I Am Welsh

@ninalanyon I remember watching little children in Malaysia. Grandma one speaks Hokkien. Grandma 2 speaks Malay. Someone else speaks Cantonese. We spoke English. About 3-5 years old and they switched languages for each person. Mind blown. In childhood the mind is geared for language acquisition.

I speak a little Spanish but not really fluent. So with my one language I still forget the word I need anyway.

@Abstraction Same here. I had to learn Norwegian the hard way starting at age thirty, it took me five years to be fluent enough to use it for work and thirty four years later conversations about politics and jokes are still difficult. My children on the other hand were fluent within six months of starting kindergarten at the age of about three, they just picked it up as they went along.

@ninalanyon I found that conversation really interesting. Here all children are taught only in Welsh til age 7. Even if they speak English at home. I was on a course today about using Welsh in further education. And in the the last decade the number of people able to speak Welsh has increased massively. My county is still in the number one place but the biggest gains have been in places that used to be mostly English speaking. Like more than doubling in Bridgend!

@LilirWyddfa [quote]all children are taught only in Welsh til age 7[/quote]
Interesting. When did that start?

@ninalanyon I’m not sure. But the Welsh government wants a million Welsh speakers by 2050 and unlike climate control, they look like they might achieve it well in advance!