To use my second language to gain an advantage in the Lidl queue?

[SerenYrWythnos]

I live in a town on the Welsh border. So much on the border that parts of my town are actually in England, but the Lidl is in Wales.

It's not a Welsh speaking area at all. Welsh is taught in schools but you don't hear it being spoken out and about - I honestly can't remember the last time I heard anyone speaking Welsh outside an educational setting.

But because it's in Wales, Lidl do all their store announcements in Welsh first, including the announcement that another till is opening and the number of the till.

I speak enough Welsh to know which till is about to open before it's announced in English so I just zoom straight over there when I hear it in Welsh. This gets me dirty looks from people who were ahead of me in one of the queues, but didn't twig which till was opening until it was announced in English. Lidl tends to have mega queues so getting in first at a newly opened till is a major win round here 😁

AIBU to take no notice and carry on being first at Till 5? Or should I wait until everyone has understood what's going on, or should I even give the people ahead of me a heads up?

In every Lidl/Aldi I have been in, the green light goes on at the till they are about to open before they announce it.

and because they rarely announce anything other than tills opening, as soon as the speakers kick in, everyone is going to know a till is likely to be opening.

So what are you fretting about exactly?

Unfortunately yabu, not because of the Welsh but because of the queue jumping

The correct way to do it is to head over to the queue and anyone joining you in that queue you say 'you were in front of me in the last queue' and smile

We're British, we queue well

@ShowAndGo

Welsh enough to understand the numbers, yet English enough to worry about queue barging - perfect

Brilliant!

New tills are fair game if you know/hear about them first.

Go for it!

Nope, honestly not bullshit. The announcements don't just say "till 5 is opening" - they start off with some other stuff, but as soon as I hear it starting up my ears are primed to pick out the number, which is just one word in a couple of sentences. I'm quite surprised how few of the other customers seem to have cottoned on tbh.

It's also quite a touristy area so I suppose a lot of customers aren't local though, especially in school holidays.

I think your Lidl needs to employ more staff if there always long queues at a till! Also, it’s annoying when they do announce another till opening and then it takes ages for the cashier to turn up!
God knows why theres a happy birthday gif on my post 😂😂😂

That's actually an interesting subject. We don't get to pick and choose as such.

For school meals it's determined by which count(r)y you live in and pay council tax in. You could live in England but use the Welsh school, or vice versa, but your FSM entitlement would be based on the country you live in.

Prescriptions however...are done by postcode. Postcodes are divided up into health board areas. There are addresses that have Welsh postcodes (despite being in England and paying council tax to an English council) and so their residents have to use the Welsh NHS. You get no choice in that. Yes that means free prescriptions but tbh the Welsh NHS is a total shit show so it's not really gaining much.

Many years ago I took a guided tour around Prague Castle. The guide would explain what we looking at in Czech first, then German, then French and finally English. It was raining heavily and at some points in the tour we were outside. After the guide had finished her explanation in Czech, the Czech speakers would run for cover. The Germans would be able to take cover next, and then the French. The monoglot English-speakers got very wet. Luckily I knew enough German to understand most of what she said in German, so I ended the tour considerably drier than my fellow Brits, and the Americans. 😀

I think you mean Penblwydd Hapus

I'm not fretting, don't worry.

But my fellow customers aren't all happy at what they seem to perceive as an unfair advantage. And it absolutely definitely is an advantage - it's only once it's announced in English that there's a sudden aha moment and everyone queuing starts doing the mental arithmetic and deciding whether to move or not.

Brittany Ferries used to do announcements in French first - probably still do.

When we used to go on family holidays my French was still pretty good. I'd be hustling spouse and kids down the stairs while the rest of the holidaymakers stood or sat around waiting for "You may now make your way to the car deck".

Let’s not tell them about 17, or 31…

I live near Wrexham, and do this too. Unfortunately there are a quite a few of us who know the Welsh numbers, so it doesn't always work. I don't speak Welsh just remember the numbers from school days!

To be honest, in our Lidl the announcement may as well be in Martian because no other bugger can understand it.

Our Lidl (West coast Scotland) used to have the option at the self checkouts to set the language to Welsh, I always did that because being pestered to scan the next item is less annoying in a language I don't speak. The new checkouts don't let you do that anymore :(

We don't have self checkouts at our Lidl. I have mixed feelings about this! I loathe them but also...queueueueueuing forever just to pay for one cheese twist is very boring.

I'm learning Welsh on Duolingo but haven't got to till numbers yet ☹️ I can let you know that Celyn and Megan want carrot curry though 😀

I love visiting Welsh speaking Wales.

In Bala I was in a pub where a group of women were on a night out. They kept interrupting the Welsh with bits of English, as in.... dah, dah,dah, right snotty cow, dah dah dah, what a slag, dah dah dah. Would have loved to know what they were talking about!

It's not an experience you can get anywhere else, being somewhere that feels totally like "home" but half the people around you are speaking a different language. Not at all the same as being in France or Italy.

I grew up in a town near the border of England and Wales. I was in Wales and so learnt Welsh. I was in a Welsh class, which meant that every afternoon we did Welsh. We did the GCSE at 13. I can certainly remember 1-10 numbers and some words, but a shame I can’t remember anything more! I have lived in Surrey now though for half my life. Sure those other customers could learn a few numbers if they could be bothered!

We don't have self checkouts at our Lidl. I have mixed feelings about this! I loathe them but also...queueueueueuing forever just to pay for one cheese twist is very boring.

Our Lidl gets swamped by the highschool kids at lunchtime, I don't know how they would manage without the self checkouts.

First language Welsh here, YANBU at all! If they are in a country with it's own language (even more so if they were born/brought up there) and can't understand some basics, then it's shame on them.

I thought you were being rude till I realised what you meant. 🤣

No. One, two, three... Un, dau, tri ...

I'm in the minority apparently, I just think it's bad manners to go at the start of a new till then there are other people waiting before you (unless they have already started unloading onto the belt). The last time that happened, I went to the new till and then gestured to the man who was before me with his basket that the till was open and he was before me.

It's like people who ignore the queue for the bus and just stride ahead to the bus doors so they can nab their seats. Infuriating.

Crystal Peaks or Archer Road? @Circumferences

@Bananaram There's a bus stop in town where it's a congregation rather than a queue and it's impossible to see who's first in line. Same with the trams.