P-06-1434 First Minister to intervene & save Welsh Duolingo – Correspondence from the Petitioner to the Committee, 05 June 2024

Diolch am eich ebost.

Thank for your your email.

I very much welcome the news that my petition will be discussed by the Pwyllgor.

I wish to state that I received a very favourable response to my petition, with a large number of people commenting that they were disappointed to learn that the Duolingo Cymraeg course would no longer be updated. I am a learner, with a very modest social media following. I genuinely believe that if I had a larger reach on social media, there would have been a much stronger response to the survey.

As an adult learner, I have become very passionate about Cymraeg, and I aim to be able to live my life through the media of Cymraeg where possible. 

I feel that Cymraeg should not just survive, but it should be able to thrive, with the residents of Cymru, and those who identify as Cymry (wherever they live),  being able to converse in our beautiful and historical language with confidence. This confidence will only be developed through exposure to the language, and it's use.

Each and every person who signed the petition can (and should) be counted towards the 1m Cymraeg speakers target, and we as a nation should be doing everything that we can to support them in their learning journeys.

I note and commend Mr Miles' comments in relation to the provision of free Cymraeg learning for those aged between 16 and 25 years of age. Though I feel that we must recognise that there will be a large number of people in this age range who are not in formal education, and for whom their only access to learning Cymraeg comes through a mobile app. 

In addition, there are adults who are outside of this age range, who will be looking for any reliable resources to (1) supplement their learning, or (2) will use a mobile app as their one and only resource.

The risk we (collectively, as native speakers, learners and everyone in between) have is that for a massive company like Duolingo to stop updating a very popular resource, is that it could lead to learners stopping their learning altogether. I feel that this could then have very serious implications for the 1m speakers target.

The demand for this resource is there, we just need for it to be supplied (and maintained) so that it does not stagnate.

Any support or intervention that can be provided or made in order to continue the development of a Cymraeg Course will undoubtedly go some way to helping meet this demand.

Diolch. Thank you.