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 know that hoi is Dutch for hello. Been there 4 times. It's just that most Dutch people say hi to me even before I speak and then carry on speaking in Dutch before I tell them I am English.

Is hoi more formal? Hi just seems to be the more usual greeting. It's what I hear on the buses.

Must admit I don't love the Welsh language.

I would reply with 'hi' if I heard you in the above instance.

It would be polite in them to say Bore da indeed but that's all the Welsh I know - and it would be rude of you not to continue on English. Language should be used to include not to exclude.

Going to Wales this summer. Now I'm afraid of people in information centres judging me for my lack of Welsh conversational skills. I'd be slightly afraid they thought I was taking the mickey if I replied Bore Da. What if I pronounced it wrongly and ended up saying something totally different?

Btw I am half Welsh. I have some very Welsh Nationalist relatives whose first (and practically only) language is Welsh. They work in very Welsh places. They are, frankly, a bit scary.

I'm Irish, if someone greeted me in Irish I'd probably respond in Irish. Not a big deal.

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

Only before midday though

*If you said that to me I wouldn't have a clue what it meant and wouldn't know how to respond.

This. Not read all the thread, but I would't have a clue what you were saying either, I wouldn't be not saying it just to be rude!
If I was in Spain, and someone said "Hola" I'd say it back. France, bonjour. Germany, Guten Tag. Could even say it in Japanese (can't spell it though lol)

For those of living in the UK visiting Wales is not visiting another country, so I don't think it would occur to people to speak another language there, which would explain people's reaction when you speak Welsh to them. I have relatives in Wales and whilst I am very aware that there is a Welsh language which people are proud of and are trying to maintain I don't expect to visit and have to speak Welsh ! I also have a brother in France, definately another country, where the language is French, I therefore expect to need a bit of the language and have learned how to be polite eg Good morning etc.
I live in Scotland which ( at the moment !)😄 is part of the UK ! Some speak Gaelic but I'm jolly sure they wouldn't expect visitors to have any knowledge of this at all.
I too would not have known how to react and would have had a confused face.

I've been to Gaelic speaking parts of Ireland where it's spoken as a first language. Despite coming from an Irish background, my Gaelic is limited to slainte, pogue mahone, and cead mile failte. I've always said hello-it's never been a problem. I think even if you mean to say it in the native language, it's automatic to say it in your mother tongue.

It's Gaeilge in Ireland. Gaelic in Scotland. Unless you're playing football in Ireland which is indeed Gaelic

If some people don't speak Welsh, and don't understand what you said, how do you expect them to respond in Welsh?

As there are 2 official languages in Wales I feel it is sufficient that I know one of them and am not being rude in using it when I'm there. If Welsh was the only language of Wales I would attempt to learn at least a few phrases when busting, just as I do for visits to France, Spain, Japan etc

Not busting, visiting

I am half welsh (never lived there) and I'd reply with 'Hi-ya!' because that seems to be the official greeting of Pembrokeshire I think that if you don't actually know the same language response to someone's greeting then an equivalent greeting in your own language is perfectly acceptable.

I think it's rude if they know you are speaking to them and don't respond at all or smile or anything. But I don't think you can expect them to speak Welsh straight away, even repeating the same thing back isn't straightforward if you didn't realise you would have to!

Could you maybe say "Hello, bore da"? I know it's repeating yourself but I've noticed people in other countries doing this when dealing with tourists... a little prod to at least learn a greeting!

Also, are you sure they realise you're speaking to them? I've had a couple of incidents where I've apparently blanked people who assume I am the same nationality as them and speak to me in their native language... my brain just sort of filters it out, assuming they can't be talking to me (we were not in their home country - apparently I just look really German. And Israeli. )

The problem is you are expecting people to know at least 3 different greetings in Welsh which tbh is quite a big ask if you don't actually speak any Welsh!

It's great that you are trying to keep the Language alive but the better way would be to not make people feel awkward or they will skuttle off thinking how embarrassing the whole interaction was and never wanting to re visit Wales or realise how lovely the Welsh language is.

I wonder how many Welsh visitors to Ireland go on a crash course in Irish before travelling

I've never been to Ireland, but I'd at least try to learn a basic greeting. I love languages though so maybe that's just me.

When I was 10 I went on a school field trip to north Wales and our (Welsh) teacher told us that if we said thank you in Welsh to shopkeepers we might get given free sweet. Needless to say we all obeyed and no free sweets ever emerged. I do look back on that with a cringe- we must have looked like such try hards. That memory alone would stop me from ever attempting to speak it again. Oh, and the criticism at a recent bilingual Welsh/English wedding I went to of some of the English guests trying (valiantly I thought, and having practised beforehand) to pronounce some of the welsh words

Welsh is the official language of Wales, yes. But English is the de facto language. So if the de facto language of Spain was English, then yes I'd answer in English in Spain.

In Belgium I'd answer a bonjour with Goedemorgen. It wouldn't be seen as a slight on Walloons.

"Presumably you've mostly been in touristy areas then with a higher proportion of non Welsh people - Snowdonia in particular I would imagine is full of foreign visitors. FWIW I often hear people speaking Welsh just around the streets/shops."

@ifitquackslikeaduck , yes, I was in Tesco in Bangor and the girl on the checkout spoke to me in Welsh. Things like helo and diolch I can manage but she started a long sentence that I couldn't understand until she uttered the word "clubcard" which thankfully gave me the clue I needed! Lots of people speaking Welsh round there.

I do feel like if they're going to a place to learn about Wales, the least they can do is say boreda, prynhawn da, nos da etc

So if I went to the Alliance Francaise in London, or the Goethe Institute, you would expect me to speak French or German when I went there?

I studied in (south) Wales and did a short course in Welsh, at one point I thought if I could learn to speak it fluently I might be able to get into the media more easily as I wanted to be a journalist. But ultimately I went off and became a lawyer instead. So I would know what you were saying and might well have responded in Welsh too - I imagine you'd pick up on my non-Welsh accent very quickly.

I had a friend who studied in Bangor and I thought that was prime Welsh-speaking country. Every shop I went into, everyone was speaking English. I was quite disappointed. I certainly never heard it in South Wales except in a shop in Cardiff which specifically sold Welsh language books and CDs etc and so that was the one place where you might hear people speaking Welsh.

Sorry but YA totally BU. I'm a languages teacher and love learning words in any new language. But to people who know no Welsh, 'bore da' could mean "Can I help you? or "Would you like some information?" or any number of things which it would not make sense for a visitor to repeat back to you. People don't like making idiots of themselves and many lack the confidence to speak in even a foreign language they learnt at school, never mind one of which they don't know a single word!

I had a friend who studied in Bangor and I thought that was prime Welsh-speaking country. Every shop I went into, everyone was speaking English. I was quite disappointed.
I mentioned Bangor up thread, Mulledwine. Same here.