Exactly! I did mention a bit of that at the end too. Sometimes there just isn’t time.
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I’m always amazed and intrigued when I see this. I just can’t fathom why Welsh people would be disparaging about the Welsh language 
Out of curiousity, what did they say / do?
i’ll privately message you, it was pretty horrible!
I think, in general, Mihill’s advice is the best (make it clear you don’t just know the easy beginner phrases - she may think you are on holiday and have used a few words from the guide book!) and try to sound like you are fluent (intonation etc) + as Arran and others have said, ask them if they can speak to you in Welsh as you are learning and need to practice (or if you are so good you don’t really need to practice just say “Can we speak Welsh please” - as a rhetorical question)
I’d also say that there was nothing in your original post to suggest this had anything to do with the colour of your skin (and I hope it is not the case for whatever the reason!) as your story is one that I (as a middle aged white male - is 52 middle aged now? I like to think it starts at 65!) and clearly many others have experienced. As far as I’m concerned I think the main problem was/is that I didn’t feel confident enough speaking with a welsh accent/intonation (my natural one is a mild Somerset one) and so it is clear to the listener that I’m not a natutal Welsh speaker plus my opening words being the more basic ones. And yes it happens elsewhere as well. I’m a pretty good French speaker (but again not using a French accent as it feels like I’m being pretentious) and on holiday a few years ago had many long conversations with the French receptionist of the Holiday Complex - me speaking in French and her speaking in English! She clearly had no problems understanding what I was saying but I just assume she fell her job was to speak English with English guests.
All the best
P.s. nice to hear the odd bit of Welsh in the crowd last week at the Gwenno gig in Bristol. Great gig too.
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Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m pretty sure it officially starts at 45 
That’s okay though, because it means I’m guaranteed to live to at least 90, and since middle age doesn’t end until 65, that gives me potentially a full 130 years. At least, I think that’s how it works…
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Oh, I think we can all join together to laugh this one out of the water.
You cheeky bloody youngster. 
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How can you do that to me Isata!! - Right I’m not going to speak Welsh with you if we ever meet up either now!
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Sorry, grandad. Tell me, is it true they didn’t even have ipods when you were a boy…? 
My heartfelt apologies, @Rich.B. If you like, you can swear at me in Welsh when we meet. That way, you still get the practice in.
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OOoh, how sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.
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It’s a deal! 
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I wonder if they even realised you were speaking Welsh to them. I have a theory that sometimes people in a situation where they expect a stranger to speak in English don’t even notice when it’s Welsh and you end up having a half-and-half.
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What’s the Welsh for “You kids get off of my lawn!” ?
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Hei Bois ych chi ‘di gweld King Cobra, fi’ di colli e yn yr ardd rhywle
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Very occasionally Im like that. Although more often its the other way around, like this morning when I thought: I got most of that. And then realised that I wad listening to politicalese on Radio 4.
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Just in case anyone had been left with negative impressions of our town… this morning, a woman on checkout no. 2 engaged me, unprompted, in an animated conversation about the subject I can talk about most confidently in Welsh - the weather. And last night, a woman sitting behind @Isata and her mum at a concert nearly cried with joy when she heard them speaking Welsh. If people only knew how much these little encouragements boost our morale…
And now you’re reassured that Machynlleth is the friendly centre of the Welsh universe, a quick plug for our next monthly SSiW meeting in Caffi Alys (10.30. Saturday 10 November), which will be followed by a tour of the Owain Glyndwr Centre, conducted in Welsh by volunteer guide @helenlindsay! See you there…
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Yes, Mach(?) Is a very friendly place. We stopped off on our way up North. Very helpful and openly welcoming people.
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I’m a bit late to this, but a useful discussion. In defence of checkout peeps:
I used to be a checkout boy in Manchester. It’s a very odd experience, if you’ve been sitting on a checkout for several hours your brain really melts and if someone starts a conversation or asks an unexpected question (or perhaps a stranger speaks Welsh when you only speak Welsh at work with people you know) it takes some time for the brain to wake up and have ‘normal’ conversations, and switch off the auto-pilot of: ‘Do you need any help packing, Do you have a reward card? Would you like any cashback?’ which has put your brain onto the auto-pilot.
Aran’s point about fear of being racist is a real thing. I grew up in rural wales in an exclusively white town until i was in my mid-teens. When i was young I knew that racism was a bad thing, but I had no experience of talking to non-white people and had the fear of not knowing how to not be racist when encountering a non-white person (it’s the same fear of speaking Welsh to strangers for the first time when you are still uncomfortable in Welsh) It’s silly, but adrenaline does odd things to us. It wasn’t until a black family moved to the town, that I got the opportunity of having normal conversations and realised that non-white were no different to having normal conversations with white people.
So brain melt from sitting on a checkout for hours + fear of being racist = Understandably staying in English to ‘be safe’.
I’m sure if you see them again they will likely remember that you are a Welsh speaker and speak Welsh with you.
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We decided not to buy a house in Machnylleth after we got aggressively confronted by a local for no apparent reason.
Still, there’s always one everywhere, and even the nicest of people can have a nutso rage moment.
We love the community we’ve found so far here in Dolwyddelan, but think we’ll need to move down your way eventually to be nearer to deer.
Ok. I’m going to clarify a few things, because I think there’s a tendency for online threads to go a bit awry unless they’re kept on track.
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I deliberately didn’t name the town in my initial post or subsequently, because this isn’t about the town, and I’m not going to say where the incident happened. As I’ve said before, my post was about me and my failure to communicate, and to get across to someone how I wanted to communicate. I hope that is clear.
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It’s not about the individual woman on the checkout. It’s about me, and communications in Welsh. As I’ve mentioned before, Checkout Number 2 is an imaginary place, staffed by an imaginary person who is a fictitious composite of all the people we’ve struggled to communicate with in Welsh. There is no negative reflection intended on a woman I don’t know who was just doing her job.
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I know Machynlleth very well, and go there a lot, as it happens. It’s a fantastic, welcoming, beautifully Welsh town, and its people have been incredibly supportive to me in my learning and my use of Welsh. Nobody in the town has ever been unkind to me, NOT EVER. I would be extremely upset if anybody thought that I had any negative feelings about Machynlleth, and I’m disappointed if anybody hasn’t had the same positive experiences of the town that I have.
@aran, just flagging in case there’s anything here that you disagree with or think shouldn’t be on the forum. Please feel free to intervene or delete where appropriate.
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