He's "Welsh" but can't speak the language?
Then he's ENGLISH, according to my family anyway. Now they are rabid Welsh Nationalists, South Wales is England to them, burning holiday homes was good family fun for cold winter evenings. There's only one thing worse than an Englishman living in Wales and not being able to speak the language, and that's a so-called Welshman who can't. When I queried this as being a bit extreme, I was asked what I thought of Asians who live here but don't bother to learn the language. I gave them their matches and petrol back.

(They also think my old man is a traitor for escaping to England and marrying the enemy. Luckily we're all good friends.......well at least I think we are, I haven't got a fucking clue what they are on about when they all get together.)
(Rsoles, Sun 15 Nov 2009, 13:06, 2 replies)

He was born and brought up in the South along with my mother, so he has the accent
and the roots there (my mother is ancestrally Irish/French and he doesn't like that much). The accent comes back stronger the more he rages and the more time I spend in the company of my family the more I sound like them, which I'm not fond of (especially when I go into work with it and my colleagues take the piss).

I'm a traitor for sleeping with the enemy and then deciding to live with him, even if he doesn't live here any more and they don't know that...
( Maladicta, Sun 15 Nov 2009, 15:54, closed)

Been there seen that
Welsh Nationalism. I was brought up in England, though my family has its roots in both Scotland and Wales. Lived in the principality for a few years and learnt to speak a bit of the local lingo.
It completely fuses people if I wander into a shop in a monoglot Welsh area and ask for something in Welsh with a broad brummie accent.
You can see the cogs whirring between "We need to encourage more Welsh speakers" and "An ENGLISHMAN? Speaking the language"

They all need to get out more
(Sir Tainley Barking Ezekiel 23:20, Sun 15 Nov 2009, 17:12, closed)

^ This last line, x over 9000
My father has no interest in any of his living relatives, just the ones who are dead and have been for some time. He has never been able to understand why I tell him "I am not Welsh, Father!" as this sends him the colour of a beetroot and makes him yell even louder.
( Maladicta, Sun 15 Nov 2009, 17:52, closed)

Mate of mine in the Valleys
Still lives with his parents.
He's in his fifties FFS

I hear all the talk of big plans, and travel, but when it comes down to it he's still living in the village he was born in, in truth, He'll die and be buried there, and to be frank its a common scenario.

I moved to Wales for a Degree, and if there had been work there that paid more than minimum wage plus the bonus of a mars bar at Christmas I'd still be there. I like Wales, hell even married a Welsh Lass, but in her defence she moved out to England to get her education, 'cos as she said she wanted to see something of the outside world. I would say that out of all the lasses she went to school with, 98% haven't moved out of the area.
Heritage is important, but FFS live a little, experience other things, so if you choose to go back to your heritage, you will value it for what it is and what it means to you.
(Sir Tainley Barking Ezekiel 23:20, Sun 15 Nov 2009, 23:19, closed)

The reason I never went back is because I knew
once I was "home" I would never, ever, ever escape - simply because of the stagnated job/property market and because my father would always have made a fuss whenever I decided to leave. I've never been more sure of anything than I was the day I decided to stay here - as far from Wales as possible - if I'd had to go back I would be dead or sectioned by now, no question.
( Maladicta, Sun 15 Nov 2009, 23:55, closed)