Hong Kong student urges people to support minority languages after learning Welsh

A student from Hong Kong has gone viral with a video of his journey around Wales speaking Welsh.

Israel Lai, who is a composer studying composition at Manchester University, has learned nine different languages – including Welsh.

Living just across the border he decided to start his journey learning Welsh in 2022.

Speaking to S4C news he said he was passionate about promoting Welsh because the language has a similar history to his mother tongue, Cantonese.

He said: “I just feel the connection of the language. Moving to Manchester was the ‘trigger’ for me to start learning Welsh because it is the closest language to me geographically.

“But the real reason was that I felt for other languages that are overwhelmed like my own language, Cantonese.”

As well as Welsh he can also speak German, French, Polish, Taiwanese, and sign language – as well as English, Mandarin and his Cantonese mother tongue which he learned growing up in Hong Kong.

Support

He is passionate about promoting different languages and documents his multilingual life on social media.

And he was keen to share his affection for Wales and the Welsh language, when he took his parents, Cherry Yip and KK Lai on a trip around north Wales recently, where he spoke Welsh with the locals.

Mr Lai decided to film their family’s trip for his Youtube channel, Rhapsody in Lingo. The video has now attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers.

“I decided to take my parents on a tour of the north because I wanted to show parts of Wales that I knew already and I also want to explore more of the country.

Israel added that he is “very grateful,” for all the support he has received from people from Wales and beyond online.

“Since the video was published the Welsh have been so supportive, so lovely,” he said.

While most have praised him for his use of the language, he says he has received some criticism as well.

“But fortunately there are many more supportive, very positive comments,” he said.

“Not just from Wales, but England, and around the world that like what I say about supporting a minority language.”