On Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:36:22 +0100, Peter <peter.thomas@nidum.plus.com> wrote: > Welsh isn't a language that "rubs off on you" and many people question > the worth of such signs, but we have them and I'm sure they're > appreciated by some. Hi Peter, Well, it rubbed off on me:-) Forty years ago, I went to live in Wales with just a smattering of Welsh taught to me by my Welsh-born grandfather. After a year of teaching in a grammar-technical school, I obtained a job in a primary school in Glamorgan, where Welsh was the first language for five out of the seven staff in the junior staffroom. So I decided to learn it! Josephine -- Josephine Jeremiah The Glamorganshire Canal www.ianandjo.dsl.pipex.com

Hello Josephine You volunteered to learn and that is the crux of the problem. Without an environment to use the language ie being in the company of others who speak the welsh it will never gain in usage. There are a lot of condescending welsh speakers out there who look down their noses at those who didn't learn their welsh in school or at the hearth. They even look down their noses at those who despite being brought up through the medium of welsh trwy cyfrwng Cymraeg, for not being grammatically correct. Gareth Well, it rubbed off on me:-) --- On Tue, 21/6/11, Josephine Jeremiah <jojeremiah@dsl.pipex.com> wrote: Forty years ago, I went to live in Wales with just a smattering of Welsh taught to me by my Welsh-born grandfather. After a year of teaching in a grammar-technical school, I obtained a job in a primary school in Glamorgan, where Welsh was the first language for five out of the seven staff in the junior staffroom. So I decided to learn it! Josephine

On Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:38:59 +0100, Gareth Morgan <morgangareth36@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > Hello Josephine > > You volunteered to learn and that is the crux of the problem. Hi Gareth, Well I had to because I needed a command of the language in order to teach it in a Glamorgan school. > There are a lot of condescending welsh speakers out there who look down > their noses at those who didn't learn their welsh in school or at the > hearth. I can see both sides of this. Many years ago, when I was fairly fluent in the language, a Welsh speaker said to me, 'You speak Welsh like a book.' I replied, 'Well, at least you can understand me, though I can't understand you.' (He didn't come from Glamorgan.) Another time, a North Walian Welsh speaker took me up on my use of 'bad' for boat instead of 'cwch', but I understood 'bad' to be a South Walian word and I was using it in South Wales. So there are not only differences between English and Welsh speakers, but between those who speak South Walian Welsh and North Walian Welsh. > They even look down their noses at those who despite being brought up > through the medium of welsh trwy cyfrwng Cymraeg, for not being > grammatically correct. I don't suppose my Welsh is grammatically correct, after so many years, but if I wanted to hold a Welsh conversation I would. And if I didn't know or remember a Welsh word I would slip in an English one, instead, as they do on lots of the Welsh language television programmes I watch and enjoy. Josephine -- Josephine Jeremiah The Glamorganshire Canal www.ianandjo.dsl.pipex.com