Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus - Happy St David's Day!
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus - Happy St David’s Day! That’s right, it’s the 1st of March already!
Today, Charlotte was lucky enough to attend a Welsh language event at Bridgend College, highlighting the importance of using and celebrating the Welsh language - and yes, there were Welsh Cakes. So we wanted to take this opportunity to write about why it’s so important to celebrate the Welsh language, not just today, but every day. If you’re a Welsh speaker, you should definitely shout about it - it’s an amazing skill! If you don’t speak Welsh but would like to learn some, then why not give it a go? There are so many free online language learning resources to help you master the basics!
So, without further ado, here’s why we think it’s so important to celebrate the Welsh language:
More people speak Welsh thank you might think
Around 29% of people in Wales aged three and over are able to speak Welsh, which equates to roughly 883,300 people. And this figure seems to be on the up, as nearly 25,000 more people were able to speak Welsh in 2021 than in 2020!
Welsh is not only spoken in Wales
Believe it or not, Welsh is in fact spoken outside of Wales! For example, there are roughly 5,000 Welsh speakers in the Chubut province of Patagonia in Argentina. It is even thought that up to 50,000 Patagonians may be of Welsh descent - keep that in mind for your next pub quiz!
There are many words in Welsh that cannot be literally translated into English
For example, the beautiful Welsh word ‘hiraeth’. Although it can roughly be translated as describing a sense of both nostalgia and longing, it is difficult to convey the exact meaning in any other language. Understanding the history and culture behind a language helps us to better understand the meaning of certain words that may not exist in our native language.
It opens up so many doors
There’s no feeling quite like being able to speak to someone in their own language, and it means that you can communicate with a whole new group of people. Even making the effort to say bore da will show people that you care about the Welsh language. Not to mention, being able to speak Welsh is a skill that opens up so many employment opportunities!
Welsh is a beautiful language with such a rich history and culture, which is why it really should be celebrated every day of the year. So, if you take one thing away from this, let it be to use as much Welsh as you can, whether that involves learning some basic phrases, or using the Welsh that you already know more regularly!