Saturday, June 27, 2009
Know your Welsh
Am I the only one who finds this story about a shopkeeper in the Isle of Wight evicting two ladies from her shop for speaking Welsh a bit bizarre?
Holidaymakers Rosemary Dean and sister Ann were told to stop talking in Welsh and told: “Speak English instead.” They were then asked to leave Grange Gifts in Shanklin High Street on the Isle of Wight:
Lifelong Welsh-speaker Mrs Dean, 60, of Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, said: “It was unbelievable.
“We were just talking in Welsh about the price of goods in the shop and the woman behind the counter shouted at us to stop.
“There was no warning, she just launched into us.
“She got really angry and admitted she was discriminating against the Welsh.
“It was the day before we were due to return home and we had had a lovely time up until then and everyone on the island had been really welcoming.
“It put a real dampener on our holiday.”
Mrs Dean has reported the incident to the Welsh office of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
She said: “I became determined after the outburst to take the matter further because no-one should be prevented from speaking in their own language and be treated like that for doing so.
“It is clearly a breach of our human rights.
“My sister, who now lives in Bath, and I are proud of speaking Welsh, which is our first language.
“But if we speak to an English person we do so in English because we certainly don’t wish to appear rude.
“We were purely speaking to each other and banned for doing so.”
Shop manager Sue Pratley admitted that she asked the women to leave over the language bust-up.
She said: “I made a comment to them that I wished they would speak English. But she took issue with that and said I should learn to speak bloody Welsh.
“I don’t want to go into detail about what happened. I did ask them to leave.
“I welcome all creeds and colours and running a shop you get a lot of abuse. Mostly you just take it but sometimes you do retaliate.”
I suppose you had to be there to know what really happened but it does seem strange that a gift shop proprietor might object to other languages being spoken in her shop. After all I am, sure that she gets a lot of visitors from the continent. It is also the case that most Welsh speakers I know will revert to English when faced with somebody who can not understand them.
It is just as well really that the Welsh Language LCO will not stretch so far as to protect the rights of Welsh speakers when elsewhere in the UK.
Holidaymakers Rosemary Dean and sister Ann were told to stop talking in Welsh and told: “Speak English instead.” They were then asked to leave Grange Gifts in Shanklin High Street on the Isle of Wight:
Lifelong Welsh-speaker Mrs Dean, 60, of Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, said: “It was unbelievable.
“We were just talking in Welsh about the price of goods in the shop and the woman behind the counter shouted at us to stop.
“There was no warning, she just launched into us.
“She got really angry and admitted she was discriminating against the Welsh.
“It was the day before we were due to return home and we had had a lovely time up until then and everyone on the island had been really welcoming.
“It put a real dampener on our holiday.”
Mrs Dean has reported the incident to the Welsh office of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
She said: “I became determined after the outburst to take the matter further because no-one should be prevented from speaking in their own language and be treated like that for doing so.
“It is clearly a breach of our human rights.
“My sister, who now lives in Bath, and I are proud of speaking Welsh, which is our first language.
“But if we speak to an English person we do so in English because we certainly don’t wish to appear rude.
“We were purely speaking to each other and banned for doing so.”
Shop manager Sue Pratley admitted that she asked the women to leave over the language bust-up.
She said: “I made a comment to them that I wished they would speak English. But she took issue with that and said I should learn to speak bloody Welsh.
“I don’t want to go into detail about what happened. I did ask them to leave.
“I welcome all creeds and colours and running a shop you get a lot of abuse. Mostly you just take it but sometimes you do retaliate.”
I suppose you had to be there to know what really happened but it does seem strange that a gift shop proprietor might object to other languages being spoken in her shop. After all I am, sure that she gets a lot of visitors from the continent. It is also the case that most Welsh speakers I know will revert to English when faced with somebody who can not understand them.
It is just as well really that the Welsh Language LCO will not stretch so far as to protect the rights of Welsh speakers when elsewhere in the UK.
Comments:
<< Home
'It is just as well really that the Welsh Language LCO will not stretch so far as to protect the rights of Welsh speakers when elsewhere in the UK.'
What a strange comment to make- please explain ???
What a strange comment to make- please explain ???
# posted by 
: 7:54 PM
: 7:54 PM
It's understandable, I find welsh speakers bloody annoying, I'm with Ann Robinson on this.
However, this is discrimination, and therefore illegal. I seem to remember that anti-welsh remarks were made on BBC Radio (by whom I can't remember) serval years ago. I did report it to South Wales Police and heard absolutely nothing back.
However, this is discrimination, and therefore illegal. I seem to remember that anti-welsh remarks were made on BBC Radio (by whom I can't remember) serval years ago. I did report it to South Wales Police and heard absolutely nothing back.
# posted by : 8:33 PM
: 8:33 PM
it does seem strange that a gift shop proprietor might object to other languages being spoken in her shop
The BBC story makes clear that if the shoppers had been of any other ethnic origin, the proprietor would not have objected if they had used their own language!
The BBC story makes clear that if the shoppers had been of any other ethnic origin, the proprietor would not have objected if they had used their own language!
The fact that the shop-proprietor acknowledged that she would not have behaved towards speakers of other languages in the way she did illustrates precisely why legislation on the Welsh Language should be applicable throughout the UK. Why should UK citizens who speak Welsh be the sole exceptions to the principle that discrimination on ethnic or cultural grounds is unacceptable?
# posted by : 8:38 AM
: 8:38 AM
perhaps the two welsh speakers need to have English lessons, after all we give it to the Asians coming here, perhaps all countries out side Wales need to help the Welsh
# posted by : 12:21 PM
: 12:21 PM
"But if we speak to an English person we do so in English because we certainly don’t wish to appear rude."
Being understood is obviously a secondary concern!
Post a Comment
Being understood is obviously a secondary concern!
<< Home
