For our documentary film, we interviewed Lloyd Woodham, a PhD candidate in astrophysics at UCL. We found Lloyd through the UCL Hiking society, as one of our team members recalled a conversation she had with Lloyd about Welsh language and culture while on a hiking trip. Lloyd was incredibly kind and helpful, and we actually spoke to him for over two hours! He was extremely happy to be able talk about Wales, and his passion can be seen in our video. Having grown up in Cardiff, going to University in Aberystwyth and now completing his PhD in London, Lloyd is a great example of a Welsh migrant in England.
In our language classes, we spoke a lot about the growth of the Welsh language. In the past ten years Welsh has grown immensely. Lloyd himself is constantly trying to learn as much Welsh as he possibly can. He is genuinely excited that Welsh is becoming more prominent in Wales, and that the Welsh are taking pride in their language. Lloyd really gave us a great insight into a young person’s perspective on the Welsh language today, as it continues to grow. He also spoke to us about his love of Welsh cakes, and how his Granddad used to call ketchup ‘dragon’s blood.’ We learned lots from Lloyd about Welsh culture and language, and really brought what we had learned from our language classes to life!
Despite the fact that Lloyd’s career path will predominantly be in London, he still visits his home in Wales regularly. His face lit up at this very thought, and how can one not smile in response, as Lloyd’s love for Wales warms the heart and really inspired our documentary team.
When we think of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, we often overlook the individual cultures of these places. What it means to be English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish in today’s world. Which is an important lesson to take from the UCL Global Citizenship program as apart of the Welsh group. As a huge part of cultural understanding is not to be ignorant of any culture, and to appreciate how much we can learn about the world through cultural understanding.
European London 