A mother has apparently been accused of speaking “foreign muck” while speaking Welsh to her young daughter – in Wales.
Elin Jones, 32, was in a shop with her young daughter Elena when a lady reprimanded her.
Just got asked by a lady in a shop why I don't speak English and not foreign muck to my baby.I was speaking Welsh. In Wales. #givemestrength
— Elin T Jones (@ElinTJones) September 9, 2017
“She just came up to me when I was telling my baby what the fruit was in Welsh and was very serious,” Jones, from Lampeter, told the Press Association.
“She said ‘You shouldn’t be talking that foreign muck here’, to which I replied, ‘I was speaking Welsh and this is Wales.'”
Jones said the woman then walked off.
Fi a Elena! pic.twitter.com/oSBrbUJKLH
— Elin T Jones (@ElinTJones) September 10, 2017
“I’m not sure whether the lady thought that I was speaking Polish or another language,” said Jones. “But even so, I don’t think that discrimination of anyone is okay.”
Elin’s post on Twitter about the bizarre incident has received a huge amount of attention, racking up over 10,000 retweets in a couple of days.
Wow!! Foreign muck?! What is the world coming to? Even if you were not speaking welsh this would be so wrong.
— Bethan Maeve AM/AC (@bethanjenkins) September 11, 2017
Should have told her to mind her own business. In Welsh. Cymru am byth.
— Bernard Lyons (@bernardlyons) September 10, 2017
Regardless of the language spoken, this sort of prejudice towards, or fear of bi/multilingualism is absolutely baffling. https://t.co/CV9UFSSLSu
— Esyllt Mair (@EsylltMair) September 10, 2017
“The reaction is beyond anything I expected,” Jones, who is a Plaid Cymru town councillor and also works at the Grannel Hotel, said.
“I tweeted because I wanted to make a point about discrimination not being acceptable in any form.
“There’s also been so much backlash against the Welsh language recently, and this is only one small part of that.”
Thanks for all the concern, I mainly tweeted due to being a bit taken aback. I did correct the lady and we move on.
— Elin T Jones (@ElinTJones) September 10, 2017
“I’ve received messages of support from all over the world,” added Jones. “And I hope that this will do something to shed some light on the issue.”