My own personal Welshwank...†

[tree_and_leaf]

I was wandering across college today, when I overheard the following snippet of conversation.

Undergraduate: I just don't get the whole 'we're Welsh not British' thing. It's just so backward... I mean, dude, we conquered you about eight hundred years ago or something, just accept it.

Well done, young man, I think you've illustrated the problem right there.

See here for details, but the row in question centered on whether or not Torchwood is, in the immortal words of Greg Dyke, hideously white, and if the Welsh count as an oppressed minority.

Comments

[dreamer-marie.livejournal.com]

LOL undergrad.

[tree_and_leaf]

I could start a whole separate blog called 'Undergraduates say the damndest things', if it weren't such a cheesy concept!

A Captain Fluellen of South Wales writes in...

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Undergraduate: I just don't get the whole 'we're Welsh not British' thing. It's just so backward... I mean, dude, we conquered you about eight hundred years ago or something, just accept it.

I don't understand anyone Welsh's saying, 'We're Welsh, not British', either: that IS, quite literally, back to front. I understand, 'We are Welsh, that is, Pritish, look you, we are not English', I would understand also, 'We are the Pritish, "Welsh" is a Saxon insult, we are not English whateffer', but the other? Odd.

(This comment has been provided by a direct descendant of Hywel Dda.)

Re: A Captain Fluellen of South Wales writes in...

[tree_and_leaf]

Quite right, of course, but I fear that the undergraduate would understand your correction even less than the original utterance (which could very well, given the English sloppiness of usage in this field, be a garbled version of 'I'm not English', especially since the Welsh were defeated by the Anglo-Normans rather than the British, in any sense of the term...)

[sacred-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

Fascinating.
Now I'm interested in what said undergraduate would have answered had I said (as I sometimes do) 'I'm English, not British.'

[tree_and_leaf]

Would have been unable to see the distinction, I fear. But perhaps I'm being unfair.

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness! I <3 reading about what students in your college say. I can't believe that comment. It's almost as ignorant as what some Americans say about Canada. Okay, maybe not quite as ignorant as an American thinking that Canada is actually part of the States, but still, pretty bad!!