MoD spends millions to avoid the Welsh
Joined: Jun 2020
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From: Feet grounded, head in the clouds
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From: Near the coast
Quelle surprise
I knew this place wouldn’t let me down. Many of the responses are as expected and never fail to disappoint.
As someone whose children have benefitted from this allowance and whose wife speaks Welsh I know more than your average Ppruner on this subject. I cannot bring myself to dignify most of these posters with a response though.
🥱
BV
As someone whose children have benefitted from this allowance and whose wife speaks Welsh I know more than your average Ppruner on this subject. I cannot bring myself to dignify most of these posters with a response though.
🥱
BV
Joined: Jan 2008
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From: Glorious Devon
Well I lived near Rhyd-wyn and while Valley was undeniably on the west coast but when I turned right off the A55, Valley was to the left but the point remains, it was very Welsh Wales.
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From: on the ground
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From: Den Haag
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From: London UK
Um ... Europe's biggest country, both by European land area and population there, is Russia.
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From: Ferrara
I'm not Welsh but I do find it odd almost everyone on here bashing use of the language - maybe the same people who beat on the Han Chinese for wiping out Tibetan etc etc
Joined: Jun 2007
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From: Beyond the Blue Horizon
WHBM
That is technically correct, however the economy is somewhat behind that of Germany and would you want to live or work there?
However learning to speak Russian rather than German may lead to more interesting job opportunities currently and way more than speaking Welsh 😂😂
Cheers
Mr Mac
That is technically correct, however the economy is somewhat behind that of Germany and would you want to live or work there?
However learning to speak Russian rather than German may lead to more interesting job opportunities currently and way more than speaking Welsh 😂😂
Cheers
Mr Mac
Joined: Feb 2000
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From: England
<cough> as a Welsh speaking professional pilot whose partner teaches in a school partly in Welsh partly in English my opinion is that OF COURSE the children of service personnel should have the right to be taught in English. If that means paying for private schooling then so be it.
It's a hobby language that has very little commercial value. I advocated dropping French teaching in favour of Spanish when I was Chair of Governors at the local English high school. It's a far more useful language skill to complement speaking English. Having both gives you the widest combination possible of developed world nations where bilingual people will speak one or the other. Pure logic.
Welsh teaching has got itself in a right old mess. In some areas the middle classes want it done at a school mostly because the benefit class kids will all go to a different school - basically grammar schools by the back door of language medium. In other areas some people want Welsh only teaching to keep out the English from moving there to live and settle - ethno exclusion via language medium.
The grievance mongering of the Welsh nationalists is tiresome to most people in Wales who like me can barely string together as much Welsh as I the French I was taught in school. Yet I am classed as a Welsh speaker officially because I know about thirty words and phrases.
WWW
It's a hobby language that has very little commercial value. I advocated dropping French teaching in favour of Spanish when I was Chair of Governors at the local English high school. It's a far more useful language skill to complement speaking English. Having both gives you the widest combination possible of developed world nations where bilingual people will speak one or the other. Pure logic.
Welsh teaching has got itself in a right old mess. In some areas the middle classes want it done at a school mostly because the benefit class kids will all go to a different school - basically grammar schools by the back door of language medium. In other areas some people want Welsh only teaching to keep out the English from moving there to live and settle - ethno exclusion via language medium.
The grievance mongering of the Welsh nationalists is tiresome to most people in Wales who like me can barely string together as much Welsh as I the French I was taught in school. Yet I am classed as a Welsh speaker officially because I know about thirty words and phrases.
WWW
Thought police antagonist
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From: Where I always have been...firmly in the real world
I would suggest many are influenced by their time at Valley, to be endured rather than enjoyed.
Nobody denies there was a time when access to Valley was, "difficult" shall we say....the old A5 was a deathtrap and the railway wasn't the best, plus, Bangor was the nearest major town and hence source of female company. That, and the interior of the island could be best described as "insular" . That has long since changed.
However, anywhere is what you make of it and Valley was no exception....a bit bleak in winter, but glorious in Spring / Summer / Autumn...probably why it's always been a prime holiday destination.
I dispute the urban myth (one that an attempt was made to perpetuate on JB by a contributor who had clearly never been there) about suddenly "speaking Welsh when anybody English " entered a room. As many have pointed out, any conversations were probably in Welsh anyway and would continue being conducted in Welsh....why should they suddenly change to English after all.
Joined: Jun 2009
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From: Baston
I knew this place wouldn’t let me down. Many of the responses are as expected and never fail to disappoint.
As someone whose children have benefitted from this allowance and whose wife speaks Welsh I know more than your average Ppruner on this subject. I cannot bring myself to dignify most of these posters with a response though.
🥱
BV
As someone whose children have benefitted from this allowance and whose wife speaks Welsh I know more than your average Ppruner on this subject. I cannot bring myself to dignify most of these posters with a response though.
🥱
BV
My family endured 18 months before the job in RAFG came up. Nothing to do with the language, but it was the worst posting we ever shared. Nothing specific, but just a value judgement as also is "RAF Gutersloh was the best".
Just saying.
Last edited by langleybaston; 7th October 2025 at 10:58. Reason: speelin
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From: The back of beyond
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From: Den Haag
This topic is not about bashing the use of the language - by Welsh citizens (or anyone who wishes to use it). It's about the impact on a child's education and development, of dropping them into a teaching environment that uses a foreign language that they do not understand! Surely that is not a difficult concept to grasp? If a serviceman is posted to somewhere as an Embassy Defence Attaché, for example, would you expect that their children went to an International School (or UK Boarding), or the local ones?
Joined: Jul 2002
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From: Under a recently defunct flight path.
Valley (73-77, Gnat Rects), bought a house in Llangefni, enjoyed the opportunities to make the most of what the island and Snowdonia had to offer (and bemoan Saturday shopping trips to Bangor or even worse, Holyhead). It was the fact that our son would be taught all subjects in Welsh that prompted a decision to seek a posting to somewhere in England. Had family in N Norfolk so tried for Colt to no avail and with said son fast approaching school-age opted for a move to CSDE, Swanton Morley. Had it been a case of Welsh being taught as a subject with other subjects in English we (probably) would have stayed put.
Joined: Dec 2001
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From: Here 'n' there!
......... It was the fact that our son would be taught all subjects in Welsh that prompted a decision to seek a posting to somewhere in England. Had family in N Norfolk so tried for Colt to no avail and with said son fast approaching school-age opted for a move to CSDE, Swanton Morley. ..........
How to speak Norfolk........ Cross the Waveney Northbound and it all becomes a bit strange!!!!!!!!
