Fantastic, Anthony - carry on singing! (Efo lot o hwyl!)
I’ll throw in my own breakthrough. First experience speaking Welsh with someone I didn’t first speak English with ;-). I was in Wales last week visiting my daughter in Bangor and dropped into Caernarfon to pick up a certain book at Palas Print. After a quick “ti’n iawn?” exchange with the lady behind the counter, I glanced on the table next to the register and noticed a stack of “O Mam Bach.” I picked up the top copy and said without thinking “dw i’n edrych am, uh, this.” Hesitating, because I really had intended to look around the store, and the lady was now looking at me expectantly, I followed with “dw i’n edrych o gwmpas.” She nodded her understanding and went back to her work, even though “bydda i’n edrych o gwmpas” or “dw i’n mynd i edrych o gwmpas” probably would have made more sense. After looking around for a while, I found a display of CDs and found a copy of the latest Cowbois album and asked “faint am y CD?” Fortunately, she had to scan the CD to answer, and the price appeared on the register, although I probably could have understood “naw naw deg naw” if I didn’t have the visual back up
Anyway, entire visit to Palas Print and not a word of Saesneg … except “uh, this” ;-). I was pretty happy about that!
Not really my achievement, but I’ve just come back from my daughter’s parents evening with the news that her Welsh teacher made an exception for her and graded her one level higher than she’s ever given to someone in her year. I was so proud of her I almost had tears in front of the teacher.
I may not be the poster child for SSiW success, but my commitment has obviously rubbed off on my daughter! Now I just need to think up an appropriate reward…
Well, that’s fair as it was a kindness to my wife Linda to not feel left out ;-).
That said, I was able to follow your story about the sheep in the back yard just fine, even though you delivered it at light speed (slight exaggeration??).
Not my breakthrough, but that of a loveable looking urchin.
He was holding a rugby ball and casting strange poses in the street, squatting and thrusting, together with much grunting. Then he stopped and turned to face off against where he’d just been stood and broke into a rendition of Mae hen wlad fy nhadau…
Your use of that sadly underused word “urchin” made me wonder about its origin, and whether it could possibly have any Cymraeg links. I still don’t know the answer to that, but (according to Gweiadur.com), Welsh equivalents would include the following:
crwt - noun masculine (crytiaid:crots:cryts) ffurf lafar (yn y De) am fachgen bach rhwng tua phump a deuddeg oed; crwt, hogyn, rhocyn - boy, lad (youngster, chap, nipper, urchin)
Yeah, urchin has sadly fallen out of fashion. Too many adaptations of A Christmas Carol, with rosy cheeked Christmas morning urchins sent to fetch the biggest goose…
My Dad still says nipper from time to time though.
My very English wife doesn’t really understand why I’m listening to your course, but yesterday, at the dinner table, she asked one of the kids a simple question and I repeated it in Welsh. She was amazed! Then one of the children, who are subjected to snippets of challenges asked me to repeat one of Aran’s phrases like ‘I didn’t know what I wanted to say…’ and my wife couldn’t believe I’d learned that much in such a short period of time. Thank you.
I love doing the course. I’m on L1 challenge 12 and things are starting to come more easily.
Off to Pembrokeshire on holiday next week. Wonder how my limited gog will go down if I can find any Welsh speakers!
Well done on all that! Yes, things do appear to come more easily but theres always the odd level that comes along and makes you think ‘now what the !@#@# was that all about’ Luckily those cheekily challenging moments all become clear and it all goes smoothly until the next uncharitably long sentence gets thrown in to addle our brains.
If you ever feel like half an hour of Skype practice I’d be happy to join you!
I’m sure Aran has a vicious streak with those long sentences! Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got lots of 1st language cousins who are willing victims and one of them has 7 kids to challenge me!!
It’s certainly a mind-twisting journey going from “Dw i’n moyn dysgu Cymraeg” to “Nes i gwrdd a dyn ifanc yn y dafarn neithiwr dduwedodd bo’ fe’n nabod dy chwaer di”
Friends, I just completed the old Course 3 ahead of Easter–my revised goal when I missed the end of March. It meant keeping at it every day, but it seemed to get easier as the patterns took shape.
Those last two lessons certainly put me through my paces! Although I was not word perfect, I could pretty well keep up and certainly understand everything even if I didn’t always beat the clock with my translation.
For the next week I will relax and be content to consolidate this, focusing on those words or phases I still hesitate over, or confuse. Then I will go over the new Course 2 which will partly be a review before making a trip to Wales in May. Talk about incentive–the prospect of visiting Wales was quite a boost.
Thank you folks for your going help and encouragement, and for allowing me these bragging rights
Thank you so much Aran, I cannot tell you how great it is to receive your encouragement and congratulations.
How many other courses could boast of the personal interest that you, as one of its originators would take? Your commitment, and that of the team of other voices, volunteer mentors and cheer-leaders on this Forum is both beautiful and unique. So well done all of you.
You have coached and coaxed a very timid learner (partly because of my hearing problem) into someone not just fascinated by the ‘language of my birth’ but able to speak and understand enough now for the momentum to carry me forward with confidence.
I plan complete the new programme too, recapping Level 2 this month, then when I return from Wales, heading to Level 3–what fun!
