As you can probably tell, this is a language-related thread. I'm posting it here because there's not really a sub-forum that's specifically appropriate for it.

I go to school somewhere in North America (don't feel like specifying where exactly), and from what I can tell, almost none of the students at my school have heard of the Welsh language. They know Wales exists, but they don't know it has its own language or that it's a separate country from England. (They also seem to have some confusion over "Wales" vs. "whales".) I found this all somewhat strange at first, especially considering that the teachers and staff have all heard of Welsh and know that Wales is a country, but maybe it isn't as strange as one might think -- we are dealing with the younger generation here, and their area of knowledge is significantly different from the preceding generation. But for me this was really unexpected because I've always kind of known about Welsh thanks to my lullaby book and I guess I figured everyone else was roughly the same. But no. They assume that because I'm interested in Welsh I must be of Welsh extraction (which I'm not really). I have to explain to them that I'm learning Welsh "because it's there".
What's everyone else think?

I occasionally run into people who haven't heard of Welsh, but not often. Less frequently, in fact, then I run into people who have tried to learn Welsh at some point in their lives (or at least how to pronounce the names in the Mabinogi).

That's funny. So my classmates aren't typical in this respect?

I can't say. The sampling of people I know may be no more representative of the population at large than your classmates.

Well...

One, Wales is fairly small and does not make world news very often, you must admit.

Two, Welsh has a very small number of speakers, so the chances of a person hearing or being exposed to Welsh in everyday encounters is very low.

Three....... the majority of people are quite uneducated and have no real interest in the world around them. North American university students, sadly, are often included in that statement.

How true! It is indeed deplorable that people of a race generally so excepted as being well-learnéd, should not know about such a language as Welsh; which, through the past of Great Britain, figures largely in their history!

I think Welsh is a lovely language, and am learning it myself.

I think most of my fellow classmates have heard of Wales, if only through hearing about the Prince of Wales. Also, Welsh is a fantastic language, however, it's simply not on my list of languages to learn right now (I'd like to finish learning Russian first )