Can an app decide if a language lives or dies? Not if Welsh speakers have anything to do with it
Can an app decide if a language lives or dies? Not if Welsh speakers have anything to do with it
Duolingo is ‘pausing’ its Welsh course despite high demand – we need robust forms of learning that aren’t driven by profit, says writer and documentary-maker Gwenno Robinson
I’m lucky enough to be one of just 0.01% of the world’s population who speaks Welsh as their mother tongue. Its survival over 1,500 years is remarkable, living cheek by jowl with English, the most dominant language on Earth. The Welsh language faces a genuine threat; it is classed as “vulnerable” by the Endangered Languages Project and “potentially vulnerable” by Unesco. The latest census showed that despite huge expense and effort, in 2021 there were 24,000 fewer Welsh speakers in Wales than a decade earlier, with the proportion dropping to a record low of 17.8%.
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Well Mark, you had the chance to back a welsh-made language learning app startup (made by a friend of mine) and passed them up so they've moved onto other things.
Don't act surprised when an American language learning app decides to drop a relatively obscure language like Welsh.