suzee blue cheese
Well-Known Member
Maybe the reference to 'the British language' meant the language most commonly spoken throughout Britain. In the same way that Castellano or 'Spanish' is the language most commonly spoken throughout Spain, despite the proliferance of several regional languages. I doubt he was that concious of the difference though and assumed it to mean english because he doesn't even consider the fact that more than one language is spoken in this group of countries that consitute the not so Great Britain.
First I'll come clean about my dodgy credentials to welshness: My father was born in Tredegar to a welsh mother, irish father. My mother in London, to a scottish mother, isle of wight father. My brother and I were born in London but we moved round a lot til I was 7 when we moved to Port Talbot, later Porthcawl. I tend to call myself Welsh though realise that this is not strictly speaking true. However, being a mongrel mix of blood, I define myself by the country in which I lived longest and spent the majority of my school years.
All of the kids in our street were of welsh parentage, apart from us, as far as I know though none spoke welsh either out in the street or at home. Although it was compulsory to learn welsh at school for the first couple of years of comp, I was never exposed to it outside the classroom which made learning welsh as hard and foreign to my life as learning german or french. If we had lived in a predominantly welsh speaking community, I'd be a welsh speaker - simple.
When I moved to Spain, I learned castellano. I didn't strive to learn catalan for the 3 months I lived in Barcelona. I know some people pick up languages dead easy, and while I'm not too bad, it made more sense to improve my not very good castellano to be able to be understood, no matter how ungraciously anywhere. Had I by then been able to speak fluent castellano, I'd have immersed myself in learning catalan. One thing at time, sweet jesus...
If I were to move back to Wales, to a welsh speaking area, I'd learn welsh or at least attempt to. But to say everyone moving to Wales should learn cymraeg when they may be moving to an area where welsh isn't commonly spoken is impractical and unreasonable imo.
First I'll come clean about my dodgy credentials to welshness: My father was born in Tredegar to a welsh mother, irish father. My mother in London, to a scottish mother, isle of wight father. My brother and I were born in London but we moved round a lot til I was 7 when we moved to Port Talbot, later Porthcawl. I tend to call myself Welsh though realise that this is not strictly speaking true. However, being a mongrel mix of blood, I define myself by the country in which I lived longest and spent the majority of my school years.
All of the kids in our street were of welsh parentage, apart from us, as far as I know though none spoke welsh either out in the street or at home. Although it was compulsory to learn welsh at school for the first couple of years of comp, I was never exposed to it outside the classroom which made learning welsh as hard and foreign to my life as learning german or french. If we had lived in a predominantly welsh speaking community, I'd be a welsh speaker - simple.
When I moved to Spain, I learned castellano. I didn't strive to learn catalan for the 3 months I lived in Barcelona. I know some people pick up languages dead easy, and while I'm not too bad, it made more sense to improve my not very good castellano to be able to be understood, no matter how ungraciously anywhere. Had I by then been able to speak fluent castellano, I'd have immersed myself in learning catalan. One thing at time, sweet jesus...
If I were to move back to Wales, to a welsh speaking area, I'd learn welsh or at least attempt to. But to say everyone moving to Wales should learn cymraeg when they may be moving to an area where welsh isn't commonly spoken is impractical and unreasonable imo.
