A long and boring post with lots of questions + looking for a skype partner

Count me in for that. I am quite a listener though but I mostly catch myself thinking I understood something only to find out I totally mussunderstood everything …

Do that @aran! She deserves sgwrsiau with you more then I ever did and ever will. PLEASE! :sunny: Ohhh … I saw in later reading you already negotiated the things what makes me extreamly happy …! @seren deserves THE BEST! (and those are not just words, I mean it from the bottom of my heart).

@seren I can understand you perfectly every time we speak despite you’re all shortenings and I’m not. I hardly know them (shortenings) despite I’ve learnt them but I still can understand mostly everything you say. Well, I believe though saying “i” when there’s “y” in the word (what I’ve noticed you’re doing many times, like in word “mynd” this is kind of “slavic mistake” because when I read the text I many times pronunce “y” as “i” aswell so don’t worry too much about that. You speak WAY better then I will ever but I also know why this is so with me. I’M NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH AND DON’T DO AS MUCH THINGS Cymraeg related then you do. So I believe the others can understand you perfectly too no matter learners, speakers or native speakers. It just depends on how much “effort” one wants to put in listening to you (if you know what I actually mean).

A_a … @seren don’t let him to do just that … :slight_smile: - hehe

Oh and one idea … what about listening, practicing speaking and then recording your speach, listening to it afterwards to determine how your pronunciation really is. (don’t count your voice in it as normally we, people, never like our voices recorded I believe) but concentrate only on pronunciation. I once did that with German when VERY INTENSIVELY practiced saying their “R” and it helped (despite I didn’t like my voice at all and I don’t like it now either. - hehe).

I am your friend (what concerns me) but I’m bad speaking friend though. I wish I could help you with pronunciation and such things but all I can offer is speaking however I appear too confusing to the other learners I surely don’t make too good speaking parthner though.

Now … this is my “long and boring” (a bit humourous, if you all can understand it at all) post …

Still hope we can have kind of conversation some time and when Russian is out for us to learn I already know the way how I’ll help you and you will help me at the same time … :slight_smile:

In the mean time Hwyl a paid poeni gormod. Ti’n siarad yn da iawn.

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I was just going to write you some day this week to ask if you were available for a chat:) My “bad speaking” friend, I enjoy talking to you a lot:) And thank you for reminding me of the “y”, I need to work on it. And thank you for all the kind things you say - you’ve always been so supportive of me (and of everyone here on this forum)

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It would sound a bit cheeky, but you wouldn’t believe i have tears in my eyes right now. Thank you!

I have the time at least today and tomorrow from about 8 pm my time (is that still 11 pm at you or you didn’t change to summer time?) but for next days I am not sure what the happenings throw at me, I just know the times will be extreamly enjoyable … :slight_smile:

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I have some time after my lessons tomorrow, I’ll PM you on Facebook:)

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OK. It’s fine with me. :slight_smile:

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Eirwen understands you very well when you speak Welsh. She is not just saying that because she likes you. Eirwen is very matter of fact and is impressed at the way you speak Welsh. You also understand Eirwen when she speaks. I find it more of a challenge understanding Eirwen than say Catrin or Aran because Eirwen doesn’t really make any concessions that you are a learner unless you specifically ask her to talk slowly. So when you are listening to Eirwen and understand her that is a real test of how you would fare in North Wales with native speakers. Llongyfarchiadau.,

Justin

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By the time Seren @seren and you have lit a fire under each other and progressed to dizzying heights of fluency - I fear i will have to hold my head in shame and just listen in wonder at Seren’s prowess in Welsh and your prowess in Italian.

I suppose I can always resort to filling the extra glass or two to immunise myself from the pain of my own lesser accomplishments. Did I say glasses or bottles - as I search for a magnum of Barbaresco :wink:

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That is in fact very very reassuring, because I understood Eirwen quite well the second time I spoke to her, and her pronunciation sounded really clear and beautiful to me.

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Justin - you are learning Russian. I wouldn’t be learning Russian if I weren’t Russian. It scares even me, this language, and I’m a native speaker.
But of course I don’t object to filling a glass or two to drown the linguistic sorrow. “Не вижу повода не выпить” as we say here (“I see no reason not to drink”)

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I have lived here since 2003 and I still don’t understand whole chunks!!! It isn’t just an accent, Scots is a language! It has semi-amalgamated with English but has huge variations around Scotland! i find native Aberdonians taking to each other completely incomprehensible!! Even here, and even with folk who know I’m foreign, I sometimes have to ask for translation!

I have a personal interest in Scotland - my cariad’s father has Scottish ancestry. I hope I’ll impress them one day with being able to understand Scots:)

Never mind them! You’ll impress me!!! :smiley:

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I think she went some time back, as the cafe now is run by Sam’s sister-in-law, who is not Italian!! Don’t confuse @seren

I am going slowly down this long topic and someone may have pointed out that ‘mynd’ is pronounced ‘mind’.(Short ‘i’. not like English ‘mind’!) I have been chasing ‘llyfr’ which I pronounced with the ‘y’ as in Cymru, but all have now told me it is ‘llifr’!!!

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Thank goodness! That’s how I pronounce it and I though I was getting it all wrong. I do tend to pronounce the article “y” o “yr” with an i.

I’ll work harder then:) Also for personal satisfaction - Scottish accent is considered the most difficult, if I’m not mistaken!

I’m not sure if the accent is harder to understand, I suspect it is bits of Scots within it which cause the problem. Any real dialect is hard! I have mentioned elsewhere being baffled when asked “Wha’di they ca’thee?” in York. If I render that as “What do they call thee?” I’m sure you can understand it! Fast speech and dialect words confuse anyone! (Use of thee and thy and thine in speech in England is so rare in most places now that it counts as dialect!)

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Sorry, I was referring to the old Sam Tan, not the current travesty that takes the name of Sam, which is what i linked to

I didn’t say it’s wrong to pronunce “Y” like “i” (to make things clear) but I hear @Iestyn in the lessons saying it like half “o” like in Cymraeg or like “e” like in word “mend”. It might be I’m hearing it wrong but I am not keen to sound “i” in some words.

The “Teach Yourself Welsh” book I have says it on pronuncing “y” as follows:

So, as yuo see it’s not wrong to pronunce it as “i” but is neccessary to know when it occurs like that.

[size=9](End of my grammar expertise.[/size]

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I think it’s the standard short “i” in English as in “ship”, a bit broader than its longer variety in the word “sheep”, for example.
I never get them right.

Look my post once again. I’ve edited it as I’ve published it without the picture first. There’s quite useful explanation I believe but yes … I don’t quite knw where to put what either. :slight_smile:

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