Wales

jalima yes, the Welsh Not was a punishment for speaking Welsh. It was a wooden board hung around the neck.

Yes Wales is very mystical , from a young age my Grampa read the Mabinogion to me, it has been translated into English .

i loved 'The Lady of the Lake and the Physicians of Myddfi' I live in the area and have dipped my hands and arms in that Lake

The lake is Llyn y Fan Fach in the Brecon Beacons, if you google it you will find the story , when small I believe it was true ? Another well known story is of Devils Bridge at Aberystwyth , I believe this story too.,Devils Bridge is s beautiful place to visit and if anyone does you will experience a feeling thst it realy is mystical

My Grampa ,born and brought up on Anglesey had parents and five older sisters and try only spoke welsh, my Grampa had to wear the board and got hit with a stick for speaking Welsh in school, he then got into hot water for speaking an English word in the home,,he had little schooling because of this but the preacher from the chapel taught him after school, he moved to South Wales to work in the pits but stuck to his mother tongue , as I was born in his home little wonder my lullaby was Myfanwy , I mean no offence but he had no time for England because of the harm done to him when in school, he could not forgive that and when they flooded Capel Celyn for Liverpool to have water , he , my father and I went up there to demonstrate

Snap Anniebach My Grampa's family were from Maltraeth on Anglesey. He too came down to S Wales to work in the pits. He too spoke Welsh but my Grandma didn't like it so it was English only at home. SAd as the whole family thereby lost the language.

BB, my lot from Trewalchmai,and Llanfaelog, Cemaes Bay and Red Wharf Bay Pentraeth, Anglesey

I didn't question why I had to speak Welsh, just did, was very close to my Grampa

A few years ago,, we were in a café in Corwen, the waitress spoke to us in English, but in Welsh to everyone else. She told us that until she started school she`d spoken only Welsh, but had to learn English when she went to school, that must have been difficult for a 5 year old, to suddenly have to switch languages.

My great grandmother spoke only Welsh. She came from North Wales with my great grandfather who was a weaver. I believe he came to South Wales as part of the revival of Welsh crafts by Lady Llanover, but would be interested to hear if this is likely.

BBbevan Anniebach

My grandmother was born into a Welsh speaking family but they decided to bring their children up English speaking as they assumed they would get jobs, etc if they appeared more 'English'.

My other grandmother taught in Valleys primary schools prior to marriage (married women couldn't work teaching) and she still saw children being made to stand in the corner with a board on saying 'dunce' if they spoke Welsh.

Now my area has a majority Welsh medium schools and this is in an English speaking area but parents now CHOOSING to bring their children up speaking writing and reading Welsh.

My GPs were all English, apart from my one Gran. She was from a Welsh speaking family; no English spoken to my mother or auntie either.

My mother was embarrassed by her "Valleys" Welsh and stopped speaking it.

I kept it up, but I'm the only Welsh speaking family member left. Apart from dd, that is, who has been educated through the medium of Welsh, like lots of kids are now.

How times change. These days in N Wales it is far easier for Welsh speakers to find work than the rest of the population e.g. all jobs in public sector.

Well yes, of course, because of the bilingual policy. Even as long ago as the 70s a girl I knew had to promise to learn Welsh before she could get a job with the local council in N Wales. I wonder how they get round the discrimination laws?

Perhaps Ana because Welsh is an official language of the U.K, is it discrimination to ask for an employee who speaks English?

I'm not saying it's wrong, Annie, I haven't really considered it before. My DD and her DDs are all bilingual so it isn't a problem for them, and I never worked in the pubic sector.

I just wondered whether it could be considered unreasonable to expect applicants for certain jobs to be fluent in both Welsh and English. I'm pretty sure some of the hospital staff aren't.

(Oh gawd - never thought I'd see the day when I actually typed public without the l...)

Ah well you haven't been in that profession Ana ?

Ana, I didn't ask where you worked, too much information

I just asked because like you I had never given it a thought before.

callgirl I had a friend who spoke only Welsh until she went to school; she spoke English very precisely and clearly but now I think of it it was more of a learned language than her native tongue.

On the 1911 Welsh census there is a column for language spoken. DH's father was born in N. Wales but the language spoken was annotated as 'English'.

I hope your DDs don't know you are on GN Ana

sorry, DD and DGDs!

they will be investigating your past

As about 20% of the population speak Welsh and a few more have a smattering is it reasonable to ask an employee to be able to speak English if they are customer-facing?

Most of the hospital staff I have come across only speak English.

I transcribed the 1911 census for a north Wales county and many census returns were written in Welsh only

Not at all unreasonable Jalima, neither is it unreasonable to ask someone to speak in Welsh if they work for the local council as all forms etc are in Welsh and English, mail from Dwr Cymru come in Welsh and English , if I telephone the local high school I have the choice to speak in Welsh or English , same if I telephone the county council

I transcribed the 1911 census for a north Wales county and many census returns were written in Welsh only

Not sure what relevance that has to this thread, Annie - it was over 100 years ago. Times have changed!

Because Jalima posted about the 1911 census and j replied, best ask Jalima that question Ana.