Bilingual clap trap.

[Diesel]

I need to rant about the utter stupidity of trying to make everybody be bilingual where I work.

It started a few weeks ago when we were informed that we HAD to answer all external phone-calls in Welsh and English. Now our out-of-office email replies HAVE to be in both Welsh and English. To make matters worse, we've also been informed that there will be spot checks! The laughable thing is, I'm in South-East Wales where absolutely nobody speaks Welsh as a first language.

I hate the Welsh language zealots who continuously try and foist their dead language onto me, it makes me wish I wasn't Welsh. At least I can console myself by the fact that their beloved rugby team were humiliated by some tiny Pacific island.

 

[Diesel]

So are there people living in Wales that DON'T speak any English then?

Only a couple of old duffers in some ridiculously named villages, apparently.

Personally I have never met anybody who speaks Welsh but not English.

 

[Diesel]

North Wales = Good Wales
South Wales = Bad Wales, full of Anglo-hating Cardiff City fans

Its not South Wales where they refuse to speak to you for being English.

 

[Diesel]

Role on independence and let the fools do what they will.

If Wales ever gains full independence I shall be swiftly moving to England.

I have always said that bilingual signs are a complete waste of taxpayers money, especially when they say almost the same thing (an example being when a road near me was being repaired and the English sign said "Concrete Curing", while the Welsh sign next to it said "Concrete Curio").

 

[Diesel]

Would you go to France and expect everything to be in English for you? What makes Wales different?

No, because it isn't France's first language.

English is Wales' first language, no matter how much legislation is pushed through to try and claim Welsh has equal importance.

 

[Diesel]

Many children in Wales do not even know English until they go to school and learn it, the only time they'll ever speak English is in school lessons depending on where they live, so English is not really a first language in Wales.

'Many' is perhaps the wrong word, 'a small number' would be a better description.

 

[Diesel]

No, many IS the right word, the further West you go from the Border the more likely the families main language is Welsh. It's only really the Border towns and the bigger cities that are mainly English, I live in Flintshire, AKA Little Liverpool, there's more scousers here than there are Welsh, so yeah English is probably a first language here, but even so I know families whose main language is Welsh here too.

I still dispute the use of the word 'many'.

Only a fifth of the Welsh population speak Welsh, that in itself is a small number. Take away the large number who only learnt it because its the cool thing to do (and whose real language is English) and I think you will find that not many children in Wales are brought up speaking only Welsh before they go to school.

 

[Diesel]

we are all part of the same overall republic and so should behave accordingly.

We aren't part of any republic.