Wales is the only country on the planet that seems to actively dissuade its population from achieving high standards of English.
I’m a fan of strong and controversial statements, but I don’t believe that this one is particularly exaggerated, though I think it might open me up to extreme criticism from certain elements within Welsh society.
Wales has been held up across the world as a beacon of hope for minority or dying languages. Be it Maori in New Zealand, Sami in Lapland or even Hebrew in Israel, reigniting the flame of a dying language is a difficult task and one the Welsh government and people have managed to do despite the significant odds against it. Welsh is now a true living language, with a growing number of speakers and an increasingly important role in Welsh (and even occasionally British) life.
The language may look like a long string of gobbledegook to the English, but to the Welsh the language is the pinnacle of Welsh cultural life and the defining feature of Welsh identity. The importance of the language cannot be disputed and I do not attempt to even question it.
However, I do attempt to bring into focus just what some of the consequences of the Welsh language policy has and could do to the Welsh economy and its international standing.
Welsh must be first on any official sign in Wales
The United Kingdom remains one of the most linguistically advantaged nations on the planet. English is still the world’s lingua franca, it has an almost unchallenged position as the most used language internationally, be it in the halls of the United Nations, on the fields of international sporting competitions or in the conference rooms of the worlds most powerful companies. British people therefore, having an innate understanding of English, are already a step ahead of the billions of people across the world who have to learn it as a second language, no easy feat when you can’t submerge yourself in it and must become fluent from afar.
Even our somewhat dubious title of being one of the most monolingual countries in the EU has not, as yet, seriously damaged our chances on the international stage.
And yet, despite these huge advantages which could be translated into a much more prosperous situation for the Welsh, our schools, both Welsh and English medium, fail to encourage a high standard of English understanding.
My mother, who was brought up in New Zealand, is an English teacher in an FE college in South Wales which covers both Welsh-speaking and English-speaking areas. She has frequently told me that those students whose education has been predominantly given in Welsh have such a low standard of written English that some of her foreign students are better in terms of grammar, syntax and vocabulary. She also says that many of those that have gone through English-medium education are just as poor. This is proven by the fact that Wales consistently has the lowest level of A*-C pass rates in English (or for that matter any core subject) in the UK.
My own experience in the Welsh education system also proves this. English grammar is not taught well in Wales, if taught at all (my school didn’t even offer English Language as an A-level – because “the students say that its boring”).
The Welsh department, at least in my school, has a certain level of power which doesn’t really fit with its position in a school based in an Anglophone part of Wales. It was promoted more than almost any other subject, had an influence over many other subjects, not least music, art and even PE. It also reigned supreme when it came to the organisation of school events including Remembrance Day Services and general school assemblies.
If English is partially subjugated within Welsh culture God forbid you try an learn a foreign language. I remember having to justify taking French (a language spoken across the globe by 275 million people) over Welsh (spoken by 770,000). This, I believe, is a by-product of the recent language policy in Wales which puts Welsh as the dominant language in the country, despite the fact it is spoken by a minority of the population.
Don’t get me wrong, Welsh does and should have a special place within Welsh society, and it is an innate good that it is promoted. But promotion of the Welsh language should not undermine English as an important aspect of our society and, more importantly, an incredibly useful one.
Welsh identity is based heavily on the language
The policy has meant that it is almost impossible to get a good job within the Welsh public sector without having a good standard of Welsh understanding. And this applies not only to Welsh people but also people from outside the UK.
This has led to a two-tier career market, with Welsh speakers, generally regardless of other educational achievement or work experience have an advantage over all other applicants for certain jobs.
This means that Welsh-speakers are more likely to be employed (at least in the public sector)and more likely to be promoted. They also manage to maintain a peculiar monopoly on Welsh identity, with the unspoken implication of this policy that Welsh-speakers are somehow more Welsh and more able to serve the Welsh people and the Welsh economy.
Many English-speaking Welsh people who have the skills and talents that Wales needs to prosper are therefore leaving Wales, severely reducing the Welsh talent pool.It also means that attracting talent from outside of Wales, be it England or Australia, is increasingly difficult, not a great situation when you consider that Wales has one of the worst average education results in the UK.
England has long been dogged by a society divided by class, Wales has always been more homogeneous on this front, but in recent years the Welsh language policy has produced the biggest division within Welsh society, even bigger than the urban-rural divide and the north-south divide.
It goes without saying that this does not help Wales. The term cutting your nose off to spite your face has never quite been as applicable. In trying to maintain a Welsh culture and identity Wales in inadvertently shooting itself in the metaphorical foot, sowing the seeds of future economic problems which as everyone knows leads to social problems. Wales is deliberately reducing its pool of talent for the sake of a political and cultural ideology of having a strong Welsh language, which means that it is crippling itself not only on a British level but also on an international stage.
We must ask ourselves which is more important. The Welsh language or the Welsh people?
Let me know your thoughts! Is Wales’ language policy destructive or is it something to cherish?
Owen Jack Williams 