Mind Your Language

Mind Your Language

A country has its own history and culture. A country often also has its own language. The history, culture and language are all there to make a country unique. The citizens in the country are often proud of their country’s history, culture and language. The fact that it is possible for a bigger or stronger country to take control over another country can have a big effect on the citizens. They often think it is a sign of weakness and it creates a sense of inferiority and shame. Wales is an example on a country who had been “destroyed” by a stronger country, England, according to Tom Law, a freelance writer and journalist, who has written the article “Cachau Bant: Mind Your Language”.

English has been a dominant language for centuries and that obviously frustrates Tom Law. That is shown already in the beginning of his article. Over the past 150 years Welsh language has slowly been destroyed by English and according to Tom Law it has also begun to tear the whole country apart. He thinks Wales has become a husk of a nation because of the decline of the language, the stripping away of links to its history and culture. As he says: “It’s a country which no longer remembers who or what it is”.

A lot of Welsh people have been growing up with English as their mother language, they have been taught at English speaking schools, watched English television, listened to English music and read English books. The language was a choice made for them by their parents and the school they went to. The parents only wanted the best for their children and since the government in England had portrayed people who spoke Welsh very badly, the children were “forced” to go to English speaking schools.

It wasn’t something to be proud of if you spoke Welsh. The Government had managed to make Welsh seem like a language for poor people who clean your office toilets.

Tom Law catches the readers’ attentions when he asks them to imagine how things would be if the English language was being replaced by German. He then uses approx. a whole page mentioning how things would change. For example, he mentions that

middle-class parents want the best for their children and therefore they would have to learn German. By mentioning personal things like this he appeals to the readers’ feelings, and readers can relate to the situation Welsh people are in. The fact that Tom Law is Welsh himself and is one of those who has been taught at English schools, makes him reliable as a writer because he is one of the “exposed” ones. As a reader you’ll have some sort of sympathy with him.

Tom Law also includes the British colonisation in the 19th century in his article. He actually compares the situation in Wales with the British colonisations in Ireland, Singapore and so on. This makes it easier for the readers to relate to the problem in Wales because we all