Backward people who need the Darwin treatment

[TykeMerc]

Is that where they learn to communicate with dead welsh people?

Coat sir?

[SueEllen]

I was speaking to a Welshman and an English person who lived in Wales recently. Both brought up the subject of welsh speaking schools quite quickly into the conversation. I got the impression this was some kind of big deal.

The English chap though it was having a detrimental effect on the kids chances speaking English as a second language.

They had all this cr*p in London in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

They then noticed that speaking English as a second language had no effect on the children of immigrants from certain backgrounds as they got highest grades in exams.

Basically if your children are failing in school as a parent it's partially your fault.

[alluvial]

Defintely wrong. My son goes to Welsh-language medium school.

In general, they are better than standard state schools. He can speak Welsh and English equally fluently - there is no 2nd language.

In school he speaks Welsh - they are not allowed to speak English. At home, he speaks English (my wife and I are not fluent). Best of both worlds.

Dunno.
My lad went out with a lass that attended a Welsh language school, bilingual of course in day to day conversation. However, the missus and I were chatting to her one evening about school and science in particular and it transpired that she didn't have a clue about what various common terms (such as bunsen burner) were in English. The kids may know their foltedd from their cerrynt in school, but in the workplace, they are most likely going to have to learn a whole new way of referring to things.

[SueEllen]

Dunno.
My lad went out with a lass that attended a Welsh language school, bilingual of course in day to day conversation. However, the missus and I were chatting to her one evening about school and science in particular and it transpired that she didn't have a clue about what various common terms (such as bunsen burner) were in English. The kids may know their foltedd from their cerrynt in school, but in the workplace, they are most likely going to have to learn a whole new way of referring to things.

And this is a big issue because?

If she is intelligent enough to work with bunsen burners then she will have no problem learning the name of them in other languages.

[alluvial]

And this is a big issue because?

If she is intelligent enough to work with bunsen burners then she will have no problem learning the name of them in other languages.

Didn't say it is an issue, big or otherwise. If parents want to insist on having their children educated in a language that will only be of any use if they work in local Welsh government, then fine, that's between them and their kids.
I think that the resurgence in the Welsh language is a great thing (and I'm English) but I also think that not teaching common English terms in school that they will need to use in their working life is probably a mistake.

[minestrone]

Defintely wrong. My son goes to Welsh-language medium school.

In general, they are better than standard state schools. He can speak Welsh and English equally fluently - there is no 2nd language.

In school he speaks Welsh - they are not allowed to speak English. At home, he speaks English (my wife and I are not fluent). Best of both worlds.

It was just something I picked up, the Welshman's very quick mention of how fantastic it was and the Englishman's quick mention of it was not to his taste. Completely unrepresentative of course. My mum taught English as a second language and my dad is a fluent Gaelic speaker, I know some java.

[I just need to test it]

Hell, it's never a bad thing to be able to speak more than one language. The Welsh government's parochialism grates on me though. Imagine rejecting a fantastic job applicant because he hasn't got a GCSE in Welsh. Jobs for the Boyos.

[alluvial]

Just to stoke the fire a bit on this, I was talking to Mrs A. about this thread last night. She's a physics lecturer in a further ed. college and I asked her what happens with the kids coming from Welsh schools. Her reply was "Nothing, they all get taught in English." Apparently, especially within the sciences, the Welsh-taught kids can have some real problems as they don't know what the English is for common concepts and terms.

[Bunk]

I used to speak fluent FORTRAN, but it doesn't seem a lot of use any more.

Same as Welsh then?

[ZARDOZ]

How do you say "burning holiday homes" in Welsh?