General Chat

Did I read somewhere that this man complained to English
Newspapers about the staff not speaking Welsh to him?

Emma x

sounds more than likely

Totally irrelevant but it made me smile when I remembered it just now.

As a child and for many years before we moved to Gwynedd, we had holidays in Barmouth as my mum had done as a child, and we used to do lots of walking...everywhere we went we saw the signpost to "Llwybr Cyhoeddus" and often we would walk for miles in search of this alluring place ...always seemingly just out of reach like 'Shangri-la' :-)

Llwybr Cyhoeddus?....public footpath :-D

Well as my OH would say......'They walk among us.'

I wonder what this man is a Doctor of? Also meybe it was a stunt to get more sales for his books ,(It has been Known) and John, the first world war was mainly caused by an Assasination of a Grand Duke,(Thought you would have Known That.) Also ,Being(as you state)Educated and Lived in Wolverhampton,also were no doubt employed by English people are,nt you yourself being a little Racist towards the English who Housed and Educated you?You by your own words are only Half Welsh So what is your Problem? I,m Welsh and so are all my family going back years and years in History,And I lived in Wolverhampton and was educated there.I think you tend to Jump on Bandwaggons and do a lot of Name Dropping to get attention, I think its time you learnt your lesson and accepted the fact that you,ve been rumbled by the people on here as just an attention seeker .**M**

Rose...Glad you enjoyed your holidays in...Abermaw or Y Bermo ,both Welsh Spellings, my daughter won her way to Urdd eisteddfod with her Welsh Speaking poetry.
The beach is as good as any and the stretch from there to Harlech is wonderful.
I had a beach cafe at the far end of the prom from 1962-70 where there was safe bathing.
I do understand phrases in Welsh,but not enough for a whole conversation.Where I live now is much more English than Gwynedd.Still a few farmers up in the hills but seems to be a retirement place.
We used to call it....Costa Geriatrica!!....don't know what that is in Welsh!!

"Talk tidy" - John Edward's 'The Art of Speaking Wenglish'.

One of my new year resolutions - a bit more practice. Beautiful!

Caveat to the demand of speaking in Welsh, youngest prosecutes in both languages because a defendant in court can insist on only giving evidence in Welsh.

Banks and many large shops, hotels etc., you will see staff wearing a badge which tells the customer they are Welsh speaking (I used those in the hotel). This saves a lot of embarassment for staff :-) they won't be approached by a Welsh speaker if the badge doesn't indicate bi-lingual.

When I go into hospital in Ceredigion or Pembrokeshire one of the questions for the ward staff notes is 'which language would you prefer?' Perfectly understandable when a patient is stressed and they would be more comfortable communicating in their first language.

It's a topic that doesn't HAVE to cause conflict and I lay the blame with the Welsh Language activists who did a lot of damage in the 70s/80s/early 90s.

Rose,you might have played with my daughter who was born in 1958!
The only thing was that during school holidays when I was very busy,as I did B&B as well in a 17 roomed house.my children..son 1961 ...went to stay on their holidays in....wait for it...Manchester!

I always worried that they could run across the prom to the cafe and cars were up and down.My mum loved having them and they enjoyed the rest of the year living by the sea.

Robyn is not a Welsh name - it's origin is Old Germanic. The variations - -yn and -in are Old English and French, respectively.

Lewis is a cantankerous old person who is a regular contributor to newspaper 'letter's pages' where he also shows his true colours - a trouble-maker, s**t-stirrer, call it what you will. His contributions are in English, however.

When Archdruid, he also boycotted Liverpool's application to hold an Eisteddfod in the City (2007) - it would have been the fourth time this would have taken place there. His reason was that it was 'stupid', and again the flooding of Capel Celyn by LCC was sited (even though this happened in late 50's to mid 60's).

No. He's just a little man who believes he should have a prominent place on a large stage. A left-wing Nationalist who believes he can do / say what he likes, but does not credit others with the right to do the same - like a lot of cowardly bullies, really

I wonder if he's related to Saunders Lewis?

:-P

Hello MrD, you are obviously feeling better :-D

When I read the article, just knew it would end up here !!! :-D :-D :-D <3

@RR - memories.... beer and apple juice, but no mention of 'korn' with the latter?? :-0

Oh you know me so well...lololol :-D :-D always up for a lively discussion

;-)

As is happening in Scotland Rose, all for the central belt and
the rest are left out.

Emma x

Doesn't sound like the Scotland I live in?

Did you know that the "elvish" spoken in LOTR is basically Welsh?

RR love Barmouth :-D

Which part are in then, Denis, if it is not rude of me to ask.

Julia in DErbyshire

OK our Rose I read all of that!

Firstly, I know one of the contributors in Aberystwyth and secondly I actually live in one of the areas mentioned so I reckon I can have a valid opinion on some of the tripe I have just plowed through.

a) local shops being run by English people...yep and why? the locals chose to shop in out of town centres and the previous Welsh shopkeepers saw the writing on the wall.

b) post offices being closed, that is happening all over the UK in rural areas and has naff all to do with incomers.

c) primary schools being overrun with children from English speaking homes, errr...no children no school!

d) churches and chapels closing, surely that is because less people are attending.

e) local children leaving to find work...it's a long standing agricultural area 90% of school/uni leavers migrate to where the businesses are!

f) lack of business opportunities, perhaps if Wales didn't end where the M4 does is might be different. That little problem is down to the business gurus in the Assembly.

g) and my favourite. Housing being snapped up because locals cannot afford the prices. I'll grant you that there are many retirees with money who move to Wales. However, you need to go back a few decades when traditional cottages were regarded as the pits by children of Welsh families who wanted a nice new 3 bed semi with double glazing and central heating. English viewers saw these as opportunities to acquire an asset and the prices were dirt cheap. They either upgraded them or restored them beautifully.

These participants can scream about ethnic cleansing till they are blue in the face. Did they scream "we will NOT sell to an incomer on principle"? Nope, and those that did like one of our vendors soon found a 'get out of jail free' card and took our money.

My own children could not have earned the wages they receive in Cardiff if they had stayed at home nor have afforded to purchase a property. It's not just a problem for indigenous Welsh.

Without incomers lots of self start businesses would not exist, shops would not hear their tills ringing, rural bus services would have been cancelled years ago, schools would be closing every month etc.,


To finish I'd like to add this. When the kids go to Uni they have their eyes opened to a whole new exciting world. They compare the opportunities in Cardiff, Swansea or any of the English FE establishments and wonder what on earth is attractive about returning to their home village or town. So in my case 3 Welsh speakers left their local area never to return. Even if they are replaced by another family I have no doubt those children will be off PDQ to greener pastures so it's like a Celtic knot isn't it?

Sue

Merlin. As far as Welsh is concerned, all I will say is that I support Wales in the rugby and Wolves and Wales in football. Always have since a boy. And my second favourite rugby side is Ireland. And third is France. Whether England win at anything is of no importance to me.

I think most Welsh speakers will be very upset if Dr Lewis does damage to the cause of the Welsh language. I don't expect friends in England or in Anglicised parts of Wales to really understand why we fight so hard for legal equality of the Welsh language, but they are generally sympathethic and tell us to get on with it.

Yes, we did paint out some road signs in 60's and early 70's. There was a furore at the time, but bilingual signs are now accepted and visitors think it is quaint and different. And incomers love to live in roads they can hardly pronounce. Find a property developer in South Wales who gives his roads English names - and they are Welsh for financial reasons. People like Welsh - written and spoken.

Rose Costa Geriatrica? Possibly Arfordir yr Henaint.

Very concise Sue :-D