'Cool’ Cymraeg

Welsh Language Officer Dewi Roberts detects a cultural shift

There was an article in the Guardian newspaper a few years ago with the title "Cymru forever!" - How speaking Welsh became Cool by Rhiannon Cosslett.

The article mentioned that there were signs of cultural change among the younger generation, who now consider it quite 'cool' to use the language. One indication of this was a Welsh rock band producing Welsh songs for worldwide distribution. Dion Jones and Sion Land from Alffa were the first band to pass a million Spotify downloads with a Welsh song. Fair play to them for having the courage to do this, not knowing if it would be commercially successful. In our digital age where songs can travel across the world in seconds, language barriers probably don't seem to be an issue anymore.

A few weeks ago, I was in a Café in Carmarthen and happened to listen to an English woman trying her best to communicate in Welsh to a couple who had clearly become her mentor in the language. They spoke to her slowly in Welsh and encouraged her in her efforts. And she was clearly keen to improve her Welsh and believed that speaking Welsh was a good and 'cool' thing to do.