to think that most welsh people should speak some welsh

[mumof2children]

i am no way fluent in welsh by know very basic welsh.

but sould more welsh people speak some welsh

Well I can think of the stuff I do in England Rivenm, there's bonfire night etc as well... that's English, May Day etc.

There's lots out there classically Englaih; we used to do St George's day celebrations and have a night with foods and the like, there was no shortage.

Welsh cakes?

Actually, Bara Brith is a tea bread

Somewhat amusingly the fiorst time DH (Devon / Somerset border) ever encountered a Devon Bun was when we bought one from the local bakery; yet I was eating WelshCakes at Bridgwater Fair yesterday.

Not sure that emans anything but heck, the cake was nice.

of course language is part of culture.

What do you think culture is? Maybe this is the problem.

OK South Werst carnivals- run completely differently to any elsewhere. Winter illuminated etc.

Welsh Culture you'd be looking at the soings the boys sing at school, St David's day, the costumes. The stories and tales.

It's noty hugely different from English culture but it doiesn;t need to be: it just has to be Welsh rather than English.

Riv you are jusat being deliberately awkward now ! coffee cake. Comes from the seventies dontch know?

And if there isn;t a huge Englaih culture maybe it's becuase we spent centuries exportinga dn forcing it upon people so that it became ubiquitous?

Just a thought.

Anyway, for me culture wise what I notice is really just a different flavour to things. It's the same Island, same topography, same human beings but it's the twist that the people living here have put upon their routines and lives.

Riven, you should watch the Eistedfodd (sp?), full of Welsh culture... Right down to the disco dancing! LOL!

No bonfire night or mayday in Ireland Riven (British Isles include Ireland, afaik). Ireland is a whole different kettle of fish as far as popular culture and traditions go. And bonfire night would be like poking yourself in the eye if you were Irish, so politically/historically completely different too. Mayday if celebrated at all would be Beltain (modern Irish Bealtaine = May) which was the old Celtic festival of Ireland, Isle of Man and Scotland marking the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.

pod culture

In truth I do wonder if England has more of a regional culture? As other countries do? Would amke sense, after all there's 3 million or so people here in Wales; a tiny amount of what trhere is in England.

Would be easy to point out Somerset culture, North East culture etc perhaps?

Many people 'feel' their culture, it is not about touristy stereotypes that an outsider can immediately spot.

If you don't have any such feelings towards your own country or nationality, it must be very difficult to understand it.

Language, dialect, myths, stories, landscape, weather, food, local industries, traditions, all of these thigns go towards a feeling of national identity. And I'm sure many other thigns too.

Actually I am vaguely recalling some discussion on these lines when we started Uni, when we were asked about what culture we felt part of, my answer was indeed Somerset and Lecturer's was Yorkshire.

Regional it is then.

Those suggesting that Wales should be a separate country - is it worth pointing out that the Welsh didn't exactly choose, as such, to be a part of Great Britain (should point out here that I am not Welsh, am English born with Irish/Italian forebears).

I think that it is very unlikely that Wales would be allowed to split from the UK, given the bloody great heap of coal the country is sat on, and potential (likely?) fossil fuel shortages in the future. Come to that Wales is also very well placed for the future in terms of water resources, wind and agricultural land/population ratios.

Its also worth bearing in mind that minority languages are common across the world, and it is usual for them to be supported within their regions. In Spain, for example, there are plenty of situations where you would be making a political point by referring to 'Spanish' (Español) as opposed to 'Castillian' (Castellano) - certainly with speakers of other spanish languages.

One was brn here Riv, Henry teh csoemthing a,mfde a big deal that hw would ahve a welsh son so did that IIRC (either Pembroke or Caernarvon, can;t remember - been to both in last year)