Happened to come across this in the Guardian.

If you can't be bothered to read it, it's about one Manchan Magan who goes around the country speaking to people in Irish & nothing else. The reaction is often one of incomprehension & hostility at times.

I don't know if Manchan watches S4C, but a guy who lives in this town - Ifor ap Glyn - did the same kind of thing in Wales a few months back, but he took a TV crew around with him. He went to the most English speaking parts of Wales, border towns & the like, & engaged people in Welsh & in Welsh only.

The results were surprising - he got on fine. People were often bemused, but they were invariably kind to him, usually worked out what he was on about without too much trouble and more often than not managed a few words of Welsh - & some could manage rather more than that.

Why the difference?

Originally Posted by Trefor

Happened to come across this in the Guardian.

If you can't be bothered to read it, it's about one Manchan Magan who goes around the country speaking to people in Irish & nothing else. The reaction is often one of incomprehension & hostility at times.

I don't know if Manchan watches S4C, but a guy who lives in this town - Ifor ap Glyn - did the same kind of thing in Wales a few months back, but he took a TV crew around with him. He went to the most English speaking parts of Wales, border towns & the like, & engaged people in Welsh & in Welsh only.

The results were surprising - he got on fine. People were often bemused, but they were invariably kind to him, usually worked out what he was on about without too much trouble and more often than not managed a few words of Welsh - & some could manage rather more than that.

Why the difference?

Manchan was too aggresive in my opinon(I wouldnt have gone near him!And I can speak Irish).
And Irish is in a much weaker position than Welsh.
Tá sí ag fáil bháis.

Originally Posted by gaelach

Originally Posted by Trefor

Happened to come across this in the Guardian.

If you can't be bothered to read it, it's about one Manchan Magan who goes around the country speaking to people in Irish & nothing else. The reaction is often one of incomprehension & hostility at times.

I don't know if Manchan watches S4C, but a guy who lives in this town - Ifor ap Glyn - did the same kind of thing in Wales a few months back, but he took a TV crew around with him. He went to the most English speaking parts of Wales, border towns & the like, & engaged people in Welsh & in Welsh only.

The results were surprising - he got on fine. People were often bemused, but they were invariably kind to him, usually worked out what he was on about without too much trouble and more often than not managed a few words of Welsh - & some could manage rather more than that.

Why the difference?

Manchan was too aggresive in my opinon(I wouldnt have gone near him!And I can speak Irish).
And Irish is in a much weaker position than Welsh.
Tá sí ag fáil bháis.

Ah right - he was on TV too was he?

Ifor was extremely friendly & engaging, so I suppose that must have helped.

I'm not quite sure about the relative weakness point - some of the communities Ifor visited were monoglot English, far removed from the heartlands - & have been for many centuries.

Originally Posted by gaelach

Originally Posted by Trefor

Happened to come across this in the Guardian.

If you can't be bothered to read it, it's about one Manchan Magan who goes around the country speaking to people in Irish & nothing else. The reaction is often one of incomprehension & hostility at times.

I don't know if Manchan watches S4C, but a guy who lives in this town - Ifor ap Glyn - did the same kind of thing in Wales a few months back, but he took a TV crew around with him. He went to the most English speaking parts of Wales, border towns & the like, & engaged people in Welsh & in Welsh only.

The results were surprising - he got on fine. People were often bemused, but they were invariably kind to him, usually worked out what he was on about without too much trouble and more often than not managed a few words of Welsh - & some could manage rather more than that.

Why the difference?

Manchan was too aggresive in my opinon(I wouldnt have gone near him!And I can speak Irish).

Was that on last night? I didn't like his approach either but it did hammer home some truths.

Originally Posted by Coles

Originally Posted by gaelach

Originally Posted by Trefor

Happened to come across this in the Guardian.

If you can't be bothered to read it, it's about one Manchan Magan who goes around the country speaking to people in Irish & nothing else. The reaction is often one of incomprehension & hostility at times.

I don't know if Manchan watches S4C, but a guy who lives in this town - Ifor ap Glyn - did the same kind of thing in Wales a few months back, but he took a TV crew around with him. He went to the most English speaking parts of Wales, border towns & the like, & engaged people in Welsh & in Welsh only.

The results were surprising - he got on fine. People were often bemused, but they were invariably kind to him, usually worked out what he was on about without too much trouble and more often than not managed a few words of Welsh - & some could manage rather more than that.

Why the difference?

Manchan was too aggresive in my opinon(I wouldnt have gone near him!And I can speak Irish).

Was that on last night? I didn't like his approach either but it did hammer home some truths.

Perhaps that the two men were trying to make very different points.