General Chat

Thanks Brenda. I thought I had a sharp memory till I came on chat. It is only on here that I have found out I am a hillock with total memory loss :-D :-D

Yiu can only appreciate poetry and prose in a minority language if you have some familiarity with that language. And words and constructions never translate perfectly into one of the major world languages like English, Mandarin etc.

Many thousands have found delight in Welsh poetry, in being able to understand the lovely englynion on gravestones that tell them so much of the characters of Welsh ancestors.

How much of that heritage are we losing? There must be so much written in Irish, Scots Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and many minority languages. Natural and heartfelt prose of our dear ancestors. Perhaps we are in too much of a rush to make everything conform to what we are happy with :-S

*sits in corner with pointy hat with a huge D on it*

I loathe poetry, always have since school.

That's such a shame, Sue. As one of my favourite poets said -

"Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people,"

John, if it was that good surely Dylan's dad would have wanted him to learn about it - he was a literature graduate, after all.

I love the old Welsh tales and poems but the modern stuff seems quite banal by comparison. Maybe the best writers, like Dylan, now write in English.

I am no expert, Gwynne. Wish I was as knowledgable as you (honest :-))

I doubt the standard has dropped that greatly in the Eisteddfod. I think early years of 20th century were probably best. One year (Eisteddfod at a little Welsh place called Birkenhead) there was a lovely entry by Eifion Wyn, a shephed from near Bala. Unfortunately he had been killed in action in France and they draped a black cloth over Chair.

I was thinking of a point made on about Page 310 by Sue (I think). Lot of money thrown at Welsh books these days that don't sell. Now if my Welsh poetry skills were not very good and I was offered £1,000 for writing a few poems, it would not be Dylan standard. Probably not even up to standard of William McGonagall (1825-1902) :-( :-( :-(

Open to debate :-), but I 'think' there will be less written poetry and prose "lost" in the Celtic languages than one might think?, because they followed more the strong oral tradition of story telling, song, poetry, rather then written.

That some will have been lost is likely, that a lot survived to be told in a language other than the 'original' is probable?

Apparently (according to a professional who tried to hypnotise me) I have a mathmatical brain not an artistic one.

That explains why, for fun, yesterday I took some algebra tests to see what I could remember...lolol how sad is it?

I am not argueing just find it strange that you needed O levels in the 60s but not in the 70s
My year was the 1st year that had to stay on at school until 16 and if I wanted to do O levels I would have had to stay on an extra year until 17....my parents were not going to allow me to do that when it was easy to get a job...Yes we had to work our way up from the bottom but that was usual. First time I came accross anyone who had been to Uni in the Bank was in the late 80s

Can I join you in the ' D 'corner Sue ( not fussed on the hat tho ..messes my hair ).
I gave up on English Literature O level ( damn that probably looks bad now on my CV) , tho I am artistic as in Art and Pottery... got my A levels in those.
My Biology teacher always said my diagrams where too sketchy , didn't stop me passing that tho !

Oh sorry am I on the right thread ? I just saw ology mentioned :-S

sits with Sues and Sandie ,neither do I,,,,, and dont like stage plays or musicals.,,,,,,, :-(

I dont mind a pointy hat as long as it fits....... ;-) :-D.

I know what I'd like to do with a pointy hat right now :-D :-D :-D :-D

Ouch :-D :-D :-D

A good Welsh girl always wears a stovepipe hat rather than pointy one, AnnC.

Companies used to come round the Universities in final year on what was called a "milk round" Used to be loads of them. And banks were represented. Many of the Welsh boys seemed to go to be teachers, Ministers of religion or civil servants.

Very few did not get a good job. Today, so much unemployment and so many graduates that any job is really good to have.

I am not arguing Jax...just know that rules change with the years,especially in education .schools changed from High schools... grammar schools....comprehensives were not known in my day and girls separated from boys.
Think they relaxed a bit during the 60's but the 70s was when things changed the most.
In the 50s,all school books had to be paid for and uniforms strictly adhered to.
Latin was essential to get into uni...ridiculous I know,but it does give a grounding for lots of other languages....look at the word for window.... Fenestra in Latin, fenetre in French and in Welsh.........Ffenestr......so although a dead language is good when learning especially a Latin language...
I know it helped me living in Spain to speak their language.Not saying I know Welsh,,but can understand a bit and speak odd phrases .I find it hard to learn to speak fluently,but I can even recognise different accents and words used in various parts of North/ Mid Wales.
I love living here and get on with lots of my Welsh friends whatever their politics.

and ---------***-fenster*** is used in german Brenda.


Would I like to learn Welsh,no its a dreadful sounding language to me,,,,it sounds as though a speech impediment is needed to speak it. :-)

Brenda. My school in Wolverhampton considered you had only done ok if you went to Oxbridge or Sandhurst. And the bright stream did Greek AND Latin. And we all did Latin and Combined Cadet Force.

Going to a redbrick like Bangor was frowned upon, as was Mons Officer Cadet Course ( a downmarket version of Sandhurst for officer entry). It put enormous pressure on those not very gifted (like me). And I had a great uncle whio went to same school 40 years before me and was one of the most respected scientists in the world by the time I went. So teachers assumed I would also be brilliant at physics.

Well, I liked the Army Cadet Force. And I liked throwing the discus. But other than that, I wore the pointy cap a lot of the time :-(

And the exams you passed determined your job security and the type of life you would lead. Good degree to be a doctor, dentist, vet, teacher, top civil servant. Poor degree to be a soldier or social worker. A levels for middle ranking civil servant. O levels for clerks jobs. No quals meant factory or construction work.

But also in those days (1960's), women were second class in workplace and it was almost impossible for them to get really good jobs outside teaching.

I had a brill job in the sixties and I have no qualifications whatsoever on paper although I did go to a grammar school

I think Kay has a good point. We need to want to learn a language. And Welsh is not easy. European languages like French, Spanish, Italian and German are much easier to learn if English is your native tongue.

But folk have a lot of fun learning Welsh, and Welsh classes are well attended almost everywhere. I love to see a couple of mothers learning Welsh who have just picked up their children from Welsh school. They sit in Tesco cafe and shout out their new Welsh to their friends and their children. So confident - I tend to whisper mine :-D

In

Catalan Finestra
Afrikaans Venster
Danish Vindue
Dutch Venster see Afrikaans lolol
Esperanto Fenestro
Galician Venta
Irish Fuinneog
Italian Finestra
Norwegian Vindu
Romanian Fereastra
Spanish Ventana
Swedish Fonster


Can you tell I am bored...lolol

sad innit!!!!!!!

Is that list for 'windows' Sue?

Strange how so many start with a F/V sound. So why does Windows start wth the way it does in English? Ours is a hybrid language of Roman latin, Saxon, Viking, and Norman amongst others :-S