General Chat

Had I been the manager of the shop I'd have voided the sale and barred him from the shop and....first and foremost I'd have looked after the interests of my staff instead of wasting police time with such a ridiculous clearly publicity seeking idiot.

Can't see it doing any favours for tourism in the area either

Why should he dictate how others, in a bi-lingual part of Wales, should speak.

He had his principles, and the cashier had hers.
All he had to do was hand over the money he owed.

Self- opinionated pr*t!!

My sister, (English speaking, English parents) started school in St Davids. She had to speak Welsh.
I. the unwilling 'pupil' of an elder sister who played 'schools' , can still count to 5 in Welsh!!

I agree with David I'd of barred the silly pompus old fool as well untill he learnt some manners .......and said sorry in English :-D

barred him - like it - he is a bard after all :-D

Silly old twot,

I supose he didnt object to the prices being displayed in English then or the food labeling?

nothing but a bully......they should have put him out the shop and barred him,,,,,,,

Incomers do not kill the language IMO, the Welsh schools in Ceredigion rely on incomers to keep their numbers up!

Inevitably in rural areas the English children have to learn Welsh and logic states that without this new blood there would be fewer Welsh speakers.

In 1987 there were a total of 32 children in my kids' school. Of those 18 were incomers. All left school bi-lingual!

I would suggest the assistant was having a perfectly ok day until some gumpy old git attempted to bully her.I don't think she was the one who decided to be awkward, either.

He was the one who made an issue of it. Anyone with any manners would have just paid up instead of attempting to bully the assistant.

A bit of a google shows Dr Lewis to be a fully paid up menber of the awkward squad - mild mannered and bookish? I think not.

More here-
http://druidnetwork.org/articles/meiniachadair.html


eg
"Dr Robyn Lewis, Archdruid of the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards, wrote to the Daily Telegraph: ‘Since the Stone of Scone was returned to Scotland a few years since, and it is clearly only a matter of time until the Elgin Marbles are returned to Greece, may I express a request that Stonehenge be returned to Wales?’ Dr Lewis’ appeal, made ‘on behalf of my fellow druids, bards and the rest of my Welsh compatriots’

Gwynne

I had an instance of this when I lived in Barmouth.
I taught music privately at home and had great success with my pupils.
I was friendly with a lovely Welsh lady whose husband was a school governor and the post of music teacher came up and she said for me to apply,which I did.
My qualifications were the highest but I didn't get the job because I wasn't a Welsh speaker.
The one who got the job was rubbish and I had a lot of pupils come to me privately to help them get their exams.When I went to a parent teacher meeting for my own children she ignored me for ages and wouldn't give me the syllabus....Couldnt help it,but said it would be her getting feather in cap when they passed exams.


I call it insecurity.

We have all had this welsh english conversation before not long ago.

its bad here in north wales,were we have the local council only advertising jobs in welsh,most of our schools are now welsh medium,including the special schools(which i think personally is wrong)...we are all aware of Robin the bard here,as he writes a column in the local ENGLISH paper,sprouting on about incomers killing the language(what a load of rubbish) im a scouser by birth and all of my 4 children were born here and are welsh speakers as is my 2yr old granddaughter.. :-D

I would suggest that the assistant had had a bad day. And he was a grumpy old man. It happens!

I think she would have spoken to customers in Welsh and probably asked for the money in English. If someone asked what is that in Welsh please, most assistants would just repeat the amount in Welsh. As easy for her as English. Pum deg wyth punt is really no problem and easier to say, I would suggest, for a Welsh speaker than "fifty eight pounds".

But she decided to be awkward and pushed her bell. And the manager took her side and called for the police. And Dr Lewis (who does not look much like a terrorist to me - rather pleasant and mild-mannered and bookish, I would suggest) dug his 83 year old heels in.

Probably could have dealt with it differently in hindsight. But we all see a red mist at times, and not so easy to walk away and be as diplomatic as we would like. But I have a lot of sympathy for the old boy. Still got loads of spirit.

It´s very similar in Catalonia.
Catalan is the teaching medium in the schools even though the official language of Spain is Castillian. Shop & road signs, info leaflets etc are all in Catalan & now, you can´t have a job unless you speak Catalan.
As an ex pat it was a bit of a shock to the system when i had spent years learning enough Castillian to get by when I moved here, only to find I had wasted my time.
The majority of people are bilingual in Catalan & Castillian, but many will only speak Catalan, just to be awkward.

Brenda we have discussed the ridiculous amount of duplicated paperwork lots of times. The simple answer is to send all paperwork in English with the option of using a free phone number to request Welsh copy and have that option entered onto their data basis.

However, as long as the Welsh language lobby get funding for promoting the language you can say goodbye to a few hundred more acres of forest :-(

I'd have barred him.

I do think it ridiculous that this blew out of all proportion.
I have lived in Wales for 50 years,know a few phrases,but speak English as most people can.
Could he not have been a bit humorous about it.I agree it is his own language,but he has not lived for 80 odd years not understanding English!
My children both learned Welsh at school as it was compulsory,but English is an International language,and neither of them found it useful in their work.
I do wonder at the amount of paperwork in bills etc as we often get 2 lots...one in English and one in Welsh...also voting forms.They could find out who wants what surely to cut down on expenses...just a simple tick would do it!

Would you rather say:

"fifty eight sixty two please"

or

"pum-deg-wyth punt, chwedeg-dau os gwelwch yn dda"

No contest is there?

from the BBC website

Dr Robyn Lewis, 83, insisted the shop assistant at the Spar in Pwllheli told him the amount owed in Welsh.

But she repeated it three times in English before the manager told Dr Lewis he would call the police unless he paid or left the premises.

Dr Lewis said: "All I wanted was an answer in my own language, in my own country."

"The young lady at the till spoke fluent Welsh but she told me the sum of £58.62 was due," he said.

"I asked her to repeat it in Welsh but she said it again in English.

"I told her I'd asked her to repeat it it in Welsh but she said it for the third time."

What an ill-mannered oaf.

"Honour was satisfied" according to him but he upset an assistant, wasted police time and made a total arse of himself.

I can't stand bullies and that's just what he is.

Gwynne

I read some comments that stated the asssistant was speaking to him in Welsh it was just the total sum owed she said in English......BIG DEAL!

Who should have been gracious in this situation? The elder person of course! Aren't they supposed to 'lead the way'?

Instead of him spitting his dummy out he should have just paid and left the shop.

John, he would have trouble in leading all his life speaking only Welsh, in fact he has NO chance. Just because somebody gave him the title of Archdruid doesn't mean he can't be an Archpillock too.

As he joined Plaid (and please remember that was a terrorist organisation not that many decades ago) does not mean that he can command anything. Now he cannot even expect respect IMO.

John, sorry, why is it clear that the assistant spoke Welsh? I didn't read it like that. And they found him a welsh speaking assistant. So maybe the first one was non welsh speaking. :-S

a bard - think a few letters have been missed out there - what a pillock - him, and his ilk, are the types that make non-Welsh speakers such as myself, shy away from Welsh speakers - as Sue says, if he had an accident and went to A & E where the staff could likely be from Asia, how would he feel if they chose to speak to him in Urdu!!!