My plea to fellow Welsh speakers
While on holiday last week with my family in beautiful Pembrokeshire, where I grew up, I asked several of my relatives which adopted Welsh words used in conversation on television and social media they most despised.
The top two, which coincidentally matched my own nominations, were “joyo” (or joio) and “proud” (or prowd), while “ffantastic” was also mentioned several times.
Certainly hearing the first two used by people whose mastery of our beautiful language would ordinarily shame most of us from north Pembrokeshire (where our dialect is often referred to as pigeon Welsh), makes me absolutely cringe!
Why on earth have Welsh speakers stopped using mwynhau, balch and rhyfedd? It is I think somewhat ironic that our millennia-old language is so innovative and progressive when coining newer words like cyfrifiadur (computer) and gwefan (website) but has recently begun to regress in some of the older words used in everyday life!
Please, please, fellow Welsh speakers, let’s discard these terrible English bastardisations, and revert to the lovely pure Welsh alternatives Asap!
R Terry James
Brentwood, Essex
Train journey turned into a nightmare
I Went to Cardiff by train on Friday. The journey there wasn’t too bad, although rain was coming in and dripping on the seat in front of me. However, coming back was a nightmare.
I thought it would be OK on the 13.40 train – but how wrong I was. When the train arrived there were only two carriages. Although some people did get off, it was still almost full – with people sitting on the floor and luggage piled up as far as you could see. I almost tripped and fell over someone.
Most of us managed to get on, but it was a tight squeeze and we could not “move along” any more when we were already packed in like sardines.
Many people had to stand from Cardiff to Carmarthen. What would have happened in an emergency I dread to think.
Before our train left there was a GW train coming in behind us. We waited.
Talk about no room at the inn. People from this train had no chance of getting on ours.
They were milling round on the platform looking bewildered and upset.
The conductor announced that the GW train would be going as far as Swansea. This train had nine carriages and those who were only going as far as Swansea could get on that. No one dared move.
I don’t think physically we could have – and most people were going on past Swansea.
There were other problems but I won’t go into those.
As for letting the train take the strain it was a wonder it didn’t fall apart at the seams!
S Gardener
Haverfordwest
Smith is quiet about our NHS services
The latest waiting time figures for A&E in Wales show that yet again patients are having to wait far too long in departments across the country.
During July 2016 only 88.2% of patients at the Royal Glamorgan were seen and discharged or admitted within the target time of four hours.
More than 600 patients waited longer than that, with 134 spending more than eight hours there and 54 more than 12 hours.
This is actually an improvement on June, when only 79.5% were seen within four hours and a shocking 188 spent more than 12 hours there.
The staff at our A&E departments are doing a great job in impossible circumstances. The units are understaffed and not adequately equipped. I am constantly hearing stories of A&E running out of basic supplies.
This is nothing new – it has been the case for not just months but years now, and the Welsh Labour Government has done nothing about it.
There are still plans to move severe trauma care from the Royal Glamorgan to other locations in Bridgend, Merthyr and Cardiff, according to the South Wales Programme. Little information seems to be coming forth regarding progress on that and their waiting times are similarly poor.
It must be galling indeed for residents in the Pontypridd constituency to see their MP Owen Smith going around the UK promising more money for the NHS in England in the very unlikely event he becomes Labour leader and then Prime Minister, when services are so bad on his own doorstep and he says nothing.
Karen Roberts
RCT Welsh Liberal Democrats
Reason behind fall in Welsh A-level entries
your education correspondent Gareth Evans points out (Wales records its worst A-level results at the top grades for 14 years, August 18) that entries for Modern foreign languages at A-level continue to fall and that there was a “huge fall in Welsh first language entries”.
Falling Welsh first-language entries at A-level is not a new phenomenon. In 2006, 387 entered the exam and this had fallen to 360 by 2011 and again to 310 by 2015. This year the figure is 276.
What we lack is any sensible analysis as to why this should be. The answer lies in the GCSE performance of the two different sections of pupils who study Welsh first language, those who have Welsh as their home language and those that have English only as their home language.
For the years 2011-2013 we have data for 16,000 pupils who entered Welsh first language GCSE. Of those, 54% came from Welsh-speaking homes and 46% came from homes where only English was spoken.
Of Welsh home language pupils 26% attained at A*- A and 11.8% of pupils from English-only homes attained the highest grades.
When the cohort appears in the A-level statistics, only 11.4% of those GCSE pupils have entered A-level Welsh first language and 80% of them are girls. Of all those entrants, 82% came from Welsh-speaking homes and 18% came from English- only homes. And the results at the highest grades, A*- A?
92% of all A*- A grades were awarded to pupils from homes were Welsh was the first language and 7% to pupils from homes where Welsh was not spoken.
Until Welsh-medium schools actually raise the standard of Welsh attainment (and indeed attainment in all subjects) for pupils from non Welsh-speaking homes, and as long as the percentage of homes where children speak Welsh with their parents continues to fall, Wales will not generate the required number of Welsh-proficient teachers.
J Jones,
Anglesey
I can do this sport broadcasting
As a keen student of bemusing broadcasting mores I wish to apply for any position as a sports commentator On BBC Radio 5 Live.
I believe I have all the qualifications needed. I can scream when describing the least exciting of sporting moments and have the ability, through years of practice, to sound enthusiastic about everything from false teeth to shoe laces.
I also have innate skills in “getting to the heart” of vital sporting issues such as beards and their effect on the second per second acceleration skills of athletes during marathon races and I have a keen interest in the general movement and gait of female athletes without actually alluding to anything sexual.
I also understand there is a requirement to be extraordinarily friendly and complimentary to everyone I describe until they are proven to be guilty of such misdemeanours as drinking alcohol or getting home late – after which I should respect them in a wicked sounding manner depending on their earning potential.
My personal ability for sycophancy is unsurpassed.
Finally may I say, that as the new football season has recently commenced, all of the above will be essential to maintaining the high standards expected by BBC commentators at all times.
I A Price
Tallis Street, Cwmparc
Cancer drug that’s not cost-effective
The Welsh Tories go on about how good cancer drug treatments are more widely available in England. How will they explain that breast cancer patients in England will be denied a life-extending drug widely available in Scotland and Wales. NHS England rejected £3,000-a-month Afinitor on the grounds that it is “not cost-effective”. Afinitor can extend survival by 11 months of patients.
Andrew Nutt
Bargoed, Caerphilly County
