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Sarcastic Tweet Gets Similar Response Shock

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Llanigraham

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Not much evidence of that when English people move to Wales ...... :)

One of the most militant couples in supporting the Welsh language that I know are actually Manx, via Birkenhead and Mull. They even write their cheques in Welsh!

When the ex-leader of the National Front moved to Wales due to too many immigrants in England (irony strikes!!) he complained like mad that his children had to learn Welsh, and was told tough, that is the Welsh educational system.

And my wife is from Croydon and she learnt "a dipyn bach" when we moved here.
 
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Arglwydd Golau

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One of the most militant couples in supporting the Welsh language that I know are actually Manx, via Birkenhead and Mull. They even write their cheques in Welsh!

The current Chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith is of English origin (although he probably wouldn't like me saying that)
 

TDK

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My comment was to this part of your posting:



You know and I know that he speaks Welsh, but as usual you have to get in a little "dig"!

Oh I see, my opinion is that he is a knob and to be fair he is trying to gain something politically over something so trivial in most people minds. I live in Wales and am English and have lived here for 12 years and only on a few occasions have actually heard people speaking Welsh and on these occasions the language was used so the English speaking people in the vicinity could not understand their tongue. Fair enough it is good to keep tradition but with all the problems Wales as a country has at the moment do you not think that time and money would be better spent than to waste it on the dual language thing? I did ask this question before and will as you if you know as I did not get an answer "how many people in Wales cannot speak or understand English"? I would hazard a guess that there are hardly any so if this is a the case why waste all this money and also why would a politician try to stir up the English/Welsh thing apart from gain for himself. That is the reason I called him a knob and stick by it.
 

Llanigraham

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You are entitled to your opinion and I to mine, however I don't continually use it to snipe at the Welsh Assembly as you do.
"When in Rome do as the Romans do"
If you have such strong feelings and opinions that you can't cope with the way WAG does things then you have a simple option, move out of Wales.
From the comments by others here you do seem to be in a minority.
Noswaith da.
 

meridian2

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Storm in a teacup, but quite amusing.

If it had been me, perhaps a little chide for the sarky comment but nothing more. Why then we need to have a billion pages devoted to the idiosyncrasies of having English AND Welsh languages on signposts in Wales defies me.


And in more important news...

:roll:
 

Starmill

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Are Welsh language announcements provided universally at stations in Wales? Last time I was at Holyhead announcements weren't in Welsh...
 

Greenback

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Oh I see, my opinion is that he is a knob and to be fair he is trying to gain something politically over something so trivial in most people minds. I live in Wales and am English and have lived here for 12 years and only on a few occasions have actually heard people speaking Welsh and on these occasions the language was used so the English speaking people in the vicinity could not understand their tongue. Fair enough it is good to keep tradition but with all the problems Wales as a country has at the moment do you not think that time and money would be better spent than to waste it on the dual language thing? I did ask this question before and will as you if you know as I did not get an answer "how many people in Wales cannot speak or understand English"? I would hazard a guess that there are hardly any so if this is a the case why waste all this money and also why would a politician try to stir up the English/Welsh thing apart from gain for himself. That is the reason I called him a knob and stick by it.

You haven't got an answer because it's not relevant. Whether it's 0, 1, 100, 1000 or 100000 it doesn't matter. It's about the freedom of allowing those who want to speak the language, those who want to practice it because they are learning the language, and those who simply believe that Welsh should be used in Wales, the chance to receive messages in the language of their choice.

Personally, I am happy for the government to spend a small amount of money to help the language, even though I am not fluent in it. As ,long as the majority of people feel the same here, then it will continue, despite the opposition of those against it.

In fact, the very argument that everyone understands English so therefore it's a waste of time and money to sue Welsh, just strengthens the feeling in many of us that we need to protect the language to ensure that it isn't lost completely.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Storm in a teacup, but quite amusing.

If it had been me, perhaps a little chide for the sarky comment but nothing more. Why then we need to have a billion pages devoted to the idiosyncrasies of having English AND Welsh languages on signposts in Wales defies me.


And in more important news...

:roll:

If you don't find the Welsh language issues feel free not to read this thread!

Id o agree it's quite amusing the way the FM made a snarky comment and didn't like it when he got one back. But that's Twitter for you. :D
 

TDK

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You are entitled to your opinion and I to mine, however I don't continually use it to snipe at the Welsh Assembly as you do.
"When in Rome do as the Romans do"
If you have such strong feelings and opinions that you can't cope with the way WAG does things then you have a simple option, move out of Wales.
From the comments by others here you do seem to be in a minority.
Noswaith da.

I do, I am British and do what the British do ;) I am sorry but the Welsh Government are out of touch, there is too much inter country nepotism. North of Newport and I am afraid there is a lot less interest, there has always been a North South divide within Wales and any "Gog" as the Southerners call the Northerners will tell you this. I will snipe at any government who are not governing their country fairly. I am sorry if you do not like my opinions and to be fair I never said I could not cope only feel that the people of North Wales are being let down by the WAG.
 

Llanigraham

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TDK,
Well considering I live north of Newport I might suggest you are incorrect.
Using your argument there wouldn't be any improvements being made to the Cambrian Line services, no doubling of a section of the Wrexham route, no improvements to the A470 north of Brecon, no superfast broadband in rural areas, and no business rate relief for small retail shops in rural areas.

From my experience the "Gogs" are just as disparaging about the Southerners and a lot of your comments support that thought. Thankfully I'm stuck in the middle so have a foot in both camps.

Whilst you are entitled to your views the continual spouting of your biased, inaccurate and often unfounded criticism does get very boring, and as has been proved by the many comments in this thread apparently not supported by many here.

Constructing a good argument with valid, accurate points often gets a far better reception.
 
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meridian2

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If you don't find the Welsh language issues feel free not to read this thread!
:D

I think the missing word is 'interesting', and whilst I do, it's not a language forum is it?
You cannot be serious (sorry John :lol:) that this silly little episode has ramifications on how the bilingual signs and so forth should be displayed in Wales do you? If you do, one should really get out more.
 

gareth950

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Not sure what to read into this, but a tweet has been sent out today. Apparently there's now Welsh Language Announcements at Cardiff Queen St.

https://twitter.com/liamtellis/status/490141526723682305

And as a result the English language announcements, which are second, are drowned out by the continual flow of trains arriving at/leaving platforms (this is a noisy diesel station, not a 'silent' electric one), along with Pacers squealing as they arrive etc.

Not getting into the Welsh vs English debate, the logic ATW were using was right. Cardiff Queen St is too small a station to have bi-lingual announcements for every train, so just have them in the most spoken language and most understood language of the majority of passengers, English.

Sadly they've caved in. I feel sorry for anyone who works at the station as the endless stream of announcements is now relentless. And I was only there for 15 minutes. :(
 
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185

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Ironic a bloke called Car-win kicking off about train services. :P
 

rf_ioliver

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Welsh announcements should come in Wales, first. Station names really aren't that difficult to pick out particularly if you know the route.

Actually on the Valley Lines where specific, unchanging routes are followed why do ALL the stops have to be read out.

In Helsinki we have a system where each commuter route is given a letter and there are prominent maps to show the routes and stopping points. Announcements state in three languages, for example:

Train A, from track 6 leaves at 18h20

On board there will be a fuller announcement of the stops, again in two or three languages.

So, what would be wrong with:

"Mae'r tre^n i Dreherbert yn gadael platfform 3 ar 18h20
The train to Treherbert, departs platform 3 at 18h20"

...

"Mae'r tre^n i Abercynon yn gadael platfform 3 ar 18h25
The train to Abercynon, departs platform 3 at 18h25"


Instead of

"The train now approaching platform 3 is the 18h20 service to Treherbert stopping at Cathays, Llandaf, Radyr....[200 stations later]...and Treherbert. Please mind the gap. For your safety and security please do not leave your belongings unattended as this might cause etc etc etc...This train is made up of four carriages etc etc..."

But then again we don't remind people to mind the gap, or not to cross over the tracks, or for your safety and security do something etc. Most of Finland's railways don't have fences either...how do we survive I wonder?

I guess most of it can be put down to "covering your a***" :(

t.

Ian
 

aleph_0

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Actually on the Valley Lines where specific, unchanging routes are followed why do ALL the stops have to be read out...

Indeed. The most important thing is getting the important information out quickly. If the automated announcements don't do that, all that ends up happening is more English-only manual announcements.

If we want to keep the station list, perhaps it should be more efficient. Firstly announce in Welsh, then English: "The train now approaching platform 3 is the 18h20 service to Treherbert" (or shorter form, if you want).

Then, if there is time, the station list. Many stations on the valley lines are the same in Welsh or English, or sound close enough. So announcing, "Yn galw am/Calling at, ..." won't take much longer than an English-only announcement.
 

Greenback

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I agree that many stations on the Valleys network have identical or very similar names in English and Welsh. Bargoed, Treherbert and Pontypridd spring instantly to mind.

There's also

Barry - Barri
Aberdare - Aberdar

and so on.

I must admit that I can't see a problem in having Welsh announcements at Queen St. Most of the places served will be easily recognisable, whether a full station list is announced, or, more simply the destination of the service.
 

richw

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What is the need to tell us how many coaches? So we can prepare for sardine environment?
 

spongsdad

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Why all the fuss? At many stations I visit, the announcements are unintelligible anyway, so it matters not a jot whether they are are in Welsh, English, Urdu or Serbo-Croat.
Memo to myself. "Buy a hearing aid"
 

Parallel

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As far as I am aware most ATW stations do not announce how many carriages a train has (Including the Cardiff stations) and they didn't (until very recently) announce the Valley trains as "Arriva Trains Wales service" with just "service" used instead. I think it's important to list all stops regardless, it doesn't make a difference to people who use the lines often, but there are people who use the valley lines infrequently and are not as familiar with the stopping patterns. I.e. if you wish to leave the train at Trefforest Estate, you should catch a Merthyr Tydfil service rather than a Treherbert or Aberdare one. Although Central and Queen Street are very busy stations, the extra platforms should also help too.
 
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Starmill

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What is the need to tell us how many coaches? So we can prepare for sardine environment?

"Calling at X and Y. This train is formed of one coach."
*observes full platform*
Yep, this is gonna be tight...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
As far as I am aware most ATW stations do not announce how many carriages a train has (Including the Cardiff stations) and they didn't (until very recently) announce the Valley trains as "Arriva Trains Wales service" with just "service" used instead. I think it's important to list all stops regardless, it doesn't make a difference to people who use the lines often, but there are people who use the valley lines infrequently and are not as familiar with the stopping patterns. I.e. if you wish to leave the train at Trefforest Estate, you should catch a Merthyr Tydfil service rather than a Treherbert or Aberdare one. Although Central and Queen Street are very busy stations, the extra platforms should also help too.

Not all trains call at Gilfach Fargoed and Energlyn + Churchill Park too.
 
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y trên ar blatfform 3 yw'r 00:31 Trenau Arriva servce Cymru i Gaerdydd, Platfform 3 ar gyfer y 0:31 wasanaeth Trenau Arriva Cymru i Gaerdydd.


Is this bloke happy now? :lol::lol:
 

quarella

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"Calling at X and Y. This train is formed of one coach."
*observes full platform*
Yep, this is gonna be tight...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


Not all trains call at Gilfach Fargoed and Energlyn + Churchill Park too.

Pick a number or colour for each line. Suffix it A to show a slight variation such as those calling at Energlyn or Gilfach. X for express(limited stop). Make sure there is clear information at the stations. It's a tram service run with heavy rail which should be converted and not the half hearted electrification scheme in my view.
 
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