bodger
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If you moved from England to Wales ?Do you consider that you ' Down Sized Abroad ?' when you moved to either Wales or Scotland from England ?
Twenty one years on from our move to our particular part of Wales we definately feel as though we did, how about you?
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Ian33568
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never done it but - when very young and holidaying with parents - they always felt a bit like being abroad. I loved both Wales and Scotland - why did I end up here....... 
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bodger
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You liked sun and paella ? 
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JohnB
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I think I'm in the process of doing it. I see it partly as trying to get back to the sort of place I was born in, that was ruined by being turned into a new town. Unfortunately the local town are fighting plans for supermarkets to move in, so "progress" may be catching up with me 
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welshboy454
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Many years ago just before I was born a guy M moved to a farm close by in West Wales from Hereford. He was a very good neighbour always helpful and sociable. About 15 years later I can remember my father and him talking about a local farm which had just been sold.
My father said " a blinking Englishman bought it".
M smiled and said thank you obviously I have been accepted by the community! Realising his faux pas my father said We don't regard you as English you have lived here long enough !
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GSHP
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Not quite connected but the other day I was asking my husband the maiden name of a farmer's wife as she looked familiar.
'Oh she's not from around here..she's not local, I think her family came from Totnes'
Totnes ...a town about 12 miles away !!
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gz
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An American potter moved to Holmfirth in Yorkshire ("Last of The Summer Wine"...) and after twentyfive years there he applied for, and won the competition to make and install a large piece of sculpture.
The mayor stood up at the opening and announced that he was very glad that the commission had gone to a local lad.....
He reckons that he has been accepted since then!!
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JohnB
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This being accepted thing can work both ways. It happens to the locals when their small town becomes a new town. Tens of thousands of outsiders move in, and destroy the local way of life. I felt like an alien in the place I was born.
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GSHP
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Here you are considered a local if you have three generations buried in the churchyard.
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Katieowl
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Re: If you moved from England to Wales ? | bodger wrote: | Do you consider that you ' Down Sized Abroad ?' when you moved to either Wales or Scotland from England ?
Twenty one years on from our move to our particular part of Wales we definately feel as though we did, how about you? |
Hmmm...Interesting question. We did that move six months ago - and I was joking at the time that we had 'emigrated' We went just about as far West as you can without falling off the edge.
Yes it IS different here - but I'd say is more like moving BACK in time than changing country in some ways. The town (Cardi) reminds me more of the locality where I grew up than another country (South London in the 60's) People have a lot more time to be pleasant in the day to day dealings, and seem to use a lot more common sense!
Obviously there is the language difference, and TBH after six months I've found I sometimes can't pick out the Welsh accents anymore which is a bit alarming, so I do have to watch what I say LOL! We are attemping to learn Welsh again, and have signed up for a class. The 'locals' (including MJ and Gervaise who live just up the road) have been very welcoming, and haven't treated us like 'foreigners'
I think the rest of our family would consider it abroad though because of how long it takes to get here ... and it certainly took longer to get DD back to Uni in Nottingham than I would of liked....we were wondering in the car on the way back where else we could have got in a twelve hour trip? Half way round the world?
Regards
Kate
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LynneA
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Moving to Wales is the long term plan, and when we do it will be a return "home".
Although I was born in Hertfordshire and have lived mostly in North London, my mother's side of the family is from the Valleys, and I've felt an outsider wherever I live as a consequence.
Howard escaped West Yorkshire to go to Uni in Cardiff and then stuck around the area for a few years before making his way to London. His mum would love us to move up there, but the place makes me ill (even before I sample her cooking  )
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bring me sunshine
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I live in Cardiff.
It's not Wales, it just happens to be located west of the Severn Bridge...
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Bebo
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| GSHP wrote: | Not quite connected but the other day I was asking my husband the maiden name of a farmer's wife as she looked familiar.
'Oh she's not from around here..she's not local, I think her family came from Totnes'
Totnes ...a town about 12 miles away !! |
Get that a bit around here. Not long after first meeting the next door neighbour he announced that he's spent his entire life within the sound of the bells of Battle church.
I've got more than three generations buried around here, the only problem is there is approximately a 150 year gap between the last one and me moving to the area.
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colour it green
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| GSHP wrote: | | Here you are considered a local if you have three generations buried in the churchyard. |
yeh - I'm considered a 'blow in' to the village cos we came from a neighbouring village 
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GSHP
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Locals don't quite know where to place me as my mother left and married a Yorkshire man and I only returned to this area when I married ' a local boy'. I'm often referred to as Arthur's grandaughter
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Bebo
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Fortunately great great grandad Moses Jacob isn't within living memory around here (and I never knew he existed until a year ago).
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gz
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| bring me sunshine wrote: | I live in Cardiff.
It's not Wales, it just happens to be located west of the Severn Bridge... |
Ah, you just haven't found the right bit of Cardiff yet
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bring me sunshine
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I've been at my current job in retail for a year now and I have only served two people with Welsh accents
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gz
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Welsh Accent has nothing to do with it- I have a friend in Caernarfon, who is "Rel Cofi" in Welsh- but in English sounds very erm...well off Kensington
Well, that is where she learned to speak it , having had to live with relations from age 5 to 11....then back to home and school in C'nafron
It depends where you are in Cardiff as well, what shops/pubs/clubs you go to-who you work for too.
It isn't always easy to get shops to allow their employees to have the pin badge that would denote Welsh Speaker/Learner either 
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bring me sunshine
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I grew up near Lampeter, so my view of Cardiff is somewhat biased, I admit. But even so ... 
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gz
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A lot of people wont speak Welsh on the street, or in shops- even to people they KNOW are Welsh speakers too 
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JohnB
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Now we've got onto language. Do many English immigrants actually try to learn Welsh, and how do they do it?
I'm rubbish at languages, but think I ought to give it a try, even if it's just so I can pronounce place names!
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bring me sunshine
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| gz wrote: | | A lot of people wont speak Welsh on the street, or in shops- even to people they KNOW are Welsh speakers too |
When my cat went missing in the summer, I walked round the whole block (40 or so houses) asking them to check their garden sheds. Not a single person I spoke to was Welsh. A few eastern European migrants, a few Asian families but mostly English speakers with English accents (not even Cardiff accents!).
(By the way, to clarify, I'm talking about Welsh as the first language, rather than English-but-born-in-Wales).
In my experience, urban areas lose their Welsh heritage, whilst rural communities maintain it. Personally, I think that's linked to how people voted in the devolution referendum. I know most people where I grew up were furious that the NAW was homed in Cardiff, which voted against devolution!
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gz
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| JohnB wrote: | Now we've got onto language. Do many English immigrants actually try to learn Welsh, and how do they do it?
I'm rubbish at languages, but think I ought to give it a try, even if it's just so I can pronounce place names! |
Plenty of evening classes run by local authorities. The Urdd also used to run them at their centres and they were generally better.
Many areas will have a free Welsh local news thing. Lots of this info will be in your local library.
Then practise- listen to Radio Cymru, have it on as audio wallpaper to get yours ears used to the flow before you try and 'change gear' linguistically.
You will probably be able to find a group of learners who socialize once a week, then you will find what shops/pubs are the ones to find Welsh speakers in.
This applies to whatever country/language I should imagine.
A family moved to Cardiff about eight years ago, and they had two children in Ysgol Gyfun Glantaf (one of the local Welsh Medium Secondary Schools, one in Emyr's year, one in Osian's.
They were all perfectly bilingual....Welsh and Spanish
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woodsprite
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I moved from Wales to England, does that count?
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gz
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Certainly-things are done differently wherever you go, one learns and adapts, not expecting. things to be done your way by everyone.
On the other hand you don't have to give up your own way of doing things either.
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