Dai's walk around Wales blog

Inside St David's Church, Neath. This Church owns its existence to the demographic changes the town experienced during the industrial Revolution. Like many South Wales towns Neath went through a period of expansion, as workers moved into the area to take up jobs in the new industries. In 1831 the population of the town was 4,000, by 1871 it had grown to over 9,000.
One effect of this growth of population was an influx of English speakers. Which resulted in the building of a grand "new church in the town for the benefit of the English portion of the people" as the 'Cambrian' newspaper put it. The foundation stone of the church was laid in on 22 September 1864, "at an unusual ceremony" according to Rev. W.P. Thomas, which was "performed by members of the Order of Freemasons".
The Consecration of the church took place on Thursday 29 November 1866. Tens after the consecration it was calculated that the total cost of construction was £11,000. Services in the English language took place in St. David's and services in Welsh than took place at the smaller St. Thomas's Church.
After the 1914-18 war, a clock and chimes was added to the church tower "in honoured memory of the men of this town who fell in the Great War" as a plaque in the church put it.

THE WELSH LANGUAGE AS A METHOD OF COMMUNICATION

John Eliot posted......

It is quite a difficulty, language. When I first met my future son in law, his first language is Welsh, on my first real visit to Wales, he bought the coffees. I asked him, 'If you'd asked for the coffees in Welsh?' His reply, 'She wouldn't have understood a word.' Sadly, it says a lot. Welsh must be protected, but it is never going to be dominant. My granddaughters attend Welsh language school. Now in year 4 English is being taught. I judged a class competition for a poem, in English of course. I honestly don't know the answer to this, in English language primary schools is Welsh taught from year 4? It ought to be. A bureaucrat at the Senned told me once that all the documents in the Senned are printed in Welsh and English but his words, 'The Welsh is never read.' I am not suggesting abandon Welsh in the slightest, but it's status needs to be more than a gesture which it can seem to be at present.

Dai Richards to John Eliot

The Welsh language is a cultural necessity, however that's all it can be. We are seeing the devaluation of our country by the Welsh language minority who are trying to turn it into an internal method of communication for the nation,.

Communication is a key factor in all aspects of society and if we are unable to communicate, we are unable to function as a society that works for the benefit of all within. We are witnessing in Wales a 'backward' trend that is being driven by a minority faction within our nation. Our partners outside of Wales in commerce, media and other forms of social interaction that require communication are in the main using English as a communication method, as is this post.

We are also now seeing the equivalent of the Welsh knot in Welsh language schools where kids get detention for speaking English. And those same children are being taught in three different Welsh dialects. I spoke to one last week who was taught in a North Wales dialect in South Wales and they had no idea which dialect to use in their exams, this is the second example I've come across of this problem. I've also come across very intelligent and capable youngsters who have been through the complete Welsh language education system and have left school without any qualifications and without the ability to speak fluent Welsh even.

The amount of money spent communicating in a DEAD language and the time wasted by those who cannot read it in Wales is phenomenal. My post office receipts are printed in Welsh and English and because the text is so small and generic (addresses and prices) I have to use a magnifying glass having to decipher Welsh from English and to extract the information I need from them. So it takes a lot longer to complete the task. This is productivity time lost while I'm trying to earn money to pay tax to pay for this devaluation of society. We see such examples as this in almost every industry in Wales.

This nation is going down the pan big time because of this. We should be growing as a nation, not dividing ourselves with a language barrier. I say one language for communication and let's promote the Welsh language through culture by all means, its our heritage lets celebrate it as such.. It is not an effective method of communication.

What we have to understand is that no-one outside of Wales is going to learn Welsh to communicate with us so its only use is internal. The Welsh language as a method of communication is just an excuse to gain political power for the minority and to provide valueless jobs in government for the same minority. It also prevents the English speaking majority in South Wales from getting government jobs that allow a balanced approach to governance in south Wales. The Welsh language has no future as a communication method. It will completely destroy our nation.

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