English ignorance of Cornwall

[smmg]

i've probably said this before but it's so absolutely crushing when i talk to english people and they have no idea that cornwall has a separate culture and language. like they don't even know we exist. and sometimes they laugh about their ignorance like "haha i didn't even know cornwall has it's own language, let alone that it's a celtic nation". sorry but it makes me a little insane. like as someone who is cornish diaspora who lives in wales bc my cornish family have largely been displaced from their homes by english tourists/second home owners, and moving for better job/education opportunities. it's so insulting and depressing. every time i meet an english person at university and we talk about our degrees i'm always mentally preparing myself for this conversation. it's so exhausting. can't necessarily blame them either bc i know their country does not teach about what they've done to cornwall, wales, etc. but why joke about your ignorance. ''i'm from england and i didn't even know about cornwall having a distinct culture hehe'' ok but why. do you never bother to learn things about the world on your own. do you ever wonder why cornwall has one of the highest poverty rates in the uk and why people are so angry about tourism and second homes there? i'm sorry but like. do you never listen to/read/watch the news. sorry it's just absolutely infuriating.

Comments

greetings from Virginia

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, I'm Priscilla King from Virginia, and you may tell those non-literary Brits that I knew Cornwall had had its own language from age seven or eight, from reading children's books in the US. Then again I was born a word-nerd.

I blog about books (almost 50%), animals (about 30%), and whatever else at priscillaking dot blogspot.

I'm a fan of Ellen Hawley's notesfromtheuk; she's also based in Cornwall. She's American and blogs mostly about what she's learning about living in a different place from her home.

Someone once tried to teach me Welsh but it didn't take. I've done a little better with Irish; not much. Ysabetwordsmith shared a link to your blog, and I followed it because language and linguistics interest me.