Bilingual clap trap.

~J~ said:
Well I'm in a small village (well Hamlet now seeing as the Post Office has shut) between Pontarddulais and Gorseinon, I'd saw 25% is Welsh speaking.

Cynwel Elfed where my wife grew up is between Carmarthen and Newcastle Emlyn (she lived in Blaen-y-coed), there it's about 75% Welsh speaking.

The "Cheap if ya Welsh Boyo" Scone shop is at Pontarddulais, and the old tart with her bloody Welsh Egg is in Llanelli Market near the Newsagents.
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You don't have to stray far at all from your neck of the woods (I'm guessing near Hendy?) to find 50% and upwards Welsh speaking villages.

I worked in a petrol station in Brynamman for years and heard as much Welsh as English spoken - if not more. When I worked in the sister site just 7 miles down the road maybe 1 in 200 would speak Welsh though... huge regional variation.
 
Lopéz said:
You don't have to stray far at all from your neck of the woods (I'm guessing near Hendy?) to find 50% and upwards Welsh speaking villages.

I worked in a petrol station in Brynamman for years and heard as much Welsh as English spoken - if not more. When I worked in the sister site just 7 miles down the road maybe 1 in 200 would speak Welsh though... huge regional variation.
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Nail on head there mate. Unless you've lived in the area where I am (you're right, near Hendy), it's VERY hard to describe to someone who doesn't live here just how a few mile can be so different.

At least you know what I mean!! :)
 
jdickerson said:
Is it more a case of "Cymru am byth" or "twll din pob sais"?

If the former, I'm right with you. After all, it is in your culture etc.... However, is there a need for all the multiplicity in government info?
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Well if they didn't do it, then eventually everyone would think "oh we don't need to speak/understand Welsh, everyone will just speak/understand English". If it's not kept alive then it will die, simple as.

It's not about the need for it, it's about the people wanting to ensure their culture survives.


As for gambitt blatantly trying to poach an outburst from me, I'm not even going to start as I'm going to bed.
 
Welshy said:
Well if they didn't do it, then eventually everyone would think "oh we don't need to speak/understand Welsh, everyone will just speak/understand English". If it's not kept alive then it will die, simple as.

It's not about the need for it, it's about the people wanting to ensure their culture survives.
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Hang on, a few minutes ago you mentioned Gaelic not being dead. So people can speak it if they want to and that works fine as far as pride, patriotism goes etc. All I'm saying is I don't want my tax money wasted on something so pointless. I'd rather it got spent on something useful like health care or education.
 
gambitt said:
At least French is useful. Isn't it the 2nd or 3rd most spoken language in the world?

There are only 3 million people in Wales, I'd guess only a fraction of those speak Welsh as a first language.
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French is 17th :D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

I'd rather speak Welsh or Scots than French and I'm English (although my dad has traced my family tree to Wales and Scotland ;))
When you think of Welsh or Scots it conjours the image of a Celtic warrior with a wooden shield and a sword hacking people to bits. French just makes me think of arrogance, cheese and surrender (multiple times).
 
I'm Welsh speaking. Quite a lot of people up North are. However my English is superior. My worst marks in school were in Welsh. Personally I'm torn between opinions. I fully realise how it can be percieved as 'useless' and 'unneccesary', I have expressed these views myself (though it is heartbraking to hear someone else express them, I have to say). The problem is that language is strongly tied to someone's personality, expression, sense of identity. My closest relationships i.e. with my family, are based around the welsh language and if you asked me to sacrifice 24 years of being born and raised here at the drop of a hat for the sake of economic convenience, I just wouldn't do it. Too sentimental.
 
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My main concern about dissolving the union is how it would be perceived abroad. I think it would be widely percieved as a country fragmenting, because huge numbers of people don't know British history (and why should they?). That would have an adverse effect on the economy.

I'd prefer to split it, though, so Wales can independently give up its independence to the EU. As long as Welsh taxpayers pay for it, the Welsh government could make Welsh mandatory as much as it likes without bothering me. Although Wales would probably get EU money anyway.

What about the southwest of England? There's a case for independence there. Check out the old map at http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Anglo-Saxon_Britain.htm
 
Angilion said:
I'd prefer to split it, though, so Wales can independently give up its independence to the EU. As long as Welshspeaking taxpayers pay for it, the Welsh government could make Welsh mandatory as much as it likes without bothering me.
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Fixed! :D

I'm perfectly happy being classed as "British"
 
Angilion said:
The recent habit of falsifying quoted text and calling it fixed really gets on my ****.
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I've seen it since I joined but it appears to be undergoing a bit of a revival recently for some unknown reason.

If the South-West of England (or parts of it) wants to claim independence then the case should surely be heard but it is perhaps less clear-cut than Scottish or Welsh independence because as I understand it they have been amalgamated into England for longer than they ever were independant. There is also then the question of how do you define national identity.
 
"Don't allow Welsh nationals to simply cross the border to get services paid for by English public money."

Well we had to stop the english trying to get free prescriptions by crossing the boarder and pretending they where Welsh.

The law states all road signs and documants must have Welsh, it's the oldest langague in europe, and before the english inavade it was spoken all over britain.

If you don't like it then don't come here, simple really.

Welshy got it right, just because the english moan and try to force their culture on us don't mean we are going to roll over and let you.

We have been here a far longer then you have, if you don't like it then move out back to your original country.
 
chrislusty said:
I have also noticed that the road signs are now in welsh first then english, which is not very helpful at all.
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Do you not have the mental capacity to read one line down for the English version? Iesu on the moors how lazy can you be?

I honestly cannot believe the amount of Philistine posting on this thread! Whoever said English is the first language of Wales then they need to read up on the law, both languages have equal parity in the country.

What is it with the English and wanting to stamp out culture not of their own, I honesty cannot believe that some people think it's a disgrace that Welsh documents should be made in Government, it's part of promoting Welsh language and heritage and the actual cost of it is not even close to what's a real waste of tax payers money (i.e. the Iraq War). It's not being forced on you, don't read the Welsh part of the documents, simple. I don't see people complaining about Ethnic Language community officers being hired to help with social integration, surely that would be a waste of money as well (Or would that go down as racism...?)

I can guarantee that most people who say "It's a dying language" have never been to Wales or even tried to speak with local people, the amount of people speaking it is on the up year on year and there are whole towns and communitys where most people speak Welsh to each other, educated yourselfs people!

The attitude of the Philistines on this thread, just shocking!

And just to add, I had the pleasure of going to Patagonia (Argentina) on my world travels a month ago and went to a number of Government funded/sponsored events like their version of the National Eisteddfod, Welsh Schools and visiting museums that had sings in Welsh and Spanish. People don't complain about having signs in both languages (obviously not on as big a scale as here) as they see it as part of their heritage that Patagonia was settled by Welsh settlers, they don't try and stamp it out, they encourage it as a means of making people aware of their heritage and past.

Maybe the Argentines are more cultured than English?.... ;)
 
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swanseajack said:
We have been here a far longer then you have, if you don't like it then move out back to your original country.
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Well I was born here, so I'm Welsh. I don't like it so where do you suggest I move? England?

The Scots have got it right with Gaelic. It's still around but it's not forced on anyone.
 
chrislusty said:
I have also noticed that the road signs are now in welsh first then english, which is not very helpful at all.
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Oh is that right? It's been years since I was last in Wales [where I'm from - Neath, in fact. Sorry: Castell Nedd ;)], but when I was there I'm sure it was "English then Welsh" down south, and "Welsh then English" up in the north. Has this now changed?
 
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