Wales says Yes!

[thestoat]

Wouldn't hurt them to hop around on one foot while singing The Lumber Jack Song from Monty Python ...
Wouldn't do them a whole lot of good either...

It might help counter the growing obesity problem. The point, as far as I see it, is why not learn the language of the country in which you reside? There are benefits to doing so, and I don't see any drawbacks

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever dropped dead from reciting The Lord's Prayer....

... or from studying Welsh

[Lord Jim]

Though I have to say that I sympathize with your resentment at having to choose between learning Welsh and French...

I'd rather be forced to learn how to speak Bantu then French.....

[thestoat]

Though I have to say that I sympathize with your resentment at having to choose between learning Welsh and French...

I would never use the term "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys"

[Lord Jim]

The point, as far as I see it, is why not learn the language of the country in which you reside?

The point is, as far as I see it, is that " the language of the country in which you reside" is English....(or at least some barely recognizable facsimile there of... )

Do you think Latin American kids would be better served if they were required to spend 10 years mastering some obscure Aztec dialect as a part of their basic education?

[Sue U]

I'd rather be forced to learn how to speak Bantu then French.....

Funny that, considering the "English" language you're speaking today is actually mostly French. Learning French is actually very helpful in understanding and using English, along with the benefits of facilitating learning of other languages as well. Although Mandarin may prove to be more useful in the coming decades.

[thestoat]

The point is, as far as I see it, is that " the language of the country in which you reside" is English....(or at least some barely recognizable facsimile there of... )

I'll leave that to Welsh residents to answer (RB?) - I currently live in England, so you are 100% correct that the language in which I personally reside is English I wonder how you would define what the language of a particular country is ...

Do you think Latin American kids would be better served if they were required to spend 10 years mastering some obscure Aztec dialect as a part of their basic education?

Interesting question. I don't understand their education system - if it is as complete as (arguably) the British system is, and if their not learning it would usher Aztec towards extinction, then I would say yes, they should. Learning a second language would put them in a very strong position to take on a third, further down the line, and they would be able to travel to some parts of their own country and speak to their own countrymen in the only language that their countrymen can speak (which, if true, would verify your analogy).

[Lord Jim]

Funny that, considering the "English" language you're speaking today is actually mostly French

Actually, it's mostly German...(Of course the "French" you're talking about was also mostly Germanic....it's all so complicated... )

[Crackpot]

In Peru they often teach Quechua and Spanish depending on the location.

[Crackpot]

Don't forget latin

[Lord Jim]

I'm thinking.... I'm thinking...

[Lord Jim]

the growing obesity problem.

I take it that's a pun.....

[dales]

Funny that, considering the "English" language you're speaking today is actually mostly French

Actually, it's mostly German...(Of course the "French" you're talking about was also mostly Germanic....it's all so complicated... )

Actually, the Germanic Languages (English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, etc) comprise their own language family as opposed to the Romantic Languages (French, Spanish, Itallian).

The Finnish Language closest linguistic relative is Korean!

The international language spoken at every airport control tower is English (I wonder why?).

[loCAtek]

Korean? How the hell did that happen?

[liberty]

My wife is wrong and I am right. She said that the Welch should speak their own language and run their own affairs. I tired to convince her that this has been settle of over a thousands years. They had their chance to defeat the Germanic peoples, but couldn‘t do it. Face it the Celtic people of the British isles and that includes Wales were defeated by the Saxons and Normans, but are just too stiff-necked to accepted it. Some people will just not stay
defeated.


On a serious note, is not Wales too small to be an independent country in the modern world.

[thestoat]

Face it the Celtic people of the British isles and that includes Wales were defeated by the Saxons and Normans

Actually, not the Saxons. They didn't make huge inroads into Wales (probably wasn't interesting enough). And they weren't defeated by the Normans either - Edward the first was a Plantagenet. But they were defeated

is not Wales too small to be an independent country in the modern world.

Good question. I suspect it comes down to the size of the work force and the natural resources available. Wales has about half the population of Scotland or Ireland. I had heard tell they estimate there is twice the oil in the Celtic Sea as there ever was in the North Sea, which would be an interesting economic boom for Wales (if they could send some British jets over to stop the Irish from staking a claim). I can't think of any successful countries that are so small, without massive input from the EU.

[Lord Jim]

Actually, the Germanic Languages (English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, etc) comprise their own language family as opposed to the Romantic Languages (French, Spanish, Itallian).

Yes, but the "Normans" were not ethnically French; they were Germanic....

[Scooter]

But Norman was etymologically a Romance, not Germanic, language.

[liberty]

Actually, the Germanic Languages (English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, etc) comprise their own language family as opposed to the Romantic Languages (French, Spanish, Itallian).

Yes, but the "Normans" were not ethnically French; they were Germanic....

Yes, they were. They may have spoke French, but one at the time would have no trouble seeing that they were a Scandinavian people.

[liberty]

sorry