Gwenllian Carr, the Welsh Language Board's publicity and marketing officer
Subj: Welsh Official To Learn Language
Date: 08/31/1999 11:59:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: <A HREF="mailto:AOL News">AOL News</A>
BCC: <A HREF="mailto:Pat Noble">Pat Noble</A>
Welsh Official To Learn Language
.c The Associated Press
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) - The official spokesman on language issues for the new
Welsh Assembly plans to take language lessons. The subject: Welsh.
English-born Tom Middlehurst was widely criticized for his inability to speak
the native tongue when he was given responsibility for language issues in May
as part of his duties as an education minister.
Starting Wednesday, learning Welsh will be compulsory for all schoolchildren
up to the age of 16. And Middlehurst, who moved to Wales in 1971, has
announced that he now will take private Welsh lessons.
He said he hoped to learn to speak Welsh ``reasonably well.''
The most recent language figures, published at the time of the 1991 census,
showed that almost 19 percent of the Welsh population - just over 508,000
people - spoke Welsh.
Gwenllian Carr, the Welsh Language Board's publicity and marketing officer,
said that number was certain to have increased by now.
Members of the Welsh Assembly are allowed to speak in either Welsh or English
in debates. Twenty of the 60 Assembly members speak Welsh and others have
expressed interest in learning.