Betws-Y-Coed

Mae'n ddim yn anodd o'gwbl os chi'n siarad Cymraeg.

pfft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu

I've never been to Wales. I've driven past it, sailed past it and flown over it but never actually been to it...

Gonna have to get down there!

@shadowfirebird as a Welshman living in England I have often heard this story and it is complete and utter tripe. There are several reasons for this. Firstly the majority of native Welsh speakers use Cymraeg as their first language. Secondly the average Daily Mail reader may fondly imagine that Welsh speakers use English as their first language and only use Welsh to be awkward, but this isn't the case - nobody would learn a whole language just to annoy. And finally, try though we might we still haven't worked out a way to identify the English on sight, so we can't start speaking Welsh when we see an Englishman coming.

So in other words those people didn't switch to speaking Welsh when they saw you coming, they were speaking Welsh all along.

The story is common because it has a long precedent. In Wales, Ireland, Scotland and almost every other country the English ever occupied the English tried to suppress and even outlaw the local language. This had the opposite effect to that which was intended as the natives then saw their language as a symbol of their struggle against the English and used the language whenever possible to annoy and obstruct the English occupiers. Your story dates back hundreds of years.

There is even a completely untrue story that the Welsh language was only invented to confuse and obstruct the English. Bear in mind that when the English first occupied Wales they did not speak a language that we would recognise as English today.

Worst pronunciation I've heard of was by someone asking for directions to Loughborough (luff-buh-ruh) whose interesting interpretation was 'Looger-borooger'.

In other news, someone phoned me today and pronounced my surname (gizz-burn is the correct way) as if it started with J. I am not named after a bedroom-related skin complaint thanks very much!

This is my favourite area in the entire world -- so far.

I remember going into a pub while on holiday about five miles from here, in a tiny little hamlet just outside where we were staying. Suddenly, the locals all switched to speaking Welsh.

And, I was not in the least offended; just pleased that they had a way to continue their discussion in private. Besides, spoken welsh sounds wonderful.

I was just in betws-y-coed in december, i felt like i was in harry potter it's so magical. It does have a weird spelling until you understand how the welsh pronounce things. It's pronounced "bet-toos-see-co-ed" the ws is making the toos sound. My Fiance lived near here when he was a kid so he knew how the phonetics worked and pronounced everything properly.

Here in Scotland we have Milngavie, pronounced Mulguy, and Culzean, pronounced Cullain, so both those are often misspelled or mispronounced, as is my town of Strathaven, pronounced Strayven, but then, non-UK people struggle even with Edinburgh, pronounced Edinburrah (with the stress only on the Ed), and often say Edinburg

I presume the local fish shop is called Betty's Cod?

The part of the sign which says 'gyrrwch yn ddiogel' isn't exactly easy to pronounce either!