Buzzfeed criticised over ‘mashing the keyboard’ Welsh place name quiz
Buzzfeed have been criticised by BBC news broadcaster Huw Edwards after they published a quiz which asked users to guess which place names were real and which were produced by “randomly mashing” the keyboard.
The quiz written by Natasha Jokic said “for each question, you have to determine if town name is real place in Wales or a series of letters I cobbled together”.
It included place names such as Rhosllanerchrugog and Bwlchgwyn, as well as the made-up ‘Tyuafshcgvdbkl-nslksfdjhagjgk-hlwquyeuodias’.
Huw Edwards commented: “Any wonder Buzzfeed went down the toilet? This latest gem is by a Natasha (wait for it) Jokic… ‘Is This A Real Welsh Village Or Just Me Mashing My Keyboard?'”
It was announced earlier this week that Buzzfeed is to close its UK and Australian news operations
‘Obvious’
The post was later updated to remove any reference to “mashing the keyboard” and “random letters” but the quiz remains in place.
Jasmine Donahaye commented: “Useful note at the end: ‘This post has been updated to reflect BuzzFeed’s editorial standards.’ How much worse could it have been originally?”
Catrin Bethan said: “Rhosllanerchrugog doesn’t exactly role off the tongue” she says. News for you Nat it does off mine.”
Users on the site weren’t too impressed either, with one saying: “All of the fake ones are very obviously fake if you know anything about the Welsh language.”
“If you have even a passing familiarity with Welsh, it’s pretty easy to tell the difference between it and random key mashes,” another user said.
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This is what comes from giving ‘journalist’ jobs to 12-year-olds.
I do not know the family origins of the journalist, but my feelings are that her name suggests eastern European and there are some very strange ( to my tongue ) arrangements of vowels and consonants in their family names and place names. So refrain from such randomization!
You forget, Andrew, people can be as offensive as they like about Wales when it’s ‘banter’.
Odd how our culture seems to be exempt from the broader culture war – belittled by non-welsh leftists, hated by the far-right. Sound like any other cultures in history?
This is funny, not even offensive. What a silly situation.
It’s typical of humour that appeals to a naiive sense of superiority to those different to oneself.
We’re probably all susceptible to it to some degree but the English and those who identify with Englishness more strongly seem to have funny bones easily tickled by – they’re different isn’t that funny – type joke. A silly situation indeed.
Rough cough plough through tough though thought. Just saying, English is a mongrel language which they claim is the richest in the world yet can’t properly translate hiraeth.
It’s all about beams and motes, innit?
Buzzfeed are obviously short of ideas on what they thought was a slow news day. However there are far more words in the English language than in Welsh so consequently the situation in relation to hiraeth applies more often for words in English. Nations create words when needed and if the English dont have a word for hiraeth, it probably means not enough of them have never needed it or felt it enough to think this way I am feeling needs its own special word. I think the reason is pretty obvious when you look at the two people’s experiences… Read more »
Buzzfeed is just pure trash. I’m so glad people are finally realizing it and stop going to their website. They are slowly but surely going bankrupt and I couldn’t be happier about it!
Jokic is largely found in serbia and croatia. Why the childish casual racism considering her background – kragujevac doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue – but lets be honest – I suspect serbians would be quite down with the welsh language considering the reactions from places like hungary etc. Did she ever stop to think that she was making herself look particularly stupid childish and racist.
This sort of nonsrnse is so insulting and probably racist. It would certainly be racist if it were to be applied to African place names. Ougadougou, Nouakchott, Antananarivo, Mbabane, Bujumbura, for example.
There is absolutely nothing funny or entertaining in her quiz. It is totally disrespectful, juvenile and racist. If this is the best she can come up with she needs re-education. Perhaps she should try to enrol in a Welsh Primary School and start afresh, where she might learn to spell properly.
Ble mae’r Gymraeg?
Rhywle arall
Are many Welsh people so thin-skinned as to be offended by this? There have been similar quizzes about place names and pronunciations from various parts of the world. The last one I recall was about upstate New York. There are some VERY weird pronunciations there.
It’s nothing to be offended about
Then you obviously know nothing abot the historical experience of Cymru over the last 175 years.