THREAD

Wales has 2 official languages: Welsh & English. Both are spoken across the country. In some areas, Welsh is the community language, while in others English is more dominant.

But judging by BBC Wales news alone, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Wales has only one national language— and it isn’t Welsh.

As things stand, Welsh speakers have to switch to speaking English when being interviewed on BBC Cymru Wales news programmes.

But why should this be the case? Shouldn’t the BBC, as a public broadcaster, reflect the bilingual nature of the country?

Requiring Welsh speakers to switch language on the news is a problem because it prevents people from speaking their own language in their own country.

It also creates an inaccurate picture of Welsh-speaking communities by giving the impression that only English is spoken there.

Of course, we already have a Welsh-language channel called S4C— and this is something to celebrate. But there’s a danger that if we limit the use of Welsh to only one channel, then we will also limit the number of people who are exposed to the language in their day-to-day life.

One solution might be to use subtitles when interviewing Welsh speakers on news programmes such as BBC Wales Today.

This would achieve two things:

It would better reflect the linguistic reality of Wales.

It would ensure that those who don’t ordinarily hear any Welsh become accustomed to hearing it on a daily basis.

This is essential, if we’re serious about reaching the @WelshGovernment's target of 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050— with 20% of the population using the language daily.

Check out the video that this thread is based on here: