Welsh language protest at 'lack of response' by government

[Sp!ke]

- India speak English because of colonialism, not because of business purposes.

Isnt that the same in African states where French is spoken?

In North African states i found that although they did speak French, they did so with gritted teath due to their hatred of them. I had a better reaction when speaking English.

I have to say that English is fast becoming an international language to the point of making it hard to even attempt to learn even tourist speak in many places. As soon as locals detect a foreign accent they reply in English (except in France where even if you have pretty good spoken French they will pretend they dont know what the heck you are saying).

Oddly, the place in the world where I found the least understandding of English and where almost no-one spoke any English at all was in northern Spain in Pontevedra. Dining out was like a game of lucky dip.

I found it refreshing in a good way.

 

[Ted]

Just to redress the balance, in a country pub (Carmel IIRC) in South Wales, I was made to feel really welcome.

Good job really as they were all built like brick outhouses.

 

[johnsco]

Because of my interesting journey thru life, I speak half-decent Spanish.
A joy when I go to Spain, Cuba or the Canaries, as I find it is generally-appreciated Definitely in Cuba and most of Spain ... But only in the Canaries, when they find out I am not from Spain.
Alas - I tried to hire a car in Catalonia not far from Barcelona.
It became clear that it was a point of principal not to speak to me in Spanish and only to use English.
After some discussion of this, I was informed that this was Catalonia and the language was Catalan.
With some sadness, I explained that I was one of the few English people that they would find that day who spoke Spanish.
Also - That the rest of the world was NOT going to learn Catalan.
I'm not sure I made many friends there.
(I do know about the Franco years and the suppression of the Catalan language)

 

[grober]

I can see an argument for maintaining cultural heritage and sense of identity but as has been hinted at it can also be divisive---- a them and us scenario. When people in company start speaking a language to deliberately exclude others that's got nothing to do with cultural heritage its just bad manners and does the language no favours.

 

[DSM10000]

The correct quote is

"fy hofrenfad yn llawn o lyswennod"

Translations of My hovercraft is full of eels in many languages

That is easy for you to say!!

 

[Deleted member 65149]

My six year old granddaughter speaks English and Welsh mixed into the same sentence! She lives with my English son and his Irish wife deep in the valleys of South Wales. Her school uses both English and Welsh in roughly equal measure. All I know is that excited six year olds can be hard enough to understand when they're only using one language, using two (one of which is totally alien to me!) means I have to respond with lots of nods, smiles and the occasional "uh ha". Ain't communication wonderful?

 

[flango]

Just to redress the balance, in a country pub (Carmel IIRC) in South Wales, I was made to feel really welcome.

Good job really as they were all built like brick outhouses.

No problem at all with South Wales I worked there for 4 years based out of Porthcawl, fantastic place, fantastic people and made to feel very welcome

The comparison of South Wales to North Wales also puts me in mind of another Country that is split North/South KOREA

What was the English saying " Come home to a real fire, buy a cottage in North Wales"

 

[DSM10000]

When I was a kid we lived in Blackpool and my parents liked to drive to north Wales for holidays.

I remember it as a beautiful place. The locals were generally friendly but it was very common to walk into a shop to find 2 or 3 women chatting away in English until they realised we weren't local and they switched to Welsh so we would not understand what they were saying!

The same happened to me in Dolgellau with my first wife who, although English did speak fluent Welsh as it was her father's home town and both her parents spoke Welsh.

We walked into a shop where three local ladies who were chatting away in English, immediately changed to Welsh on hearing us. After completing our purchases my wife turned, smiiled and said "Good day to you ladies, I understood every word you were saying" in immaculate Welsh.

The look on thier faces! Priceless

 

[millo777]

Having been dragged up in South Wales, it seems rather odd that there are people out there that think the government in Wales and/or Westminster aren't doing enough to promote the Welsh Language.

In the last 30 odd years all the sign posts have been made bi-lingual, every form for every government interaction has been made bi-lingual, there is a government funded welsh language TV station, multiple government funded welsh language radio stations, massive additional funding for Welsh language schools, A Welsh Government, the amount of time kids are forced to study the language has increased dramatically.

I just don't see what else these protesters are expecting?

The only real reason to learn Welsh is that it guarantees you a well paid job in a local council or the Welsh government. No other qualifications are required or needed.

I seem to remember the S4C football programme "Scorio" holds the record for the least number of viewers for a terrestrial TV programme in the UK ever. 0 viewers. None. Not one. I've no idea how TV ratings are calculated, and it may not be a totally accurate figure, but funny none the less.

It's simply a dying language. I hated being foreced to learn it at school. I could have been learning Japanese, Mandarin or Spanish.

 

[Spinal]

Isnt that the same in African states where French is spoken?

In North African states i found that although they did speak French, they did so with gritted teath due to their hatred of them. I had a better reaction when speaking English.

I have to say that English is fast becoming an international language to the point of making it hard to even attempt to learn even tourist speak in many places. As soon as locals detect a foreign accent they reply in English (except in France where even if you have pretty good spoken French they will pretend they dont know what the heck you are saying).

Oddly, the place in the world where I found the least understandding of English and where almost no-one spoke any English at all was in northern Spain in Pontevedra. Dining out was like a game of lucky dip.

I found it refreshing in a good way.

I found in northern/western africa it really depends on the countries. In eastern Mauritania, I had to pretend not to speak English there was such a hatred for Americans.

In Tunisia, I had better luck with English...

Really odd - as, as you say, they were both French colonies, but with totally different attitudes to the French. Even within a single country (e.g. Mali), in parts there is love for the French, in others a deep hatred. Oddly, around Timbuktu I found a lot of people that were quite happy with Americans - which was odd as at the time it was an Al-Qaida in Mahgreb stronghold....

All goes to show that people are weird... so much easier to force everyone to talk in matlab

M.