week two: apparently my accent is "lush"

Jen Chan
Jul 10, 2015
3 min read

caerphilly, near the castle.

here are some of the things that happened this week that i figured i’d document, for posterity:

once you’ve seen one of the 100+ still-standing castles in wales, you’ve… maybe probably pretty much seen them all? i have come to this tentative conclusion after thoroughly exploring caerphilly castle and weobley castle. however, i think i’m still planning to check out castell coch and cardiff castle, both of which have come highly recommended by locals.

so far i know how to say three things in welsh: castle (“castell”), red (“coch”), and goodnight (“nos da”). more to follow. will keep you all updated as i learn more.

i feel like my canadian accent is only ever strong when i’m not actually… in canada. i actually said “sorry” the other day and pronounced it as “sore-y.” which… is a first…
also, every time i buy something and fumble with the coins (because i still have yet to understand why the ten-pence coin is so much larger than the twenty-pence coin?), i keep telling everyone “i’m sorry! i’m not from here! i’m not american though! i’m canadian!” i don’t know why.

“lush” is apparently welsh slang for “gorgeous and fantastic” and i think i’m going to start incorporating it into my vernacular.
“dinner” sometimes means “lunch”…

quaint little cafes by the beach, during the rain.

…so now i’m suspicious about a lot of words. if someone invites you out for “afternoon tea” and you consult with other british people in order to find out if that means “going to a cafe in the afternoon hours” or “peculiar british way of saying evening meal”
6/6 british people agree that it’s probably just tea, because supper would be specified
4/6 british people agree that it’s probably going to be at a cafe
4/6 british people also mentioned cake being a possibility

minor cultural differences aside, though, there are some things that remain consistent across toronto to south wales. yesterday i went to a focus group the welsh government was holding with stonewall cymru to review the welsh equality objectives from 2016-2020 (so i could spy on what was happening in the lgbtq+ community here and see if i could take anything back with me to toronto, naturally):
there’s still a severe lack of education and awareness, especially in the health professions, with a particular focus on mental health professionals. whether it’s at CAMH in toronto, or psychiatrist referrals in cardiff, health care professionals often have no idea how to “handle” or (sometimes even separate) trans and queer issues from mental wellness issues.
party culture is also a problem for lgbtq+ youth here, too. halfway across the world and queer and trans youth still have immense difficulty being able to find a sense of community without resorting to clubs, apps, and alcohol and other substances.
what i did find interestingly different is the general reaction to police, here. the tone in the focus group appeared to be largely positive -- although police follow-up to domestic abuse in same-sex relationships appears to be an issue of priority here, the people i spoke with appear to find that overall, police ought to be praised more than they are criticized.
it’s definitely a stark contrast to the climate in north america, especially right now, with our american neighbours drawing attention to serious, perpetual incidents of racialized brutality; queer and trans activist groups i’ve worked with campaign quite strongly to bring attention to the marginalization that police in toronto enforce on homeless, youth, racialized, and disabled queer and trans people. definitely interesting for me to consider the demographic, historical, and political differences and how they all contribute to the different priorities.

along those lines, a good portion of this week at work was spent really sinking into that kind of stuff, in relation to the employment of disabled people and the local government’s focus on it, especially with the new UK budget having just been released. lots of reading, lots of research, lots of discussions with my coworkers about the 45+ year history of monwel and how they’ve seen things change.
some people have been here nearly about that long! for now i’m going to keep having casual conversations during smoke breaks until i can formulate coherent questions, and then i think i’d like to hold some interviews and start documentation.
i think that’s why cultural differences, as minor as they can be sometimes, have begun to really stick out in my mind. they really inform why things are the way that they are, so it’s super difficult to understand or analyse anything without starting from there.