As the year ends we get the old story of someone going into a pub in North Wales, where they’re all there speaking English,but soon as they come in and hear a English or even non-local accent, they start changing into Welsh, so we can’t understand them.
BBC Radio 2 host Jeremy Vine has been criticised after seeming to suggest that Welsh was on par with a foreign language in the UK, and that people should speak English instead.His official Twitter feed responded to an online message suggesting that Welsh people speaking Welsh in Wales was equivalent to French people speaking French in France by asking: “Is France in the UK?”The tweet has now been deleted.The discussion kicked off after a heated debate on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 programme about the Welsh language.He was discussing Lloyd Bank’s initial refusal to accept a cheque written in Welsh by Cardigan Town Council.
He interviewed a man from Pontypridd who said that Welsh speakers “think they’re better than anybody else”.“I don’t want to speak it, it’s a horrible language,” he said. “If you go into any pub in west Wales, in north Wales, they’re all there speaking English, soon as they come in and hear my accent, they start changing into Wesh, so we can’t understand them.“I hate it, I just hate the language.”Two other callers, one from Caernarfon and another from Cardiff, challenged his comments.A Twitter user, Blogdroed, responded by saying:
“I can’t believe Jeremy Vine is giving airtime to the tired old trope about ‘walkig into a pub and people switching to English’… for crying out loud its 2018 and people are still trotting out this nonsense.”Another user, William Jones, responded:
Vine has has since deleted his response claiming that he has been misinterpreted .“I walked into a pub in Paris the week before Christmas… Who would have thought, French-speaking French in France.”To which Jeremy Vine replied by suggesting that weren’t comparable: “Is France in the UK?”
My response was this
As a monoglot English speaker i have never met this "Modern Urban Myth", but even if I had I don't see why a room full of Welsh speakers should have to accommodate me by speaking in English.
Indeed I am beginning to wonder why defenders of the use of Cymraeg , should even defend themselves against such lies.
Maybe the response should be "We will speak whatever language we bloody like, when we like , and where we like.
Its up to us monoglot speakers to accept this, and not expect others to accommodate our own inadequacies
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