Elinor Staniforth from Cardiff disliked Welsh lessons at her English-medium school– after her GCSEs, she stated, she “forgot everything about it”. Winning a location at Oxford University, however, made Staniforth reassess her identity and relationship with the language.
“I unexpectedly became really familiar with being Welsh,” the 28-year-old said. “There were only two Welsh individuals in the entire college. Individuals would ask if I spoke Welsh, and I ‘d have to state no. It’s like a switch turned on while I was at uni. I was thinking that I ‘d lost out on something.”
Staniforth graduated and returned to Cardiff shortly before the Covid pandemic broke out, so she began discovering Welsh in an online class. She was a finalist for the Cymraeg Learner of the Year reward at the 2024 national Eisteddfod, and now teaches the language herself.Elinor Staniforth. Photograph: Huw John She stated: “I discovered the classes for grownups an amazing experience. I made such good friends, I learnt more about Welsh culture, I found brand-new bands and books, a new world. I wished to give back. “New figures from Y Canolfan Dysgu Cymraeg Genedlaethol– the National Centre for Knowing Welsh– suggest Staniforth is far from alone: the variety of adult students enrolling with the centre has increased 12%in a year, and has actually now reached more than 20,000 for the very first time.The news is welcome after the latest five-year report from the Welsh language commissioner, which found that while the variety of Cymraeg speakers has actually stayed more or less stable for years, it has not increased in line with significant population development, making the language more vulnerable. The commissioner, Efa Gruffudd Jones, previously stated that”bold and transformative “intervention would be needed if the Welsh federal government was to meet its target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050. Dona Lewis, the chief executive of Dysgu Cymraeg, said:”We are really pleased with the numbers; the stats reveal consistent growth because we
were developed. There’s substantial demand and we have a huge contribution to make to the language in the future.”The variety of people on Dysgu Cymraeg courses has actually risen every year given that the programme began in 2016, and is up 61%considering that information was very first released for the scholastic
year 2017-18. Nearly 40 %of individuals concern the classes through the office, where uptake is especially strong in the NHS and the authorities. There has actually also been a big boost in younger people discovering
Welsh, with the number of students aged 16 to 24 up 56%in 2024-25 compared with the previous year. The percentage of students who offered details about their ethnic background and recognized as from “diverse ethnic backgrounds”was 5%, compared to 1% the year before.Scott Gutteridge:’ It’s a fantastic time to begin learning Welsh due to the fact that there are numerous resources available.’Photograph: Marc Brenner Scott Gutteridge, 29, a London-based star who grew up in Llanelli, stated he believed a language”improvement”of sorts was under way. He said:” It’s a wonderful time to start learning Welsh due to the fact that there are numerous resources readily available. It appears like
a fire that’s burning once again, there’s a lot more young students. And there’s a lot of inspiring Welsh arts out there, I believe individuals actually get in touch with the poetry of the language.”Gutteridge fell for Cymraeg while working on a bilingual production of Romeo and Juliet. He started studying at nights, and experimenting with what he ‘d discovered at work the next day.He stated:”Often it was tough with dialects, but you just start somewhere. It’s Wenglish in the start, individuals are so happy you’re attempting and trying.”Like Staniforth, Gutteridge said that the adult learning experience was more enjoyable than mandatory Welsh lessons in school.
He described a recent residential course at Nant Gwrtheyrn, the Welsh language heritage centre on Gwynedd’s Llŷn peninsula, as “magical”.”I like discovering anyway, however Cymraeg has actually an included component for me. It benefits the mind, good for the heart, helpful for the soul,”he said.The brand-new influx of learners are not simply Welsh people who matured in English-speaking homes, Staniforth stated– fellow students and students she has actually come across include English and Scottish individuals with children or grandchildren in Welsh medium education, those who have actually moved to Wales for love or work, eastern European, Japanese and Singaporean learners, and people signing up with online from the United States and Australia.Despite the welcome increase in the number of students, Cymraeg’s future is made complex, she stated, partially due to the fact that of what she called a” huge divide in between school and adult learning”. Staniforth stated: “Substantially more kids go to English than Welsh school, and there’s insufficient concentrate on them. If you discover a language you need to wish to do it: asking an 11-year-old to do it when they have no interest in it will be difficult.” Learning Welsh needs to be enjoyable, because finding and developing a community, that’s what keeps the language alive.
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