Seems ages since I went to boot camp.
Dictionaries on phone or book are a no no and the reasons why will be explained before you switch to Welsh only. Breakfast donation covers the week as far as I remember and acting out a word you don’t know is one of the best ways to move on should you become stuck.
Have a brilliant time as 99.9% of all boot campers fo. 
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In reverse order:
3 £5 for the week. If you just have a bit of the breakfast stuff sometimes, your welcome to put in less!
2 As Macky says - acting is half of the fun of Bwtcamp, and the benefits are that you will often remember the acting or the confusion as one of the elements of the word, making it a whole lot easier to remember!
1 I don’t actually ban dictionaries because when you’ve tried and tried all day to think of a word, and no-one can work out your miming, there’s no problem with looking in the dictionary. On the other hand, before I started to discourage dictionaries, some people would carry them with them, and stop of mid conversation to find the exact translation of the English word in their head. The problem with this is that you end up speaking translated English, whereas when you have to tailor what you are saying to the words you know, or can explain, you start to build your own language, and genuinely attach Welsh labels to things and feeling and actions, rather than attaching the Welsh label to the English words for those things.
But don’t try to overthink things. I am only draconian on one thing - the Welsh only rule. Literally (just about) everything else is flexible!
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Sorry, I have taken so long to properly introduce myself - can’t believe the bootcamp is at the end of next week!
Anyway, I’m Ceri, I live in Marlow, Bucks with 2 of my 3 sons and my husband (other son lives in London). I’m half welsh and was brought up in Warrington with regular holidays to North Wales, where many of my relatives spoke welsh, and South Wales where none of them did. My father’s first language was welsh but apart from how to count to ten, a few nouns and one rhyme he didn’t teach me any welsh. I’m a piano teacher and play in a band and love anything musical. I’m planning on bringing my Nord keyboard and would love to do some music/singing. Happy to have a go at the four part harmonies and hymns are fine for me, as well as any folk or other songs people want to try. I enjoy cooking and swimming and I’m looking forward to meeting everyone.
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Many thanks to @Iestyn and @Macky for the brilliantly expressed answers to my questions. I am already waking up at 5 in the morning trying to figure out how to say stuff in Welsh. Then I run to look up words so I’ll know them by the time I get to Tresaith. Of course, I forget most of them instantly, evidence of Iestyn’s point about dictionaries.
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Good luck all and I’m sure you’ll all love south Ceredigion at this time of year. Tresaith is awesome in late September, you still get the odd day of really nice weather if you’re fortunate - plus the village is a bit quieter as most of the tourists have gone home!
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The bus that goes down through Tresaith stops at the top of the steps that lead down to the canolfan, which is the first building on the right down the steps.
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@joanne-taylor I would love a ride from North Wales if you are able to take me! I’m staying in Llanbedr and could get myself to Ruthin to meet there at an appointed place that would be easy for you. Or even up to Denbigh! I have a largish back pack with me because I’m travelling around Wales for 6 months. Please let me know what you think. I’d love to travel with new friends.
Shw’mae pawb! I am the last one signed up - I took the last-minute ticket. I’m Bronwen Jones from New Zealand. My father was from North Wales, so I have an ancestral connection that I feel strongly. I’ve been learning the North Wales version of SSiW. So far, I’ve been in Wales for 3 months, and have 3 more months to go. I’m retired now but have been a journalist and public relations manager. I’ve lived 15 years in Japan. Now I live in Diamond Harbour, near Christchurch, in the South Island of New Zealand.
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Brilliant! I’ve had responses from everyone except @Francis (I had the wrong email for you Francis - I’ve just sent the email again, so hopefully you will know what I’m talking about !). It’s looking like a good week, with a range of experience from just at the end of Lefel 1 through to all the levels and a bit of real life speaking. That means the experienced can help the inexperienced, the confident can help the less confident, and we can all laugh as hard as we can…
I’ll make sure to bring the spare peas, because there’s going to be a lot of innovative language - Bwtcampese is a mix of traditional Welsh and brand new, never-quite-spoken-like-this-before language. And boy is it fun!
So, see you all Saturday.
BTW - there is a keyboard, electric, full size, at the Ganolfan which we can get out of the cupboard (I was asked!), but I do need to remember to pack an electric cable @Deborah-SSi. In case anyone else doesn’t trust me on that - the socket on the piano end is a typical three ‘slotted’ pin triangular one, in case you want to bring one yourself.
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How exciting that you have booked on Bronwen. I’m looking forward to meeting you in person!
Hi Iestyn, do you know what kind of keyboard it is? I’m happy to bring mine anyway unless that’s an issue and I don’t mind other people playing mine. For the cable for the other one - do you mean a cable like on old kettle lead? I can bring a spare of one of those and a pedal for it if that is helpful. Does it have a stand?
Yes it’s a massive heavy thing with two keyboards - an organ rather than a piano. And yes, one of the three slot kettle or projector leads.
Your welcome to bring your keyboard - it might be easier to be able to pack it away between playings (the one that’s there will be a permanent feature somewhere, because I’m not hulking it about!), but certainly if it;s at all difficult to bring yours, the one there is fine - we’ve had a lot of fun around it on various bwtcamps!
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ok, I don’t mind. Mine is a full size stage piano rather than organ - but if you want to get the big thing out I can pack mine away easily enough.
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Shwmae Iestyn. What time on Saturday is a good arrival time?
Hwyl
I say arrive at 3 for a 4 o clock start, and then usually rely on Deborah to be there in time, while I roll up at about 5 to 4 out of breath and in a panic. There’s usually a bwtcamper that arrives at about 5, and we all have to wait around drinking tea and eating biscuits before I can start the introduction proper…
So, yes - between 3 and 4 is best.
Looking forward to seeing you all!
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Sh’mae Iestyn and all,
It’s all getting very near, yippee!
Just a couple of things, now that I’ve actually read the What to Bring bit :
- Does the hostel provide a bedsheet or do we need to bring that as well as the duvet?
- I can bring along some fresh greens from our garden, would that be good?
- I don;t have an MP3 but have a CD player and copious Welsh folk music CDs that I’d love to share.
- I’ll bring OS maps for the coast and around Newcastle Emlyn.
- One other thing - I’m part of a local food bank which is in the middle of preparing to move premises - I’d hoped that we would already have moved by the time of bootcamp but it hasn’t happened and it is now due about 10 days after we finish, so I may need to check the very occasional email about that (probably once or twice early mornign before others are up,as I’m an early bird). I want to keep it to a minimum and certianly didn’t want to cancel bootcamp because of it. I hope that is ok? I know it’s not what is supposed to happen.
See you all between 3-4 on Saturday and let’s hope the weather forecast changes back to sunny for next week! Julia 
PS We’ll be able to practice singing happy birthday on the 24th as it’s my birthday! 
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In order…
- Yes, bring a bed sheet.
- Yes, bring fresh greens! We’ll always eat them…
- By all means. A lot of people enjoy music in the background when they’re cooking etc. Just be aware that it can make it difficult sometimes to understand others in a conversation, and can be distracting to some people sometimes.
- Brilliant - diolch!
- I know it’s not supposed to happen, but I have come to accept that people insist on having lives beyond learning Welsh - a terrible crime, I know, but apparently a lot of people do it! (hastily adds a
to make sure you know I’m joking…)
The fact that you are thinking about it enough to worry as to whether it is acceptable tells me that you will not allow it to intrude on your bwtcamp or anyone else’s, so it’s not a problem. I’ll talk a bit more (ok, I admit it, a lot more!) about why and how the Welsh only rule works and is so important when we do introductions. Yes, we are strict with the rule, but the rule itself is actually a lot more flexible than it sounds.
Really looking forward to seeing everyone. 2 sleeps!
Iestyn
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Hi Iestyn,
One technical question: Is there a washing machine in the Canolfan that we can use if necessary?
Kristin
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