Dysgu'r diwylliannol o Gymru gan Martin: Gwlad o Dduw (ac y Wlad o Ddefaid a Glaw)

Don't be alarmed, I've not gone crazy and just typed any old tripe as my blogg title. It's welsh. Hence the excessive amount of consonants. And y's. They do like their y's, don't they? All being well, it says "Martin's cultural learning in Wales: land of God (and the land of sheep and rain)". Fingers crossed. I asked a real welsh person how to say it(hence the 'Land of God'.) Well, not say it. As an Englishman (Actual fact. Quite Yorkshireish, and Sunderlandish so far. That's another story...), I lack the glands to produce enough spit to aid me in my speaking of such a lovely language which pronounces every single letter. Except Ll. And oe. These are pronounced respectively as "hiss" and "oi". That's not pronouncing every single letter. LIES! The same applies to the French actually.

"Yoo eengleesh, wiz yur seelee silen' lettairs. We pronarnce evuree lettair in Frarnce."

Whatever. Let me tell you something, France: je joue is pronounced, zje zjou. You ignore the poor 'e'. And, Ils jouent is pronounced exactly the same. This is the same for every single verb ending for 'they'. It must get pretty sad being a 3rd person plural conjugation.

So yes, back to my cultural findings from Wales. They are bilingual. I discovered this when I passed the "Croeso i Gymru" sign. Then began the barrage of lovely english names forcibly 'Welshed-up'. I cannot think of any examples of the top of my head. But there were lots. Another example of said bilingualism, for the whole 16.5% of speakers of the language within Wales, was to be found in Tesco. Yes, Tesco is bilingual in Wales. They don't wish you "goodbye", they wish you "pob hwyl". You don't buy lemonade there, you buy lemonêd. Instead of bread, you buy bara. Where the large potato section is in an English Tesco, you find a ridiculously disproportioned leek section.

Having said that, I saw not one sheep. I was a little disappointed to be honest. But, the rain held true, and helped my experience retain the true Welsh feel. I like Wales. Honestly.