I was walking past the university library in Bockenheim this afternoon when the thought went through my mind - "I wonder whether they offer a degree in Welsh here?". I am given once in a while (well maybe a bit more often than that) to such esoteric thoughts.
Nothing so strange about a university offering that - I went to one that did! (That sounds like a Romneyism of course, on the principle "I had no difficulty making a fortune, so nobody else should have any problems doing so" - though maybe he has since changed his mind about that, in fact substitute "probably" for "maybe".... It possibly needed a couple of hours of non-reflection!).
Actually I would wonder how many young Germans realise that Wales has a separate language? Parts of it anyway. They haven't had a separate state for some 800 years (since Edward I took it over and filled it with Anglo-Norman nobility), but they have managed to retain bits of their separate culture to this day. Park yourself up in the (very scenic) North-West part of Wales some time. There are places where English is not the chosen language.
How I ended up going to Swansea to do my degree is far too complicated a story and not that interesting really, but it was essentially a great choice, provided that you came armed with an umbrella! When I first went, I arrived suitably armed with the fact that there were 26,000 people in Wales who could not speak English (this was the late 60s, I doubt whether this is the case now, and isn't 26,000 rather than a more obvious 25,000 an interesting number?). Also a quarter of the population (that takes you up to somewhere around 600,000 at the time) who were Welsh speakers altogether.
Although I was studying for a degree in Modern Languages, I never really made much effort to pick up much Welsh, which is rather sad really. I can still quote the University motto ("Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn"), the name of the university in Welsh and that is about it.
Not that there was much chance to practise it anyway. Of the university population only 40% were from Wales, the rest were "foreigners" (yes, the English made up 90% of the foreign contingent!). Most of my contacts in the first year there were fellow transplants from the North of England, two of them the sons of coal miners (those were the days!).
I did though in the second year have a flat mate who came from Pontardulais in the Swansea valley - a great guy called Alun, whose native language was Welsh, and was having to do all his Engineering course work in his second language (English)! That must have been a challenge. At the time we were living up near Cwmdonkin Park (note the importance of the letter "w" in Welsh, incidentally) and as a cultural digression, every day you could walk past the house where one of Swansea's favourite sons, Dylan Thomas, had lived.
Advice to those with a plaque on the house where somebody famous has lived - make sure you have a solid gate people cannot get past. This was a private house, and the number of people who tried to go in and have a look round ....
Attempts were being made to either revive the Celtic languages or at least ensure that they did not become extinct like Cornish in the 19th century (check out the progress being made with Scottish Gaelic in the past few years for more on this). Eventually though Welsh seems to be doing quite well. It is taught in schools in the non-Welsh speaking areas, it has its own television channel, and there is of course the annual arts festival called the Eisteddfod, where two different bards receive awards in significant colourful ceremonies.
If interested check out http://www.eisteddfod.org.uk/english/content.php?nID=421
You can read this in either English or Welsh!
Apparently Welsh is also a co-official language of the EU (the extra costs of translation being borne apparently by the Welsh Assembly Government) and so it will remain until the English (sorry UK) government decides to leave the EU.
And then to finish there is the Welsh national anthem. I have known a number of people from Wales over the years who cannot speak much Welsh (mainly from Cardiff, which is pretty much an English speaking enclave), but all could manage this in Welsh. I do not normally like national anthems, but this is quite rousing (particular the bit going "Gwlad Gwlad"!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtCOprRDUm8
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