To think that people should respond to a greeting in the language of the country?

[Whitlandcarm]

I work in a place where we get lots of visitors popping in and out, part of my job is to say good morning/good afternoon as they enter.

The language of my workplace is Welsh. Every member of staff is fluent. The place in which I work is a place to learn about Wales.

I say "Bore da" with a smile, and get a "err hi" "morning.", or my fave, nothing.
Often with a face like I've just shit on their shoe. Perhaps sometimes even a hint of disgust.

AIBU unreasonable to expect people to answer me in Welsh? Then speak to me in English if they please afterwards?

Would you go to Spain and answer in English, if a shop keeper etc greeted you? Certainly not.

Even some Welsh seem to do this, but 99% of the time they are English.

Many Australians, Americans, Canadians, other Europeans put effort in and reply "bore da", "prynhawn da" etc.

I think it's a basic courtesy to learn a few phrases, such as hello, thank you, goodbye, in the native language of a country you're visiting. Generally in an EU country most service/tourist people will be fluent in English but it doesn't hurt to greet them, thank them and say goodbye in their native language so why not make the effort?

Generally English-speaking people who come to my country don't bother with greeting us at all, let alone in our language. They don't seem to realise that coming into a shop or a café, for instance, you have to say "bonjour" and acknowledge the existence of the people working there before ordering things, and then they say we are rude and arrogant, when they are being rude, in fact very rude.

I live in a tourist area and have lost count of the times people have talked at me loudly in English (when I have been minding my own business drinking my coffee and reading Sud-Ouest on a café terrace) without saying even hello let alone bonjour first, or indeed ascertaining whether I actually understand English at all, so sometimes I pretend I don't.

I could recognise Happy Birthday in Welsh (something happus, or the other way round) but that's all I know.

My husband is Welsh, my children are Welsh, I know some Welsh, I think if would be bloody ignorant not to at least attempt a bore da, I can happily give a buenos días or bonjour or guten morgen or goedemorgen or buongiorno.

I'm not a brilliant linguist but I do at least take the trouble to learn a few basic phrases wherever I go.

It is dickish not to.

Hmm--I would respond in English as a way of letting you know I don't speak Welsh. Otherwise you might come back to me with a whole sentence in Welsh which might be awkward.

I think a native speaker of any language would probably know you're not fluent by your accent, but would be glad of the effort.

And even if they did come back in fluent Welsh, you could always say mae'n ddrwg gennym, nid l yn siarad Cymraeg.

Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?

What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!" said Gandalf. "Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won't be good till I move off."

"To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took's son, as if I was selling buttons at the door!"

Well why would the English know any Welsh? We're taught Spanish, German and French in school so can manage a bonjour or two but if you said 'Bore Da' to me ... I'd think you were asking if I was bored ...?

I actually speak a number of modern and medieval languages

Colour me interested. What medieval languages do you speak, pringlecat?

I'm going to Wales soon so I'm going to Bore Da the hell out of everyone I see, Welsh or not!

Just for you OP!

Doffs het i Elfinpre am ddfynnu rhagorol.

Which according to Google Translate means, 'Doffs cap to Elfinpre for excellent quoting'. Well, hat rather than cap, but it put cap as PAC in all capitals so I'm guessing that may mean Common Agricultural Policy rather than headgear...?

I can make a stab at pronouncing everything up to the double n - no clue what that should sound like! Any Welsh speakers care to help me out? I'd like to know!

I agree OP, but where do you work?

Wonder op what what you would say if you were greeted in lrish here in lreland. I think some people find it difficult to move quickly into another language. My dh gets so confused he uses ltalian in Spain, french in Italy etc. Dc have begged him not to even try.

Broomstick, I cane on to say the same thing!

How many of you go to Barcelona and learn Catalan greetings to respond with?

Wales is an English speaking country. Like Catalonia, more people that live there are fluent in the 'main' language (Spanish/English) than they are the 'regional' (Catalan/Welsh) one, so it measures more sense to go to Wales and speak English than it does to go to Wales to speak Welsh.

Just done a quick Google.

About 20% of people in Wales speak Welsh.

About 73% of people in Catalonia speak Catalan.

junebirthdaygirl
I was just thinking the same thing. I wonder how many Welsh visitors to Ireland go on a crash course in Irish before travelling. If they go to the North, then presumably they are learning some Ulster Scots as well?

I like to try at least a sentence or two but when out of 'England' I get flustered so a greeting in French or German when in Spain was embarrassing!
It is good to see some bits of Welsh on here but could you please have a go at putting a phonetic pronunciation up too as much is so different compared to the Western European languages where you can 'get by' even if you are quite a way out.

Depends where you are. The national languages of Wales are English AND Welsh and so it's reasonable to reply in either. India for example has many national languages (including English) and so if someone said hello to me in any of them, I'd use the language I felt most comfortable with.

I work for a multinational and have tried to train myself put of using time-specific greetings. Obviously if someone is there in person, then bore da or prynhawn da is going to be the same for both of you, but on instant messenger or the phone, then it can all be different, and hello is fine for all time zones.

I'm not bothered about which language people greet me in. I have one colleague where we always go for a different language in reply. I am not customer facing, but back in the days when I was, I'd say getting any sort of response is doing well, let alone in a specific language.

I do think it's probably optimistic to expect replies in Welsh, so I'd just be pleased with it when it does happen.

orlantina
I hate to be that person, but 'hi' isn't a word in Dutch.
If you're trying to say the greeting, you would say 'hoi'

@simplysleepy - but Dutch people always say hi to me, not hoi?

Its not that simple though OP. For example I beleive in in Urdu/Arabic the correct answer to aslaam ali kom is welecom salaam ( these are spelt vaguely phonetically and bear no relation to true spellings sorry). Thus it may be that some people expect the response to be different in Welsh and thus mutter "hi"

I have no grasp whatsoever of Welsh though could probably return greetings in French, German, Italian, Spanish and at a push Russin, Potugese and Mongolian though Id need to double check the last 3 as they are very rusty.

Last time I was in Wales I was 12 and I dont remember anyone speaking Welsh to me or I might have picked a little up. There is a chance that if I wasnt in a hurry Id stop for a Welsh leason with you though!!

I think it depends what sort of place the OP works in, if it's tourist centre then the OP is BU. People are there to find out about things to do and see in Wales, more than learn about Wales in an educational sense.

If it's some sort of educational centre then OK OP might be BR, if it's a centre where people come to learn Welsh then I think she's on to something.

I am thrown though by the fact OP states that 99% are English people who do this and that they responded "Often with a face like I've just shit on their shoe. Perhaps sometimes even a hint of disgust." and that visitors from other european counties make the effort and reply in Welsh.

Can't work out what the work place is. Seems weird that only English people would look disgusted at being spoken to in Welsh at a place they are attending to learn about Wales.

If it's 'just a tourist centre then I suspect a bit of confirmation bias occurring. Or it's because Europeans from counties from other than England are in a foreign country so checked the guide books and read about the Welsh language being in parts of Wales. (Tell us about Scotish visitors please OP).

I'm trying to think about centres here in Ireland, though Irish is less used than Welsh, I do think Irish greetings are used in many 'learn about Ireland' places but I don't think the expectation is to respond in Irish.