This blog post is mainly inspired by a discussion on thestudentroom forums, where they’re talking about what it is to be British.
Personally, I don’t consider myself to be British other than the fact that, according to my passport, I am a citizen of Great Britain. As far as I am concerned, my nationality is Welsh, and I am proud of that fact. I am proud of our language and the fact that it is still alive despite the many attempts to quash it, proud of our history and our culture, our patriotism, our music and our poets, our food (if you haven’t tried Welsh cakes, you must! They’re amazing!), our scenery and beaches and so much more.
Now, I am not against English people coming to this country. After all, my family moved here from England, so it’d be hypocritical of me to say that. What I am against, however, is people who move to this country and make no attempts whatsoever to learn our language – in fact, they go as far as to actively slag it off, and slag off all the people who live here (“sheep shaggers” is a popular insult), and say how much they hate living here – and yet, when asked why they live here if they hate it so much, they’re the first to bleat (pardon the pun) “racism” and “I have just as much right to live here as everyone else”. They have the right to live here, but if they hate it so much, surely the good thing to do would be to move back to England, where you don’t have to listen to us speaking Welsh if it irks you so, and free up some of the housing market for the young people and families who want to stay in Wales and want to remain immersed in the culture.
The other ironic thing is that these people are usually the ones who complain the loudest about immigrants who move to England and refuse to learn the language and don’t immerse themselves in the culture. I mean, I do agree with them, I think people who move to any country, regardless of where from, should try to become a part of the culture and at least learn the language, the law and the generally accepted way to be a member of society, more for communication’s sake and to be polite than anything else. However, why is it the English seem to be so hypocritical about it?
Of course, I am generalizing here, and not all English people are like that – it seems to be a minority, but the minority seem to be the most vocal about it. I know plenty of English families who have moved here and the children have all learned Welsh through school, and the parents try to learn Welsh (although it is harder as an adult, because of the fact that children soak up languages better than adults), and even though they may still support the England football and rugby teams, you never get that attitude of “we’re going to smash the sheep shaggers”, shortly followed by (when Wales win, which usually only happens in rugby) “ugh Wales won by a fluke, Wales got lucky, Wales is full of sheep shaggers, don’t get too smug Wales, you only won by a little bit”. Alternatively, if they win, it’s “Ha, we showed them Welsh *****!”. They seem to be sore winners and sore losers. Also, in sports, there is the fact that when a Welshman (or woman, I’m not sexist) wins something, they are “The British sportsman, ________, wins the gold medal!”. When they don’t succeed, it is “And the Welshman, _________, crashes out in last place”. It’s double standards, and the only country it never seems to happen to, funnily enough, is England.
I don’t hate England and I don’t hate English people – I just hate the attitude some of them seem to have towards countries that live, however slightly, differently to their own. We are next door to England (although, I must stress, Wales is NOT a part of England), we share the same Royal Family, most of us speak English as well as Welsh, some of our bands and singers are quite popular in England (Bullet For My Valentine, Katherine Jenkins (the Forces Sweetheart) Duffy, Funeral for a Friend, Kids in Glass Houses, Lostprophets, Manic Street Preachers, Tom Jones and of course, Stereophonics, to name some of them) – the only real differences is that we can and choose to speak a different language sometimes (which seems to really annoy the English if they walk in on a conversation in Welsh – ever heard the “I walked into a pub and EVERYONE changed from speaking English to Welsh” myth?), and we support different teams in sports. Why is there such animosity towards the Welsh? I’m not saying it isn’t reciprocated – there are some Welsh people who dislike the English, but it never seems to be the same level of hatred as some English people seem to have for the Welsh – and yet, they’re more than happy to come on holiday here and expect us to speak English whenever they’re around, regardless of what language we normally use. And if we don’t? We’re racist.
the life of a moomin 