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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Welsh wedding invitation.

653 replies

Spikeyplant · 18/04/2017 22:39

Just as it says in the title really.

My DH has a significantly younger relative who is getting married this summer. We have just received an invitation to the wedding, written entirely in Welsh. Neither DH or I speak Welsh and the bride and groom are well aware of this.

I am totally cool with somebody who grew up in a Welsh first language family wanting to celebrate their wedding in their language. However I can't help feeling it is a bit rude to send out invitations in a language many guests can't understand without even a short note in a mutually spoken language.

AIBU?

OP posts:
AntigoneJones · 23/04/2017 17:15

yes you do that , and wash it down with a nice paned Cymreig...

OverByYer · 23/04/2017 17:39

BrewCakeGrinGrinGrin

DressMeUpInStitches · 23/04/2017 18:11

I have had to great there is no way my ds in particular would have coped in a school which wasn't his 1st language. Unfortunately this has meant that we have had to move away to a different county, away from our friends and lovely neighbours. Purely because that county refuses to give children an education in English.
But move 5 miles down the road and it's fine Confused

GreatFuckability · 23/04/2017 18:19

i go to Cardiff and Swansea universities regularly. and regularly hear welsh being spoken. I live in Swansea. I hear welsh spoken every single day of my life. the idea that 'nobody' speaks welsh in these places is simply not true.

OverByYer · 23/04/2017 18:20

That's terrible dress

GreatFuckability · 23/04/2017 18:21

dress the vast majority of children in my children's schools come from homes where the parents don't speak welsh and cope just fine. If you chose to move, then that was your choice. but you can't possibly say he wouldn't cope if you didn't try it.

ittakes2 · 23/04/2017 18:25

maybe they sent you the wrong version - maybe just call them and ask what it says?

OvariesBeforeBrovaries · 23/04/2017 18:31

Dress is it Gwynedd? He should have been offered a place in a specialist language unit if you moved to the area, where they'd get his Welsh up to the standard of his peers.

klondikecookie · 23/04/2017 18:40

Just read the post about Welsh speakers being pretentious and am a bit amused to find out that my 90 year old grandmother and the farmers in my family are a bunch of hipsters

DressMeUpInStitches · 23/04/2017 18:45

Yes it was ovaries we now live in Conwy county, which is where I'm originally from.
great we did try, he was in a Welsh medium school for 2 yrs. He went to 2 different schools and neither of them would speak English to him. His homework came home in Welsh so we couldn't help him with it.
He was born and grew up in Gwynedd, bit because his 1st language wasn't Welsh he has struggled from the start.

Willyoujustbequiet · 23/04/2017 18:46

Its bollocks to say all Welsh people know Welsh or they are dim or have lived in a cave.

My Dp is Welsh, lived there and has Welsh parents. He knew the word cwtch and that was it. Nothing else. It doesn't make him any less Welsh.

TittyGolightly · 23/04/2017 18:51

My Dp is Welsh, lived there and has Welsh parents. He knew the word cwtch and that was it. Nothing else. It doesn't make him any less Welsh.

Even temporary visitors tend to notice words like Araf and Heddlu, ysbyty and bws. Unless he's had his head literally up his arse.

buggerthebotox · 23/04/2017 18:58

I live in a certain Welsh city and I can't go outside the door without hearing Welsh on an everyday basis. I am surrounded by Welsh speaking neighbours of all ages, many of whom attend one of the local Welsh medium schools.

I have many Welsh speaking friends and acquaintances too.

It's the same in the city centre. Plenty of Welsh around.

Willyoujustbequiet · 23/04/2017 19:07

Titty

Sod off has he had his head up his arse. Hes just not interested in it and never has been.

TittyGolightly · 23/04/2017 19:13

Does he walk around with his eyes shut, though? There's not having an interest and there's not taking any notice of anything around him!

SecretNetter · 23/04/2017 19:20

My Dp is Welsh, lived there and has Welsh parents. He knew the word cwtch and that was it. Nothing else. It doesn't make him any less Welsh

I simply don't believe it and agree with the pp- you'd have to have your head up your arse your whole life for that to be true.

I'd bet every penny I have that IF he grew up in Wales he can at the very least count to ten in Welsh. Or knows what a Ty Bach is or what colour Coch or Glas are. Or would know what someone meant when they said Croeso or Diolch to him. Literally every penny I have Grin.

DressMeUpInStitches · 23/04/2017 19:20

I agree with titty & bugger willyou
I'm not Welsh speaking but I do know a lot of Welsh, it's hard not to know some.... Tishio bag? in Spar? Diolch, in Tesco?
The issue I have is that it's hard enough for my son to learn maths in his 1st language, let alone learning it in a language he knows very little of.

DoorwayToNorway · 23/04/2017 19:23

DressMeUpInStitches my son has ADHD and Aspergers, we moved abroad when he was four. He started school in a small town where no one spoke English. All his homework is and was in another language. He knew nothing, not a word and nor did I. We did homework for a year by plugging it into translate and then typing his response into translate. It was hard but it wasn't impossible. He's 7 now, neither of us need translate anymore. He's still learning words but he takes formal tests every semester and usually gets 70- 80%. When you have no other choice you just cope. Thousands of children do it every day. Think of the refugee children who do it with other hurdles to bear and no alternative to fall back on.
I understand if you didn't want your son educated in Welsh, it's your right to choose, luckily, with sacrifices, you could find alternatives, but if you'd had no choice I'm 100% sure he'd have coped.

Tiggles · 23/04/2017 19:24

When I first moved to Wales around 20years ago I couldn't understand the need for all the bilingualism and forcing kids to do Welsh GCSE. Now I consider that was a fairly ignorant viewpoint. I am proud my kids can speak Welsh well enough to pass a GCSE in it. And yes its been an effort but now I can hold a conversation in simple Welsh. I love it when in an area that isn't really known for being Welsh speaking elderly people meet out walking will say hello in welsh and I am able to reply.
A wedding invitation isn't hard to translate. To be fair other than a date with a month in welsh, the time will be in numbers and the place is well a place which probably is in Welsh...

BestIsWest · 23/04/2017 19:24

How old would you have to be to not have been taught any Welsh at school? I'm 54 and we had Welsh all through primary and up until 3rd year of secondary ( after which you could opt to do it for O level. ) DH is 60 and says the same.

augustusglupe · 23/04/2017 19:29

Skip it!! I've lived here for 30 years, trust me, you won't enjoy the day. The whole thing will be in Welsh and the more they all have to drink, as the day progresses, the more nationalistic and boring they'll all become!!
Hope that helps Wink Grin

honeyroar · 23/04/2017 19:29

I was at Swansea Uni (decades ago), I had three Welsh flat mates, two didn't speak any Welsh and one did a tiny bit. I remember one girl on my course that spoke Welsh. I had a Welsh landlady in my final year but she didn't speak Welsh either. I don't remember much Welsh at uni, everything was written in both languages. My graduation was in both languages. I worked in the local leisure centre and also the bowling alley, I don't remember any Welsh spoken there. I may have picked up the odd word, but it really wasn't something that I needed to do, unlike when I lived in France or Italy, when I needed to speak it to get by. I didn't go out of my way to avoid, but it wasn't really very noticeable to me while I lived there. As I mentioned previously, my friend married a Welsh boy whose grandparents spoke welsh, so she learned Welsh, their invites were in both languages and so was their ceremony.

OverByYer · 23/04/2017 19:38

I'm 45 West and I can assure you that I have never had a lesson in Welsh.
SecretNetter hand over your cash mate, I can't count to 5 in Welsh let alone 10.
I have no idea what the other words are that you're saying.

I don't go around with my head up my arse either. I'm just not interested.

lazycrazyhazy · 23/04/2017 19:40

I wouldn't find it odd to receive an invitation to a wedding in Italy in Italian or the Middle East in Arabic. Why is a wedding in Wales different? The date and time is presumably numerical and the rest you can google translate...

DressMeUpInStitches · 23/04/2017 19:45

Yes but doorway you too had to learn the language as you were in a country where it is spoken fully throughout.
In Wales, unless you really try and practise then it is difficult to learn quickly as everyone just speaks english to you. It's not something you can just pick up, like you're in Framce