Sun newspaper slammed for ‘disgraceful’ anti-Welsh language headline

The Sun newspaper has been criticised after it ran a headline claiming that an American woman who had learnt Welsh had “nobody to talk to”.

Geordan Burress, 28, from Cleveland, Ohio taught herself Welsh online after falling in love with Welsh language music by Gruff Rhys and the Super Furry Animals.

She visited Wales in May and her visit was widely covered by the BBC and other news sites.

Geordan Burress told the Sun that she tended to speak Welsh online and over video link because “I have only met one other American who speaks Welsh and he lives in Wales”.

The Sun splashed the story on Twitter saying: “American woman spends eight years learning Welsh only to discover she’s got nobody to talk ? ? [sic]”

Dan Lawrence responded to the story, saying: “This is a disgraceful headline and article. Implying that she’s an idiot when she’s far from it.

“Learning another language should be celebrated, not mocked,” he said. “Absolute scumbag paper.”

Twitter user Dai Lama said: “This headline infers she expected Americans would speak Welsh and this was her motivation for learning. It wasn’t.

“Yet another lame attempt by the media to frame learning Welsh as a waste of time. The Sun your rag remains unfit to even wrap chips in.”

Another Twitter user said: “I read your article but it doesn’t make much sense. If Geordan’s got nobody to talk to, who are all these people that you say she can converse with on the Internet?”

Others were less diplomatic in their response to the Sun’s story.

There are estimated to be around 2,235 Welsh speakers in the United States, with another 650,000 or so worldwide.