Welsh Characteristics

"To a Welshman the benefits of the wonderful gifts of Welshness are so obvious that there is no need to boast about them..."

The following are from various forums on the internet, none of which are my own words.

Welsh characteristics:

Eloquence, intelligence, and cunning.

I met a welshman that couldn't sing once - I was very disappointed.

I was once told that, "The Welsh are a strange mixture of soppy and stroppy" meaning emotional or sentimental for soppy and stubborn for stroppy. It seems to fit me!

Funnily enough I watched a TV programme tonight that stated, "The Welsh are defined by the sea on three sides and by stubborness on the other side". True.

A lot of people I know (who are not Welsh) just can't get to grips with the way we Welsh insult each other as humour.

I visit this board vary rare, but I am well pleased each time I do, as I find a reason for my mannerisms. They are inherited. As for insulting each other, I saw my 2nd cousin in the store the other day and said, "Speaking of lame as-ed relatives, how are you doing?" Other people would not understand, but within my family, we give each other a bad time, all the time. Hope you all are doing well.

The Welsh are stubborn-very, very stubborn. The Welsh themselves would probably rather say "tenacious", but to anyone on the receiving end a better description might well be - bloody minded."

Once a Welshman gets an idea-any idea- in his mind, nothing will dislodge it, and he will go to incredible lengths to realise it. In Wales even pacifists are belligerent about their beliefs.

The Welsh Attitude to the English can be accurately summed up as 10% resentment and 90% pity.

To a Welshman the benefits of the wonderful gifts of Welshness are so obvious that there is no need to boast about them. After all the Welshman's world is made up of only two types of people: fellow Welshmen (who understand already) and the rest (whose opinions do not count.

Wales is run by a secret and sophisticated elite, the extent of whose power is carefully hidden. Wales is, in fact, run entirely by Women. Welsh Women are truly formidable. They are strong- minded and articulate, with clear objectives and absolutely no qualms about enforcing them.

The Welsh have a great military reputation as men who enjoy fighting and are good at it. This is probably because they find fierce and bloody warfare a pleasant and tranquil alternative to dealing with their womenfolk.

The Welsh enjoy talking. They talk incessantly. They talk passionately. They talk about anything. Two aspects of Welsh conversation can confuse outsiders. The first is their habit of mocking what they hold most dear. The second is the way they argue most violently with those closest to them, because they know what they can get away with. A casual listener, hearing the raised voices and the name calling of the most personal and insulting variety, might have difficulty in telling a normal discussion between two close friends from the start of a blood feud.

Welshness is an attitude of mind-sometimes psychopathic, often generous, usually friendly and always passionate.

I bet more of us are working class, than in say England.

Friendly. Like the Northern English. I love going back to Wales, because the people remind me of Northerners, in that they're by-and-large dead freindly and chatty. I've lived amongst the southerners (English) for far too long...

An English person once told me that the Welsh are sexy. Can't say I've noticed myself though.

The Welsh are profoundly unfriendly and taciturn, and extremely outgoing and welcoming.

I think the Welsh are whingers, with moany accents and a bit sly.

Depends what side of the bed we get out of in the morning really, doesnt it? But I do think we're more sociable than the English...

Poetic, Musical, Passionate, Funny, down to earth, gorgeous and amazingly romantic...

Welsh-language poetry has been consistently amongst the best poetry in Europe...

Sexy Welsh accents...!

Yes, certainly there is at least one very singular distinguishing characteristic that sets the Welshmen/women apart from all other U.K. citizenry. As rule, all Welsh men and women are much better looking than all the others, especially the English, the Irish, the Scots, etc., etc., etc. I cannot see how you could have possibly missed this very salient FACT as surely it is known the world over. By the way, we also
have the cutest accents and speak English far better than all the rest.
There now, glad to have been of service.

I think that you've gotten it just about right, although you neglected to mention the famous Welsh penchant for sarcasm and exaggeration! I must say, though, that we Welsh-Americans have tempered these a bit.

Hmm, you forgot to mention our tremendous modesty...

I've been in Canada now many years, but I'll vouch for the sarcasim. Everyone in my family is extremely sacastic. I've yet to meet a Canadian that can match it...

A chip on both shoulders. The ability to pick a fight in an empty room. Having a double-jointed tongue ( you try saying llongyfarchiadau i chi
without one!) The tendency to pin the blame on the English for anything etc etc.

1. A Tendency To Sing. There is a history/tradition of singing in Wales. By no means is every Welshman/woman a good singer, but there is a greater knowledge & appreciation of such things and a greater willingness to sing. I have been surprised in England by the numbers of people who listen to music but regard actually singing as unthinkable or 'for girls', as one English schoolkid put it to me. It is not so significant in the culture of England nor, I suspect, in Scotland. I suspect Ireland is different. This tendency probably comes out of poverty. The voice is the one
instrument we all own.

2. An Enjoyment Of Words. This is probably linked to the above - the way the Welsh speak has supposedly song-like elements (like the Irish. Compared to the English the Welsh seem to have a greater enjoyment of purely talking and/or playing with words. Some English people I know seem almost to feel distaste at having to speak at all! Again, this is only a minor and statistical tendency.

3. A Greater Ability To Deal With Death. I think that the Welsh may have more in common with the Irish here than the English (don't know about Scotland). Obviously, we all feel grief. However, I feel that in Wales there is a greater acceptance that death is part of life, however unpleasant. Maybe it's just my own experience here, but I don't think so.

4 Pacifism. Some people say that the Welsh are more pacifistic than other peoples. I don't see it myself. They can fight when they want to and I don't see that they have proved that they choose peace, only that violence hasn't been an obvious choice for Wales in recent history. So, some say this is true of the Welsh - I say 'not proved'.

5. In-Fighting. It is said that the Welsh take any opportunity to argue
amongst themselves and that this has weakened Wales in the past.

Are the Welsh stubborn?: Absolutely and emphatically YES.

Nationalism and Identity: As far as identity is concerned, the majority of Welsh people regard themselves as Welsh whilst a minority consider themselves Welsh and then British. This has been borne out on many polls over many years. Below are two links where you can verify this. The first link is to the UK Statistics website which reveal the results of a survey carried out in Wales in 2001. In the survey 60% registered themselves as Welsh and 7% as Welsh and British.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp In a more recent poll (earlier this year) only 12% considered themselves British. See link below http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/mostpopular.var.2085612.mostcommented.what_makes_you_proud_to_be_welsh.php

With regard to Nationalism. The Welsh generally are a very proud people and are extreme Nationalists in certain areas such as sport. The nationalism is not an expansionist or violent nationalism such as British Nationalism but more of an insular nationalism.
This nationalism is not expressed politically due to a lack of self confidence and Plaid Cymru (Nationalist Party), whilst the second party in Wales in terms of the number of Councillors and Assembly Members, has at its best election results obtained approx 30% of the vote which was in the Assembly Election in 1999 and the European Elections in 1999.

Character
Difficult to answer this as there are so many characteristics of the Welsh and you probably wont get 2 Welshmen to agree on them all. That is one of our charecteristics, we like to debate (argue). Here are some that come to mind : Stubborn (see above), friendly, welcoming (until you insult Wales), poetical, musical, passionate, sensitive, classless.

Attitudes and Values
I think I will pass on these. Attitudes to what or who????? As for values, I think you will find it hard to get a consensus of opinion. Values which I think most Welsh people will agree on is our history, language and the natural beauty of our country.

Sense of Humour
In one word "DRY".which is not always understood. I had a new English Boss some years ago and she enquired about the weather in winter. She said "I suppose you get a lot of snow here". I replied "No, very little in fact". She looked a little surprised and said " I thought you would have had a lot of snow coming down off the mountains". I tried to be humourous and replied "No , it comes from the clouds". My humour was lost on her, but that is an example. Welsh humour is generally of the dry witty type.