The "people switching to speak Welsh when an English person enters the pub" thing is doing the rounds again and it winds me up because every single aspect of this trope is bullshit. 1/

First of all, how do you know what language people are speaking before you enter a building?

Congrats on your superpower hearing. 2/

Is it possible that your brain is attuned to hearing English when you walk into a pub and when you finally tune into the background noise you hear something unfamiliar? 3/

Secondly, how does an entire pub know that you don't speak Welsh? 4/

If you're in a tiny local pub and get bad service, it's not because of the myth that "the Welsh are rude".

You'd get shit service if you went into a rock bar wearing a Britney Spears shirt.

Pubs are for communities, and you're entering other people's space. 5/

Why would you be so entitled to think that you should understand other people's conversations anyway?

Who cares if strangers aren't speaking a language you understand? It's none of your business. 6/

The main point I want to make is that it's just not feasible.

I've spoken Welsh all my life and Welsh speakers are largely taught that it's rude to speak it in front of people who don't understand.

We're shamed into not switching to Welsh. 7/

I met a Welsh-speaking musician last year that I would never imagine speaking English to.

I was with an English person and I almost felt embarrassed to be speaking in Welsh in front of them. 8/

Gratefully it's less than it was, but Welsh speakers carry a stigma just by speaking the language, even in Wales and amongst other Welsh people. 9/

The idea of people switching languages in a pub because one person walks in as ludicrous.

HOW do they know you don't speak Welsh?
WHY would they bother changing? 10/

Such a self-centred view of the world where you think an entire pub full of strangers care about who YOU are. 11/

This is the point I'm trying to make.

It's not a unique experience for outsiders who are visiting pubs in rural Welsh areas. https://twitter.com/inthelionsden_/status/1290196918992113664?s=21

But nobody talks about North Yorkshire and their "impenetrable" language, do they?

https://twitter.com/cainalikehyena/status/1290199860231118852?s=21

Tourists come to Wales expecting a wild and untouched landscape devoid of people. So when they actually come into contact with locals there's a conflict between their expectations and their reality.

Ridiculous how much damage done to the Welsh language during the Victorian era is still having an impact today.

https://twitter.com/martinjohnes/status/1290223694275465216?s=21 https://twitter.com/martinjohnes/status/1290223694275465216