If you're in the UK then speak English!

DH and I were looking for an address in an Italian town we had never visited before. I asked a group of men outside a bar and they gave me directions. When it became clear that I hadn't understood anything they said they kindly finished their drinks and took us round to the address.

At the end of the 19th Century my grandmother was living in Antwerp. She used to get into trouble for speaking the Flemish that she picked up at school instead of the French that the better classes spoke.

I wonder if that will go ahead now granjura

An increasing number of expats in Zurich, Zug and Geneva/Lausanne are asking that Switzerland, that already has 4 linguistic regions- and therefore 4 national languages- should adopt English as the 5th national language. They are also asking for the children in German speaking areas to not have to learn French as second language, but English, and same for French speaking area children not to have to learn German either, and just adopt English. no wonder some of the locals feels pushed out and undermined.

I don't think this is so unusual these days and that the language will make a comeback in areas where it is little used at present at the school where this friend taught, up to fifteen different languages were spoken by the infant children. She had the task of teaching them in English and teaching them Welsh too.

there are 100s of British and US expats in Zurich, Zug and Geneva who have been here for years and years- and can just about say 'hello' and 'thank you' in German or French.

And complain bitterly that the plumber, the shop keeper, the cleaner, the .... can't even speak English! The trick is to shout louder and louder in English... apparently (it doesn't work) - and that they signed contracts they didn't understand and therefore can't possibly be valid, etc.

ever heard the ex pats in Spain bet they dont know a Spanish phase between them

My husband's niece is the only Welsh speaker we have in our family. She is a bilingual civil servant. She is about to give birth to her third child and they are all being brought up from an early age to speak both Welsh and English, apparently. I don't think this is so unusual these days and that the language will make a comeback in areas where it is little used at present.

More Welsh speakers these days, and, of course, she could have been helping her little boy - or he could have been teaching her as DGD tries with me!
I had a friend who taught in Newport - a native Welsh speaker, Welsh being her first language so that is why she got the job teaching reception when Welsh was first introduced as a compulsory subject.
However, as she pointed out, it was extremely difficult trying to teach 4 and 5 year olds Welsh when they spoke neither English nor Welsh and the lessons were in English in the main.

What you said about Newport not being in a Welsh-speaking part of Wales is what crossed my mind too, jalima and what made me sceptical of the authenticity of the story. She could, as you say, have grown up in a part where Welsh is still a first language for some of the population but I think the main appeal of the story is the nyah boo factor.

ah yes, spuds was another term

One shop keeper laughed and laughed the day I first used the word 'spuds' when we moved to Staffs. I still had a distinct foreign accent- and he thought it was hilarious that I used a 'local' word.

Newquay is wrong about France not supplying translators. I live part of the year in France and the courts and the health service do have translators - where did you get the idea this did not happen?

MOnica - Your fear that in some immigrant communities the women are discouraged from learning English by the men in their families as a means of restricting their activities outside the home,without the need for a family member (i.e. a man) being present,has a lot of truth in it. My DP is from Ethiopia and is a Muslim,and when I asked him why so many women in the Muslim/other immigrant communities seemed unable to speak English at all,or only had a very basic grasp of it,while their husbands,fathers,brothers etc seemed much more fluent,he said one sentence,that I think sums it up; 'Its a form of control'. Says it all really.

Greyduster
The best laugh of the day so far!! (visiting Granny)

I wonder if that is where the slang word 'tatties' comes from?
DM always called potatoes 'tatties'

and granjura in London

Still laughing

Anniebach
Perhaps learning the language of a country one is visiting is polite riverwalk
I am laughing (politely!) at the thought of someone learning enough Welsh for a week or two's holiday and being able to understand someone giving them directions in Welsh.
Perhaps please, thank you, help and araf?

I can't even remember 'I can sing a Rainbow' from my lesson yesterday

A Muslim woman does not have to have been born in Wales to speak Welsh she just has to have been a child in Wales where Welsh is spoken.
Well, if she was from Newport ( I doubt that much Welsh was spoken there when she was a child as Newport was in England until 1974.

Of course, she could have been from somewhere else in Wales where Welsh was spoken.

Well, when I first lived in London, I had to ask directions to the Swiss Embassy. One gentleman took great trouble to give very precise instructions, in very clear English, speaking slowly - but that didn't help...

You go straight on, right? The up to the lights, right? And then 3rd on the left, right?

YES, I did follow 'instructions to the letter and got thoroughly lost! ;)

I'm reminded of a trip to San Sebastian many years ago - we were looking for a particular restaurant and sought help from a quite elderly chap sitting outside a cafe.

With our very basic Spanish and his incomprehensible accent we managed to work out in which direction to go - good job this native Basque speaker didn't refuse to speak Spanish to visitors needing assistance.

Aw Gretduster, it is a very difficult language , I hope on your next visit to Wales you will encounter more friendliness , we are a very friendly race , loved you looking for Tato newi on your map , Pembro have lovely potatoes X

When we first moved south from the Midlands I did 'temping' and remember my embarrassment when I asked the boss to spell out the word he had just repeated for me a couple of times. It was 'silver steel'! I heard it as silastoi.

It's not rude to speak one's own language AB I didn't declare any such thing, but it is rude to refuse to speak English to a visitor who has asked for help.

I wonder if the man's wife was not at home he would have just closed the door - would that also be OK because he prefers to only speak his own language?

on the Tato newi!

We have lived in five different countries during our marriage. Apart from Brunei and Singapore where Malay and Chinese were quite beyond me, I have always managed to learn a bit of the spoken language; thus I had a decent amount of French, enough Dutch to hold a basic conversation, and a smattering of German. Welsh, however, was a bridge too far. I bought a 'Teach Yourself Welsh' book, as DH said his grandmother, who we were going to visit, spoke it when at home in Llanwrtydd Wells. (I gave up with the book before I started). She was ancient and confined to bed when I met her, and the only thing she said to me was "Do you go to chapel?" When I said "I'm afraid not" and continued to make conversation about my family and where I came from, she suddenly slumped, eyes closed, and I thought "oh my God, she's dead!" She wasn't, she was asleep, but it is the nearest I have got to actually thinking I'd bored someone to death . While I am in full flow, we had another faux pas of sorts with the Welsh language while driving along the Pembrokeshire coast road. I was map reading, we didn't quite know where we were when DH said "I just passed a sign back there that said Tato newi; see if you can find it on the map." Of course, I couldn't. It means 'new potatoes'! We picked a bag up at the nearby farm, where they kindly gave us directions.

LullyDully, that happened all over the world, tragically. native Indian children were torn away from their families to be put in insitutions, dressed in uniform and beaten if they didn't speak English- same for aborigines children. Same in SW France for children who spoke Catalan instead of French, etc, etc. Tragic.

We have now come full circle and from the sublime to the ridiculous. I know some families where both parents speak a different language to the children (eg their respective mother tongues- fair enough) and speak English as a common language- but the children learn Swiss German with their friends and High German at school. So far, so good- for many children who are very able- others become totally confused and non-linguists, eg can't speak or write any of the languages well. Some do in the end sort it all, and become fabulous and talented linguists. Some don't and fail all along the line.

However, some of the above families now insist on their little geniuses learning other languages to which the children have no direct familial or cultural links at all- so 5 languages so far- and then decide that they should also learn Mandarin- very popular at the moment. Enough - this is just too much! As Pink Floyd said so well 'leave those kids alone!!!' (and they do ballet, violin, kung-fu, football and chess too, + a few more, after school)!!!

Riverwalk is it fair to declare anyone rude for choosing to speak in their own language ? You didn't have to fight to have your language recognised, to be allowed to speak it . The man called his wife to assist did he not? Greyduster was the one in need of help yet she accepted it was the man's choice to spesk his own language in his own country . Wish there were more like Greyduster , tolerant and respectful of freedom to speak one's own language in one's own country