Welsh wedding invitation.

[Spikeyplant]

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?

[TinDogTavern]

@honeyroar you would actually send that? Someone invited you to their wedding, in their language (and you've got far enough to know its a wedding invitation and they've invited you) and you'd harumph that they didn't really want you there and spit the dummy? Good LORD.

OP, YAB afresymol iawn

[ArcheryAnnie]

I'd send a card back saying "It seems, from the style of your invites, that you only want Welsh speakers at your special day, so we wish you all the best and won't be coming".

You could do this, OP, if you really wanted to come across as a massive passive-aggressive arse with a massive chip on your shoulder. It'd be great for that.

[BadKnee]

Agree. Arseholes. They don't want you there or they are Making a Point.

I invited people to an event recently. In English. Except for the people who are not native or very fluent speakers as I knew they wouldn't understand or feel welcome. So for them I slipped in a translation.

Agree with pp who said reply in Latin or Sanskrit. save yourself a fortune and a weekend of boredom. Don't go.

[TonyMacaroni]

What if you sent an invitation and they had the arse as you hadn't included a Welsh translation?

I don't expect you are the only non Welsh speaker there. I just don't see they would deliberately send you a Welsh invitation, that is decide to send ALL the invites out in Welsh just to piss you off. Highly unlikely.

[choli]

Is there a website or facebook page associated with the wedding? Perhaps the translation is there.

[OvariesBeforeBrovaries]

One where a parent has been chewed out for wanting to give her child a Welsh name that "the English can't pronounce"

I had this three years ago. People couldn't wrap their heads around two Welsh-speaking Welsh parents in a Welsh-speaking part of Wales wanting to give their Welsh child a Welsh name. Apparently "everyone will think she's called Ceiling".

Three years on and everyone we speak to loves her name, and the only people who have had any difficulty in pronouncing it were our Romanian neighbours - and I loved getting cards addressed to "Baby Karen", it didn't bother me in the slightest

It's a total inability to recognise that life exists outside of their corner of Little England.

[Timeforteaplease]

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PEOPLE IN WALES ALSO WRITE IN WELSH!

[Biker47]

Google translate your reply into Japanese and send them that in response.

[saoirse31]

Can't understand your determination to be offended.

[OnlyTheWelshCanCwtch]

Sniggers at Thatstoast
Brilliant!!

[TonyMacaroni]

A weekend of boredom because some people might speak Welsh there?

How very charming.

I'm glad you welcome all languages at your wedding by planning to include translations, I hope the fuckers don't start speaking in those languages because that would be so booooooooooring.

Selfish Welsh bastards.

[OvariesBeforeBrovaries]

We had beautiful Welsh vows at our wedding.

If only I knew that our English guests were snoring their way through it because our vows were so boring!

[nothercupoftea]

It might be a mistake, but if it was done on purpose, it IS rude.

You don't send an invitation or a letter in a language someone can't understand, why would you do that? A worst, send the translation on a post it note. It doesn't matter if it's in Welsh, in French in Korean or in Arabic. You know if your guests speak the language or not, you address the invit' accordingly.

Most people will assume that a wedding in a country will be done in the language of that country, you don't need to make a point by sending something no one can read.

[SirVixofVixHall]

"I think they're just trying to be novel". Er no. They are almost certainly simply using the language they use every day, for their invitations. Does it not occur to english people that many Welsh people live their day-to-day lives not speaking english at all? I know many people who are less comfortable, and less fluent in english than in welsh. It would be bizarre then to have your invitations in english. I imagine that they assume you will ask if there is something you aren't able to work out. But given your eagerness to be offended I think maybe a welsh wedding, with O Horror! Speeches in Welsh, may not be for you. [welshcake] needed here.

[TonyMacaroni]

That was a bit selfish of you, you obviously hated all your guests. They should have all started congratulating you in Japanese, that would SHOW YOU.

[FoundNeverland]

Spikeyplant - that's probably the best approach. I'd put them down as thoughtless not mean and rude. It was probably an oversight.

Are you likely to be the only ones at the wedding who can't speak Welsh?

[Batgirlspants]

Don't be a silly sod op bias as my mum Welsh snd my great gran learnt Welsh aged 15!

Love Wales and good on them

[GreenFox17]

OP don't be a 'twlldin' and just say yes thank you or no thank you. Stop over thinking it.. still!

[Batgirlspants]

Bloody hell learnt English aged 15!! Idiot English

[robinia]

I'd love to receive an invitation like that. I'd enjoying sticking it in Google Translate, maybe learning a few words of Welsh along the way, and contacting the couple if there was anything that wasn't clear - maybe in some Google translated Welsh.

[Tricycletops]

People having the temerity to speak languages other than English! And on British soil too! The horror!

It is rather funny the way some English speakers take the mere existence of other languages as a personal slight.

[PeaFaceMcgee]

You don't send an invitation or a letter in a language someone can't understand

With the magic of a translator, it's perfectly understandable. There's also the wonderous telephone with which to double-check details. It's not remotely rude.

[TonyMacaroni]

The OP says many of the guests don't speak Welsh.

[honeyroar]

Tindog I might actually. I certainly wouldn't be going to their wedding. I've spent years living in other countries, and if any of my non English speaking friends were invited to my wedding I wouldn't leave them to use google translate to work out the invite, I'd pop a note in their language explaining. I'd want them to feel welcome. I'd understand the wedding would be in Welsh (so was my graduation ceremony) but the invite ought to be friendly. My friend's wedding was in Welsh but her invites were in Welsh and English as a lot of the guests were English speakers.

[FoundNeverland]

SirVixofVixHall - did you mean to be so patronising? I'd imagine that the majority of English people know that there are Welsh people who only speak Welsh on a day-to-day basis and for whom Welsh is a first language. That doesn't mean that sending invitations exclusively in Welsh isn't rude and unwelcoming.

As above, the courteous thing to do is to send invitations in a language that would be understood by the recipients. Surely that is the polite and welcoming approach...