Yr Iaith / language and culture

I think anybody who wants to live here can, you can’t blame them for wanting. But I think they should blend in, try to integrate, you know. It is a foreign country after all. You know, we’ve got our own language, our own values. So yeah. If you want to move here, great. But try to fit in. Just don’t colonise the place. Turn it … you know, classic example, South Pembrokeshire, little England beyond Wales. I remember going climbing there, the road signs are in german and in English. And that’s because there’s lots of german military bases.

Oh no, you couldn’t do anything on a Sunday: Even if you wanted to put a tag in that cow’s ear, you couldn’t do it. As a kid it was terrible. We had to go to chapel twice. Then we had to do absolutely nothing at all. My parents - my father - was very strict. You could read the bible, but that was it. We just had to sit around…

It just makes me so so sad, losing our language. I can’t describe the heartbreak that I feel. English-only speakers don’t understand, I don’t think they feel the same about their language as we do. They seem to see us loving our own language as somehow against the English-speakers, and I just can’t understand that. It is devastating to not be able to use our own language, not to hear it everywhere. And we have learnt to be so accommodating because of the angry reaction we get. But if i’m honest, I feel really angry too, heartbroken angry. But it isn’t OK to say that. There’s nowhere where this is being talked about openly. It’s like losing who I am. Who we are.

So its difficult. You can’t force somebody to learn a language. But you know I think they should make the effort. If somebody moves to France, well they probably will learn the language, because the French won’t speak English to them. But over here, because we are bilingual anyway, and we are brought up speaking Welsh and English, then its just as easy to speak either one. The attitude of most English people moving into the area, it could be irish, Scottish, French, whatever, is that we should switch to English. Its easier, its quicker, but its wrong in a way, to switch to English too quickly.

We were so happy to be coming to somewhere where there two languages. Because you become used to the sense of having a fuller view of the world: It’s like listening to stereo as opposed to mono. You get much richer sound! There are things you can say in one language that you can’t say in another. It tells you about cultural experience, things that people value highly. Like Hiraeth, longing for the land.

Welsh names for places are so geographically descriptive. We are working on a Welsh place names project in Llanddeniolen at the moment. There are names here in Llanberis and the other side of the lake, refer back to lost animals. Afon Hwch, the river of the wild pig. Llyn Dwyhwch is the lake of two wild pigs. The old name for Fachwen is Bwlch yr Wdan, Wdan the old welsh word for deer. There’s Llyn Afanc, beaver lake. So these take us back to when those animals lived in these places.

I just love having learned Welsh. I teach basic Welsh now. I love talking to my neigbours - I’ve developed a proper local accent! - and its like a whole world opening up. I just can’t understand people - I was on an online funeral the other day. It was all climbers who have been here since the 70s, and they were saying things like ‘Craig Dooo wall’, and Cymrooo. It’s shocking.

Its really difficult, living in a place with two languages. I mean my children speak Welsh, that’s good, they are part of the community. But I got grief for not speaking welsh when i was helping with the parking at the vaccination centre. And it makes things like community council meetings really difficult. They say like one word in English and then everything is in Welsh.

The attitude to Welsh is like one of the last obvious and yes, acceptable, ways of still acting in a colonial way. It seems a bit extreme to say that, but that’s how I feel about it. I mean Welsh is the original language of this country - well most of Britain! - and yet you still get people like that Tory MP saying its not a language of the UK. This is plain and simply the imperial English attitude, although I’ve heard it from Irish and Scottish too, I’m sad to say. The thing about languages is they are completely connected to place, this place and Cymraeg have evolved together. And now more than ever, i’d say, we need diversity in language. We need ways of being part of a place that go beyond superficial colonial language and relationships. i’d say welsh language is key to survival.