Don’t add Welsh to doctors’ workload

THE report that language campaigners are complaining that Eluned Morgan AM had a conflict of interest when she exempted doctors from the language laws because her husband is a GP borders on the ridiculous. Everyone in Wales should have an interest!

The implication is that the activists want doctors to learn Welsh. Wales is struggling to recruit doctors, especially GPs, and professional teachers – both are suffering from excessive workload.

The harsh facts that it takes 10,000 hours to develop fluency in a new language and speakers need to develop fluency in a vocabulary of around 50,000 words are never declared. The British Council has claimed that two billion people will be speaking English in the world by 2020. If Welsh-medium schools are not creating Welsh-speakers who can communicate in English, then the time is overdue when Estyn should do something about it.

Most bilinguals use each of the languages they speak in different contexts. The problem with the small minority of native Welsh-speakers is that they appear to have the childish notion that because they were born Welsh-speakers, everyone in Wales must become fluent in Welsh so they do not have to use English.

Howard Gunn Tonteg, Pontypridd