General Chat

I have a brother in law who is Welsh....speaks fluent Welsh, but I have to say it used to get my goat when he was staying at my parents and when he was on the phone to his family he used to go from English into Welsh.....it literally made me cringe not that im nosey or ever wanted to listen in to the conversation but I used to find it so rude !!....I know this can happen in any language what so ever I just wanted to add to this thread as I on a serious note find it very interesting!!

By the way I adore my bro in law and he has taught my nephews the language and when they sing to me in Welsh it melts my heart even though I dont know what they are singing!! :-D :-D

Brenda. I agree that is bad manners. I have never seen that, but have always been able to say basic things and ask for things in Welsh.

I was thinking of them speaking Wenglish in the Rhondda. I used to feel out of it at first. They speak very fast and you get phrases like "Where are you working to, but?" thrown at you. And gooleys and backs that you walk through. Lovely book called "William Owen" (written in Welsh and translated into English. About a slate quarrier who moved from Caerns to be a coal miner in the Valleys in 1930's. Both areas Welsh speaking and culture and work very similar. Yet he nearly had to learn a new language in S Wales. Lovely book.

Fel y dywedais...
Pwy ydych chi'n meddwl efallai fy mod yn ddryslyd i chi, yna John?

Ac nid ydynt yn ei fod yn unrhyw un o'ch busnes-I ddim yn yfed alcohol.

my hubby does that Mersey when hes talking to his parents,its a habit when you are a welsh speaker,my hubby and children are fluent welsh speakers(2nd language for the children but fluent all the same) my hubby will not speak welsh while im in the rm,but sometimes forgets and will start off in welsh then change to english,if hes alone with his parents,siblings or friends he will speak welsh.

Our youngest daughter took 11 GCSE"s through the medium of welsh and her little girl age 2 speaks welsh and english and will go from one to the other depending on who shes speaking to.

:-D :-D

TheBlackKnight. Have no idea who you are confusing me with. You may not drink, but you sure as anything are turning me that way :-( :-(

I like your Welsh very much - but think it is not allowed like that in T & C. T & C dryslyd ;-)

Like you say Suzanne it is a habbit.....I have got used to it now and to be honest he doesnt do it as much.......but at first It realy got me riled....I now ask the kids to tell me something in welsh....usually something funny LOL...

OH is Welsh and Welsh speaking, speaks to her Sis on the phone in Welsh. But in English when i'm around.

TBH not too bothered.

When she was a student, my daughter went on a field trip to Wales.
At the end of one day, they went into a pub.

About 4 of the students went in, and spoke to each other in German. They noticed the 'locals' were speaking English.
The other 8 students walked in, speaking English.
The 'locals' immediately stopped talking, and proceeded to speak in Welsh!!!!

Umbeknownst to the locals, one of the students could speak Welsh - and what the locals said was very derogatory.

Now, bearing in mind the students were going to buy a drink and therefore give money to the landlord, thereby helping the pub stay open, this attitude was very negative, if not racist.

The student who spoke Welsh told them where they could stick their pints and they all walked out.

No doubt John would consider this 'English' racism, not ignorance on the part of a few Welsh morons - but it's something that isn't infrequent.

Can't confuse you with anyone-you're in a league of your own John

lot of it here in Anglesey Maggie.

its all rather silly really , it being a holiday place where locals need the holiday makers(mostly english) to holiday here and spend their money. :-D

Maggtie. I would agree wholeheartedly with you. It sounds like their sole purpose was to keep their conversation private and stop the students from overhearing.

There may have been a good reason - but it sounds bad to me. The only time that has happened in my presence is when a group of us were talking about the football in English then started talking about the Eisteddfod. And we immediately changed to Welsh naturally. Not so easy to say in English when you are discussing the finer points of Welsh poetry. :-)

Many years ago we went to visit someone we knew who ran a pub in Winchcombe (Glos) had we not gone there to see this friend, we would have walked out...the locals just stopped talking and stared at us.

When we ran our own pub the customers could speak martian if they liked, as long as they bought a beer :-D

No good reason, John.
After their first experience, they did it in every pub, and only stayed when the locals carried on as normal, ie speaking Welsh or speaking English, not changing because 'foreigners' had walked in.

They were in various parts of Wales for a week - and being students, this involved quite a lot of pubs!

Oh - and the Welsh speaker was very embarrassed - and explained that this reaction and narrow mindedness was one of the reasons he wanted to leave Wales!

Little tip if you go into a Welsh pub with a strained atmosphere.

Stand on one of the benches or ideally a table, bang a spoon on said table and say:

"teen eer sigh, son"

No idea what it means, but you will find that everyone smiles and wants to buy you a drink. ;-)

John can I give a little tip????

it's Welsh...so are you breaking T&C's to?

BK. Think they are all English words - not sure about eer but have heard cum eer in English :-)

Can't think of many pubs in rural areas where you can walk in and not be looked at quizzically as if you had landed in a space craft. Not limited to Welsh speakers by any means, as Jax pointed out.

Just remembered, I encountered something similar.
About 15 years ago, I learnt stage 1 sign language.
Towards the end of term, we would decamp to the local pub, and attempt to sign to each other. This was an exercise in not saying what we were signing.

A bunch of people walked in, saw us signing, and said something derogatory about the 'bunch of deffo's in the corner'.

They soon left, when I pointed ut there were 12 of us, suggested they weren't so perfect themselves, and asked them to repeat their comment, preferably in words of more than 1 syllable, if they were capable.

we say "come" where I'm from-you may want to go on Urban Dictionary & check what you've put.
roflmao
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:-D :-D :-S :-0 :-0 :-0 :-0 :-0 :-0


I believe it's come 'ere, as in here with the 'H' - that's ' aytch' missing.