Pointless exams/qualifications

[raleighnut]

It was a dark period of history.

Yep due to the 'cold war' there were massive amounts of American military bases all over Europe and of course they needed TV so getting satelite transmission was imperative which 'civilians' had access to too.

 

[Dave7]

When i started work as an office boy many moons ago (1962) I had to go to nightschool. Can't remember if it was 1 or 2 nights a week. The course choices were limited and I took English and typing. In typing I achieved the dizzy heights of touch typist at 35 words per minute ULCI (union of Lancashire and Cheshire Institutes).
As a young lad you can imagine how little that helped me .

 

[wiggydiggy]

When I was a teacher I mostly taught in Wales
North Wales - in an English speaking area (Rhyl)
but no area is far from places where Welsh is a common First language

Anyway - the Welsh Government decided that Welsh as a language needed to be enhanced in schools
Every shcool HAD to teach Welsh to all pupils up to Year 11
but they wanted more "incidental Welsh" in other lessons

The plans were for teachers to go on a 1 term total immersion" course
initial Welsh basics for those that need it - then just Welsh every day for the rest of the term

Personally I liked the idea - I spoke/speak no Welsh - I had a few words and could pronouce things without annoying the local
but that was all
So I was looking forward to it and thought it would be good

anyway - a few years went by with no furtehr info

Then Lunchtime arrived on day at school
in out little group at lunchtime there were 2 Welsh teacher including the Head of Welsh
and one other teacher who was First Language Welsh - and hadn;t even spoken English until he was half way thtough Primary School

They were incensed!!
They had had a letter inviting them on this 1 term Welsh course

to make sure they spoke Welsh properly!!!
2 actual Welsh teachers
one First Language
one Head of Welsh

and the government want to spend a whole term making sure they speak Welsh properly


Well - when I say "The Government" it was a branch of in the Aberystwyth
a well known bastion of Middle Welsh

Thing with Welsh is that it was discriminated against - quite badly - for many years
so the people speaking it became rather separated from each other and 3 different versions developed

South
Middle
and North


all very similar but different in their own ways

and a bastion of Mid Walian Wlesh - instructed by the Welsh Government - which is based in South Wales
is telling Welsh teachers in North Wales that they need to go on a long course to make sure they speak it "properly"


Well - that killed the whole idea


I have zero idea why they wanted more "incidental" Welsh in classrooms like mine

but though the best way to start it off was to start with the people who are already proven to speak the language!!

Totally badly thought out and implemented course

I'm English, my Grandad was Welsh and born out out of wedlock to an unknown father in central wales. He grew up with his grandparents in North Wales and later was allowed to live with his mother and step-siblings. To this day we still don't know who his real father was but I have lots of stories about Wales in the 1930s - 1970s that gel with with what you say. For a long time the English actively tried to get Welsh out of existence (I'm just old enough to remember) so I suspect the incentive to teach Welsh was motivated by political guilt.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I'm English, my Grandad was Welsh and born out out of wedlock to an unknown father in central wales. He grew up with his grandparents in North Wales and later was allowed to live with his mother and step-siblings. To this day we still don't know who his real father was but I have lots of stories about Wales in the 1930s - 1970s that gel with with what you say. For a long time the English actively tried to get Welsh out of existence (I'm just old enough to remember) so I suspect the incentive to teach Welsh was motivated by political guilt.

and political expediency!!

It is a very good rallying point for Plaid!!

but if you talk to people from Welsh areas - like Bethesda for example - they are very pro Welsh language

Stats on the topic are generally dodgy though
because a lot of people who are pro-Welsh exagerate their ability on surveys to support the language


Funny thing (OK funnyish)
My daughter went to the only English medium school in the area - but ins pit of being brought up in a totally English house and environment she was fluent in Welsh
and in fact was in the "Welsh Stream" in her school


one day we were having a cuppa in a cafe in Bethesda and a group of local were next to us on one side
I didn;t take much notice - just locals chatting over a cuppa and lunch

a group of probably tourists came and sat on the other side of us

I could hear them moaning about the other group talking in a foreign language and generally muttering
they left quite quickly - still muttering

My daughter asked me what those people had been moaning about
so I started explaining that some people think everyone should speak English and all that
but she interrupted and said
"No Dad - I know about that - but the people are speaking ENglish so what was the problem"

Now - she speaks Welsh - and grew up in the general area - so she realised that the local group were happily speaking English
but with a local accent which was very Welsh

when I listened I could hear it!!!


weird how biased people look for reasons to be insulted!!!