Will the Urdd help more people speak Welsh in Newport?
Newport or Casnewydd generally isn’t a Welsh speaking city. There are pockets and there are plenty of individuals who speak our native language, but around Wales it’s one of the lowest in terms of percentage of people speaking Cymraeg. In 2027 the urdd youth Eisteddfod is coming to the city, and people are hoping it’ll be a catalyst for more Welsh speakers in the future.
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00:00I think it will be more of an inclusive thing around schools and when it is brought to Newport they will make a point of integrating that into something they do and I suppose the majority of Newport will come out for that.
00:17Honestly I doubt it. I don't think it would make a huge difference. Probably a marginal but not much. I don't think Newport is a very strong Welsh contingent.
00:27Do you think that's a good thing for the city? Encourage people to speak Welsh?
00:30Yeah, it would be much better. No one speaks Welsh here, do they? Really, you know what I mean? Up the valleys they do but not much here. I don't really hear it. So yeah, it will be good.
00:39You have to educate people. It's no good starting at 45, 50, 60 trying to learn Welsh. You're never going to do it. You have to catch children when they're young.
00:49We should all be speaking Welsh really but as a non-speaker it's a bit hypocritical, isn't it? But yes, they're all in favour of it. Schools are learning a lot more now. Yeah, definitely a good thing.
01:01We spoke Welsh when I was in school but I'm not sure the people who actually did speak Welsh, they go on to jobs and speak it. I'm not too sure.
01:08No, not at all. Sometimes. I mean, I spoke Welsh in school but not really. People don't really speak Welsh.
01:17I think it's catching on a lot more now as far as Welsh goes within Wales. I know the younger generation is being taught in nearly every school now. At one point it was a dying language they said but I think if you're from Wales you should be able to speak Welsh essentially, shouldn't you?
01:36Imagine being from England and you couldn't speak English. But yeah, I think it's a good thing to be honest.
01:42If you want to be British or Welsh or English or Irish or Scottish, what gives another country the right to tell you you can't be that? And that's what the English did back in the day. If you go through history, they're the ones who banned the Welsh language in Wales. I never banned it, you never banned it.