Wales is tacked on to the western side of England between the River Dee in the north west of England and the River Severn in the south west of England....Wales projects out into the Irish Sea and is mainly mountainous or very hilly...it also rains a lot there.
You cross over the border from the comparatively low lying England and you immediately drive into the mountains of Wales and as soon as you cross over the border from England all the road signs become bi-lingual - English at the top, and Welsh below....until you get much further into Wales when the reverse is the case - Welsh on top, as the further west and north you travel into Wales the incidence of peope speaking and/or understanding the Welsh Language becomes...those parts of Wales which immediately border onto England contain very few people who are able to speak Welsh to conversation level or have any working knowledge of it at all, although the teaching of Welsh in all Welsh schools up to a certain age is compulsory, no matter where in Wales they are located - even just a stone's throw over the border from Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire or Gloucestershire - English counties all.
Wales is a very beautiful part of the UK scenically, with a wonderful coastline all the way along it - it is very similar to Cornwall in many ways - all part of the Celtic fringe, so to speak. Apart from its common land border with England, the rest of Wales borders onto the sea.
A recent report issued by the English Tourist Board states that of all the regions of the entire British Isles visited by people from England alone - be it to other parts of England, or to Scotland or to Ireland or to the Channel Islands - Wales is the least popular, in spite of its scenic attractions.
The main reason given for this English reluctance to visit Wales is the perceived "unfriendliness" of Welsh people towards many English people - an outward "hostility" in some cases it seems, and this pisses off many English people who find themselves at the sharp end of this kind of Welsh attitude. Many of them complain of a "perceived" habit of Welsh speaking Welshmen and women to instantly switch to speaking Welsh rather than English whenever it is obvious that any newcomers to their company are English people.
Even more perplexing for those English visitors is the fact that such hostility and unfriendliness does not extend towards any newcomers who are identified as being Scottish or Irish! Or any other nationality for that matter - anyone but an English person.
The reasons many Welsh people give for this perceived "dismissive" attitude towards English people are quite interesting - generally the English are seen as having very negative images of Wales and the Welsh people, and quite frequently they express these quite openly. Also many Welsh people think of the English as quite "arrogant and overbearing", and that they "ridicule" Wesh culture and the Welsh Language and deliberately go out of their way to mis-pronounce Welsh placenames and regard it as some kind of badge of honour to be heard making a pig's ear out of such names.
Everybody here in the UK who watch "The Weakest Link" TV quiz show are familiar with the presenter Anne Robinson, who originally comes from Liverpool, which is in fact very close to Wales anyway. She has now made "Wales and the Welsh Bashing" an artform and she never misses a single opportunity to express negative opinions of Wales whenever one of the contestants on her show come from Wales. This mean woman has done more to "harm" Anglo-Welsh relations than anyone else in the UK - but with all due aplomb most Welsh people regard her insults with calm acceptance and take her for what she really is.
The Welsh Language was in existence long before the English Language evolved - it was being spoken in these islands way before Julius Caesar set the ball rolling for all future invasions. Many Welsh people genuinely think that the English resent their very separate culture and identity, the dogged resistance by the Welsh to "English domination and above all the refusal to alow their ancient Language to die the death suffered by soe of the other old Celtic tongues of Britain.
It is a proven fact that if any English newcomer to Wales and who chooses to live there, and eventually becomes an active part of the local community, and who accepts the Welsh people for what they are on THEIR home ground - and even takes the trouble to learn at least a little of the Welsh Language and how to pronounce all local names correctly - then they will most definitely find attitudes towards them changing a great deal. That's when they find that the Welsh people can be very friendly and more than happy to be good friends and neighbours.
History has shown some dreadful acts of English cruelty and ill treatment ofto Welsh people over the centuries, as was the case here in Scotland. We Scots had our William Wallace - Braveheart, a great Scottish hero who fought against the English but who was finally executed by them.
Likewise the Welsh had their own hero who battled against the Saeson (the English in Welsh) - Owain Glyndwr, better known as Owen Glendower.
It is quite difficult to forget history but of course we all have to and move on. The UK is now a vastly different country - we are disunited in unity! ;-)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6520823/The-Welsh-are-unfriendly-and-rude-finds-report-by-their-own-tourist-board.html
You cross over the border from the comparatively low lying England and you immediately drive into the mountains of Wales and as soon as you cross over the border from England all the road signs become bi-lingual - English at the top, and Welsh below....until you get much further into Wales when the reverse is the case - Welsh on top, as the further west and north you travel into Wales the incidence of peope speaking and/or understanding the Welsh Language becomes...those parts of Wales which immediately border onto England contain very few people who are able to speak Welsh to conversation level or have any working knowledge of it at all, although the teaching of Welsh in all Welsh schools up to a certain age is compulsory, no matter where in Wales they are located - even just a stone's throw over the border from Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire or Gloucestershire - English counties all.
Wales is a very beautiful part of the UK scenically, with a wonderful coastline all the way along it - it is very similar to Cornwall in many ways - all part of the Celtic fringe, so to speak. Apart from its common land border with England, the rest of Wales borders onto the sea.
A recent report issued by the English Tourist Board states that of all the regions of the entire British Isles visited by people from England alone - be it to other parts of England, or to Scotland or to Ireland or to the Channel Islands - Wales is the least popular, in spite of its scenic attractions.
The main reason given for this English reluctance to visit Wales is the perceived "unfriendliness" of Welsh people towards many English people - an outward "hostility" in some cases it seems, and this pisses off many English people who find themselves at the sharp end of this kind of Welsh attitude. Many of them complain of a "perceived" habit of Welsh speaking Welshmen and women to instantly switch to speaking Welsh rather than English whenever it is obvious that any newcomers to their company are English people.
Even more perplexing for those English visitors is the fact that such hostility and unfriendliness does not extend towards any newcomers who are identified as being Scottish or Irish! Or any other nationality for that matter - anyone but an English person.
The reasons many Welsh people give for this perceived "dismissive" attitude towards English people are quite interesting - generally the English are seen as having very negative images of Wales and the Welsh people, and quite frequently they express these quite openly. Also many Welsh people think of the English as quite "arrogant and overbearing", and that they "ridicule" Wesh culture and the Welsh Language and deliberately go out of their way to mis-pronounce Welsh placenames and regard it as some kind of badge of honour to be heard making a pig's ear out of such names.
Everybody here in the UK who watch "The Weakest Link" TV quiz show are familiar with the presenter Anne Robinson, who originally comes from Liverpool, which is in fact very close to Wales anyway. She has now made "Wales and the Welsh Bashing" an artform and she never misses a single opportunity to express negative opinions of Wales whenever one of the contestants on her show come from Wales. This mean woman has done more to "harm" Anglo-Welsh relations than anyone else in the UK - but with all due aplomb most Welsh people regard her insults with calm acceptance and take her for what she really is.
The Welsh Language was in existence long before the English Language evolved - it was being spoken in these islands way before Julius Caesar set the ball rolling for all future invasions. Many Welsh people genuinely think that the English resent their very separate culture and identity, the dogged resistance by the Welsh to "English domination and above all the refusal to alow their ancient Language to die the death suffered by soe of the other old Celtic tongues of Britain.
It is a proven fact that if any English newcomer to Wales and who chooses to live there, and eventually becomes an active part of the local community, and who accepts the Welsh people for what they are on THEIR home ground - and even takes the trouble to learn at least a little of the Welsh Language and how to pronounce all local names correctly - then they will most definitely find attitudes towards them changing a great deal. That's when they find that the Welsh people can be very friendly and more than happy to be good friends and neighbours.
History has shown some dreadful acts of English cruelty and ill treatment ofto Welsh people over the centuries, as was the case here in Scotland. We Scots had our William Wallace - Braveheart, a great Scottish hero who fought against the English but who was finally executed by them.
Likewise the Welsh had their own hero who battled against the Saeson (the English in Welsh) - Owain Glyndwr, better known as Owen Glendower.
It is quite difficult to forget history but of course we all have to and move on. The UK is now a vastly different country - we are disunited in unity! ;-)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6520823/The-Welsh-are-unfriendly-and-rude-finds-report-by-their-own-tourist-board.html