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Should Celtic languages be taught in schools?

tom//

I believe Welsh is, not too sure about Gaelic, but what about Cornish as well?

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Reply 1

tom//

Thud

Even more pointless than learning ancient Greek, Latin or sanskrit, only difference is these may actually have a use them ones you mentioned will not.

its heritage, shouldnt be forgotten

Reply 2

Thud

tom//

its heritage, shouldnt be forgotten

So is living in mud huts and declaring war on neighbouring tribes.

Reply 3

tom//

Thud

So is living in mud huts and declaring war on neighbouring tribes.

i dont believe we ever lived in mud huts :P stone with moss

Reply 4

MSB

Thud

So is living in mud huts and declaring war on neighbouring tribes.

We shouldn't even be learning history at all, really.

Reply 5

Vel250

right, it should not be forgotten but it shouldn't really be taught in school's it would be a waste of time to the students which could be better used learning a language that could bring them better career prospects such as French or Chinese...

Reply 6

Vel250

MSB

We shouldn't even be learning history at all, really.

We should better learn history in the hope we do not repeat it....

Reply 7

SovietRussiaFH

tom//

I believe Welsh is, not too sure about Gaelic, but what about Cornish as well?

I don't think they should, there's a reason there are so few speakers. They should be allowed to die with dignity.

Reply 8

Howells

I never minded learning Welsh til GCSE. You can't really compare Welsh to Cornish really though, as Welsh is quite widely spoken in North and West Wales whereas a lot less people speak Cornish.

Reply 9

200428

I think it'd be nice to learn them. Well maybe not cornish since it's so obscure, but welsh and irish are still used quite a lot so I think it'd just be quite a fun thing to do. I'm sort of half heartedly trying to teach myself Irish, but I haven't got very far just because I don't have any time! If they'd offered it in school I would have taken it.

Reply 10

im so academic

no, because not to be rude or anything but some people haven't got a understanding of English (or the lack of it!) so it's best if we keep to the simple curriculum of English, French, German etc.

Reply 11

200428

im so academic

no, because not to be rude or anything but some people haven't got a understanding of English (or the lack of it!) so it's best if we keep to the simple curriculum of English, French, German etc.

oh, the irony... :rolleyes:

Reply 12

tom//

sadie-kiki

oh, the irony... :rolleyes:

hahahahahahaha, didnt notice until you pointed that out

a,e,i,o,u yesyes

Reply 13

200428

tom//

hahahahahahaha, didnt notice until you pointed that out

a,e,i,o,u yesyes

look at his username :toofunny:

Reply 14

MrShifty

I prefer to think of language as an aid to communication, not a sub-nationalist trinket to be arbitrarly preserved and forced upon people in the name of 'heritage'. Since the scope of the celtic languages in helping communication and understanding is limited to small populations and bands of enthusiasts, it certainly shouldn't be a compulsory subject at school.

If, however, schools want to run optional lessons in celtic languages (Manx, Irish and Scots Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh, and whatever the Bretons lay claim to), that's fine if they have the resources.

Reply 15

tom//

sadie-kiki

look at his username :toofunny:

reppage

Reply 16

artorscience?

tom//

I believe Welsh is, not too sure about Gaelic, but what about Cornish as well?

I would have liked to have done Welsh at school, living fairly close to Wales meant I had some Welsh speaking friends that I don't understand unless they choose to speak English. Bummer.

Gaelic is taught in some schools, lots of Scottish primary schools do a little bit of it to pass the time and teach the kids more songs so that their parents can go "awww".

Cornish might be taking it a bit too far. Resurrecting a language with a very small written tradition is the sort of thing that should be left to the real academics rather than given to teachers at any level to destroy.

Reply 17

NDGAARONDI

Yes. Cornish, Welsh, Cumbric (should be brought back) etc.

It is a great shame that we are prepared to lose part of our identity all because you'd rather learn French and German. Not sure why people promote these two European languages. You're better off learning Hindi, Arabic or Spanish if you want to use the 'number of speakers' argument.

Reply 18

tom//

i think if they all werent introduced then school kids should leran a lot more new languages, on the continent theyre taught about 4. so keeping this in mind it should be french, german, spanish, and mandarin

Reply 19

gamer91

cornish is pretty much dead, I appreciate that it is important to keep it alive, although not at the expense of other languages (or subjects) in school

Although perhaps special interest groups (gorseth?) should be entrusted to keep it going.