"WHAT WE'RE REALLY LIKE"

Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, Cardiff What is the climate like ? Cold wet and windy in the winter and it sometimes snows between December and Febuary. It is quite warm and dry in the summer but we have occasional showers of rain as well. What do people in Britain look like? People who originated from Britain are white, although there are many different races living here. There are black, Asian and African who immigrated here many years ago, some of which are now British citizens. We are not all pale. Some of us have darker skin than others and darker hair. English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish all look the same, but some people stereotype us (the Welsh) as being fat, drinking, sheep farmers. People from Wales do NOT look like whales. We do not look too different from you. What is the British national costume? Each country in the British Isles has a different national costume. Of course, we do not wear these clothes day to day but only on special occasions, for instance on our Patron Saint's day. WALES - Women wear long woollen skirts, shawls and pinnies. On their heads they wear black bonnets tied with white ribbon. Often they would wear a leek or daffodil pinned to their chest as a symbol of Wales. The men wear white shirts, trousers held up by braces and knee length sock with ribbons. On their heads they wear flat caps. They also wear a symbol of Wales. SCOTLAND - Men wear knee length tartan kilts, a fur bag around their waste called a sporran and knee high socks with a dagger. IRELAND - The Irish national costume is very similar to the Scottish one, except every clan (or surname) has a different coloured tartan. ENGLAND - England haven't got a national costume but they are quite often stereotyped as wearing suits and bowler hats. Is there a Native culture in Britain? We in Wales have St David's day every first of March, where we dress up in our traditional costumes. The girls wear a shawl a long skirt made out of sheep's wool a white blouse and a big black hat. (Not like the hats the witches wear). The boys wear a waistcoat a white shirt and a hat that looks like a beret. The Scottish wear kilts and tartan waistcoats they have a Saint called St Andrew and also they have Burn's night where they were they celebrate their famous poet Robert Burns - they dress up in all their native clothes and start dancing. England have St George but they don't celebrate him at all. What do you know about the Welsh native culture? They are known as the Celts. They spoke a language which our Welsh language has developed from. They did not wear kilts or play the bagpipes, what they did wear however was trousers made from Welsh wool ("brethin" in Welsh). They decorated themselves with natural dyes and pigs blood before going to battle. They lived in round huts made of mud, stone and wood. They worked on their farms. They made lots of jewellery and brooches made of iron and bronze. The designs on these are interwoven pieces of the metals I mentioned earlier. What language is spoken? In the UK there are three different languages. They are English, Welsh and Gaelic. We can speak English and Welsh. English is the most popular language, it is spoken in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Welsh is spoken in only Wales.