10. Short Debate: Trilingual Wales: The value to Wales of teaching modern foreign languages

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:54 pm on 8 January 2020.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 6:54, 8 January 2020

Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. In 2012, with the permission of Angela Burns, who was our shadow education Minister at the time, I did something which I now wonder whether it was actually allowed, because I launched our trilingual Wales policy on the maes at the National Eisteddfod, and I did it in French, which is why I'm not sure whether what I did was within the rules. I did switch to Welsh pretty quickly, I have to say, partly because the media in attendance looked so utterly shocked. Now, I'm not sure that the local press in other small countries would've been so shocked in such a similar situation. Familiarity with, even if not the understanding of other languages just isn't the stuff of shock in other parts of the world; it just doesn't happen.