THE British Council is on the lookout for teachers to promote the Welsh language over 7,000 miles from home – in the Chubut province of Patagonia, Argentina.

From March to December 2024, the cultural relations organisation is hoping to send three teachers out to the Y Wladfa, the Welsh settlement in Patagonia, to spend 9 months teaching Welsh at one of three schools in the cities and towns of Trelew, Trevelin and Gaiman.

The teachers will be there as part of the Welsh Language Project, which was set up in 1997 to help promote the Welsh language in Patagonia, where there are currently over 6000 Welsh speakers. The region has the second highest volume of Welsh speakers anywhere in the world, after Welsh settlers created a permanent settlement in the Chubut Valley more than 150 years ago in 1865. Now, there are around 50,000 Patagonians of Welsh descent.

As part of the programme, the teachers will develop the language in Patagonia through both formal teaching and informal social activities and this year, two teachers – Llinos Howells and Thomas Door – are about to head out to spend the next three months in the region.