Being English In An All-Welsh House
Going to University can be a daunting thought, and in these times, maybe more of a privileged thought!
When I left home for University my mind was concentrating on things like ‘I hope I’m not living with a weirdo’ and ‘will I learn to cook ever or just starve?’.
But the thought of ‘will I speak the same language?' never entered my mind.
After a couple of months of taking the mickey and trying to pronounce... [Sub Ed Note: It's too big even for theSprout layout!]
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch my Welsh flat mate invited her friends over for a day of shopping in Cardiff.
I woke up whilst they were in mid-conversation in the corridor and quite literally thought I had lost my mind! Fortunately in the Welsh language, most common nouns stay the same. In this case I could figure out that they were talking about cereals because they kept mentioning Coco Pops!
Another occasion of a breakdown in communication was when my (Welsh) friend stormed into the flat. She slumped on the sofa and said “I’m tampin!” I really didn’t know what this was so offered to get her a tampon? It actually meant she was angry, but had laughed at me so much that she had forgotten what she was ‘tampin’ about.
Within the year I had managed to find myself a lovely Welsh boy, whose first language is Welsh as well. It seemed as though someone was sending me a sign that I should learn this language! I am now very proud to say that I can count to ten as well as a couple of other bits, go lew. Sut wit ti?
During my first year, the Welshies and the English in our flat wrote out separate lists of ‘weird Welsh words’, and ‘stupid English words’. Feel free to try these out and see how different they sound in our different accents!
“jelly bottle Primark cinema - foam pasty bobble here/ear/year toffee buzzin comb ych a fi (which doesn’t even translate into English!) tooth where you to? don’t butter cone apple cucumber whole captain hook nose covent garden dance cookie - seminar cotch (in English means cosy, in Welsh you’d say cwtch which is hug) the list goes on and on! One more: people in Llanelli call rugby boots ‘togs’?!”
Info Education Higher Education
Organisations Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg - Welsh Language Board
IMAGE: Boys, mud and a ball! by Today is a good day
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How To Survive Your Freshers Year
Halls Stink: My First Horrible Term at University
3 Comments – Post a comment
LittleLegs
Commented 64 months ago - 17th January 2011 - 23:56pm
Spelling mistake! whoops, 'sut wit ti' should be 'sut wyt ti' :)
abhijanb
Commented 64 months ago - 18th January 2011 - 21:41pm
haha, try being an indian born english football/rugby supporter in an all welsh environment. it's even more entertaining!
CeefaxOfLife
Commented 64 months ago - 20th January 2011 - 10:36am
You should have been here when you could only receive S4C and no Channel 4. Bad times.