To the people not getting the language thing, PPs who have specified English as a second language have nailed it really. I’m from a WC area (lots of closed coal mines!) and Welsh-speaking families there were certainly treated as idiots by certain services and authorities in the past (I don’t mean 100s of years ago either, I mean when my dad was a kid, tapering off when I was in school. It’s because it’s a family language and it’s assumed your English will be lacking and as such you’re perceived as stupid (and even suspicious and untrustworthy in some cases!) It’s ok if you’ve never seen or experienced this and can’t imagine it, but it does happen.
I’m sure if we were landowners or if family members had been from less industrial places and maybe wrote poetry in our native language things would be perceived as more classy/educated?!
Nowadays it’s common for MC families who don’t speak Welsh to encourage their children to go to Welsh schools, as other PPs have said, recognising the benefits of bilingualism. The point is, bilingualism itself is viewed differently (by some!) depending on the class of the family and the language itself. Latin, Greek, French! Fancy! Polish, Welsh (to some!) or Romani, not so much… Of course nationality, ethnicity and perceived religion also come on to this too. They shouldn’t. Having more than one language is a gift but some will really ridicule you if it’s the wrong one. To the PP who said they’re impressed by multiple languages I agree learning languages is hard for many, even that is sometimes used to mock second-language English speakers, as if we have cheated and didn’t really have to learn. I bet it happens in other countries too, esp in the USA regarding people with Spanish as mother tongue, or indigenous languages etc.,. Again, judgement based on perceived class, wealth or status, compounded by ethnicity.
I definitely don’t think it’s something that commenters are endorsing, it’s highlighting the hypocrisy.
Likewise the babysitting, as a teen I used to look after my younger cousins for dirt-cheap all through the holidays so my Aunty could work and when she’s mentioned that to some they are horrified (we had a whale of a time and she saved 1000s she didn’t have). I think it depends on which relatives do it and what for personally, but I have sometimes seen the double-standard. Touches on what others have mentioned, farming out your kids is fine if it’s to a fancy club or boarding school, irresponsible if it’s to relatives all the time so you can work.
I’d echo the mother taking care of kids and not working too, other aunt was on benefits looking after triplets when they were young and it was definitely seen as abhorrent by some parents in their school who had proper jobs as teachers or nurses etc.,. As if she planned triplets and an abusive partner… Stupid and lazy. Whereas if they were monied and the dad was absent and she at home, hard to imagine she’d have been thought of as such scum tbh.
Don’t have much else to add to my essay. I second recreational drugs. Spiritual and cool to do weed daily in the MC (according to some), trashy, irresponsible and criminal behaviour when it’s a care worker unwinding after another hellish shift. Of course many are anti-drugs as a rule and would see anyone partaking as a monster. I don’t endorse these double-standards, but I do agree that many of them exist. Yes to the hand-me-downs, unruly kids, messy houses, old cars, binge-drinking etc.,. It’s all needless but I think the OP started a good conversation and some responses have been genuinely funny!
Can I add using slang or vernacular? Eccentric or charming to some, classless and thick to others, depending on ££