language. The English only know or think of Wales as Cardiff and Newport and heavily populated South East areas. (Old Cardiffians make their own attempt at making English sound like a foreign language, but that's another matter!).

Even the English speakers retain some Welsh, without knowing it. The habit of adding 'isn't it' at the end of statements which aren't really questions is a direct translation of Welsh, and Welsh practice, into English. All they need now is to adopt the rest, which will not be easy. The discovery that nouns change their first letters according to where they lie, and so a dictionary is almost useless in looking up a word in a Welsh text, is only the first disheartening lesson. Still, the spelling is easy enough .

[horseshoes]

Without getting into some sort of political argument, South Wales is as removed from us as London. Hard to understand for some I know, but it's actually easier and quicker for me to get London than Cardiff as there is no decent road connecting North and South Wales. When the Welsh news comes on, it is heavily weighted to South Wales (unless there's a HUGE news story such as the abduction of this poor little girl in Machynlleth). Cardiff is portrayed by the Welsh Assembly as the centre of the Universe! The area where I live has much more of an affinity to Liverpool than Cardiff. Indeed it was said that Liverpool was the capital of North Wales. You really have to be part of the area to know its nuances.

[New Judge]

I have always had a problem with what I see as the active promotion of a foreign language within the UK. The funds spent on dual signage, translation of official documents and educating children in what is effectively a local tongue is unbelievable. Even if the number speaking Welsh as a first languange is as high as one million (and that is an extremely lavish estimate) this represents less than 2% of the population. The cost of compliance with the legislation surrounding the Welsh language is out of all proportion to the number of people involved.

[horseshoes]

Do you live in Wales new judge? May I assume you are English? How would it be if somebody told you that you couldn't speak in your own English tongue in your own country? My parents and grand parents were hit in school for speaking in their native tongue. Is that right? Welsh is NOT a local tongue as you call it, or a foreign language, but our national language of our country. I'm sorry you have a "problem" with it but that's the way it is!

[sherrardk]

I live in Hereford and our local village post office (sadly closed now) had its opening times in Welsh and English.