Stood in Newport station today as I do quite often and the announcements were coming up for each train.
I don’t know how many of you use trains in Wales but if you do you will know that the announcements are split into 2. You get the English version and then the Welsh translation.
I love the Welsh language. But what has prompted this post is just a question… How many people still speak Welsh? The conversations between waiting passengers were all in English. I can’t remember the last time I heard anyone using Welsh in conversation.
Parts of Wales use Welsh as their first language.We get everything official from the County Council and other official bodies in Wales in English and Welsh which is a huge cost.I wouldn’t think there are any Welsh speakers that can’t speak English.I think in the none Welsh speaking area’s such as where I live they could cut the cost of sending everything bilingual.
We have a customer in Penygroes and all the loading staff are blethering on in Welsh wether they think we are in earshot or not.
I had a night out there once and when I went for a pint the locals stopped talking Welsh and broke into English when I ordered a pint and they realised I was a foriegner.
I really like to hear Welsh spoken but I just can’t follow it, the only phrase I know is ‘ponty ping’…
It’s a fascinating language and I have a little bit of Welsh blood in me. Just love hearing it. I guess it’s one of those where you have to be a local to the valleys to hear it.
AlexWignall:
We have a customer in Penygroes and all the loading staff are blethering on in Welsh wether they think we are in earshot or not.
I had a night out there once and when I went for a pint the locals stopped talking Welsh and broke into English when I ordered a pint and they realised I was a foriegner.
I really like to hear Welsh spoken but I just can’t follow it, the only phrase I know is ‘ponty ping’…
W
I’m so pleased a ‘foreigner’ has posted this.It’s always been the case in a lot of Gwynedd and Anglesey .I have heard the oft repeated tale that the opposite is true in some parts of Mid and South Wales.Most,if not all people born round here are completely bi-lingual these days,but everyday conversations are always in Welsh. Got me with the ‘ponty ping’ though
‘Ponty ping’ is a microwave (so I’ve read on TNUK).
If I was loading in France I wouldn’t expect a bunch of French people to start speaking English for my benefit (although some of my colleagues moan about the Peny lads speaking Welsh).
The thing in the pub was nice but I would of been happy to listen to everyone chatting in their native tongue.
There’s still a lot of Welsh around here and a lot of people use it as their first language in conversations. I speak it as a second language, but enough to get by (by here, by there, over by here, down by there etc!). Quite a few of our drivers are Welsh speaking. It is one of the oldest languages still in use in Europe.
I dated a Welsh girl for three years, down Kidwelli way.
She didn’t speak English till she was 7. Bizarrely, on the odd occasion, she would ask me what the English word for something was.
The locals speaking welsh is a weird one.
In Kidwelli, the pub goers would mostly speak welsh. (old boys, anyway. The kids spoke mostly English)
But up the hill in Llansaint, they were all Brummies.