Sounds as though you’re doing brilliantly… 
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Before I found SSiW I had signed up to a Sylfaen course with Cardiff Welsh for Adults. So because I’d paid, i carried on. The tutor was a man called Dafydd from Rhuthun.
I bumped into the same class last night (now doing canolradd). It was great to see Dafydd again and actually understand what he was saying!! I remember at the time I’d always wanted a proper convo with him and last night it was great! Nice long chat about work and Welsh. What a difference a year makes!
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I bet he was startled by the difference in your Welsh…
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I’m thinking we need to cahnge the title of this thread.
Small breakthroughs?..
You are stars, all of you, from Canadian Welsh speakers to people who just happen to have been interviewed on the radio, to people who have already set their phones to Welsh…
These are the steps that make you Welsh speakers!
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Since I am lucky enough to have the opportunity of talking Welsh most days, I have not contributed to this valuable thread. My milestones, however, are many and frequent so I’d like to report on just two.
The first was waiting for my bus back to Aberystwyth on the morning after our wonderful birthday party. I was joined at the bus stop by a blind man. I struck up a conversation about his beautiful guide dog who looked like the twin of my son’s Golden Labrador. We quickly established that I was a foreigner who came from Ceredigion but the conversation flowed even though we each often had to repeat ourselves to make ourselves understood. The conversation will remain precious to me because he was an interesting man and because it confirmed to me that the Gogledd/De divide is no significant barrier to our wonderful shared language.
The second occurred this evening at the end of an extended family gathering.
We arrived in Ceredigion in 1990 when my son was 10. He has been exposed to Welsh briefly in a Welsh medium primary school then in Penglais (English medium) secondary school, so I was aware that he had a “smattering” of Welsh… I have never really talked to him in Welsh or heard him speaking Welsh, This evening, however, he brought my granddaughter through (they live upstairs) to say goodnight. He talked exclusively Welsh to her talking about bed time and being tired and school tomorrow. I was a little taken aback but didn’t fail to tell him how good his Welsh was. His accent to my ears was perfect. He and I then talked in Welsh about confidence and many other things. He knows that I talk Welsh to Izzie, my granddaughter, whenever I can. But I can’t tell you how important these episodes have been to me and how grateful I am to SsiW for making this possible.
I’d write more but my tears have shorted out the keyboard.
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Those are both lovely stories, especially about your son. Thanks for sharing!
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What a wonderful story about your son and granddaughter. Thank you for telling us.
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Wel bendith arnat, Huw, ti wedi gwneud fy niwrnod… 
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I just completed the online electoral registration form “Cofrestru i Bleidleisio” in Welsh. Happily, I was given the option to do this even though I currently live in England. There was a “Lloegr” button I could click to say that I live in England (in Welsh) 
Ironically, though, the “Satisfaction Survey” at the end was offered as an option (described in Welsh) and then popped up - in English!
Now I await the reply from my local council (Bolton, Greater Manchester). I wonder if the form is forwarded to them from the “.gov.uk” website “as is” in Welsh, or gets automatically translated by the computer systems. As “Lloegr” was a listed option, I assume it is quite in order to fill the Welsh online form in, in England, even if we do not enjoy a more general right to use Welsh here for other purposes.
I can just imagine the look on the local officials’ faces if the registration request does arrive in Welsh!
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Be prepared for possible disenfranchisement! It sounds great, but the Civil Service does not have the best reputation for getting things right and your answers may well arrive in Welsh and be discounted as “some foreign lingo, probably an immigrant with no right to vote anyway!” If you are actually registered at the correct address, get the right polling card and can vote successfully, do let us know! Many other Forum members might want to try it too!! I doubt if the option applies in Yr Alban (Scotland) where I am and I have been registered since I moved up here in 2003, so cannot test it!
What is good is that, at long last, you do not have to wait half a year to get on the electoral roll! In 1991-2, when I, joyfully, moved out of London to Gower, despite having been a ratepayer since 1987, I had to wait for the official date of Registration and an election came along first! I could have voted in London!! I, frankly, didn’t care if the Monster Raving Loony won in London, I wanted to vote on Gower!
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Well, after registering centrally with .gov.uk, I got an email in ENGLISH thanking me for registering and saying the details had been forwarded to Bolton Council, so I suspect the answers get placed into the standard template of (English) questions. It will be interesting to see what happens if and when I manage to move to Cymru in the coming few years, will the local council still reply in English?
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This was really moving! Diolch am ei rhannu!
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To be honest I can’t claim this as my own breakthrough, but I wanted to share a wonderful Welsh language experience. I have just spent a very enjoyable day and a half with Sionned (of SSiW map fame) and her husband who are visiting Wales from the US.
I took them to a number of local places linked with Welsh Myths and Legends. They included Llanddewi Brefi where a church stands on the ground which rose up to expose Dewi Sant to his followers. We were exploring the inside of this handsome church when two young lads entered. I greeted them in Welsh (wrth gwrs) and the elder of the two asked me how old the buliding was. I had no idea, but Sionned (an architect) and her husband, Jim, who is very well versed in Welsh history were able to give a confident estimate of 12th century. Jim had encouraged me to speak Welsh whenever it was appropriate so I carried on chatting to the boys. I asked them if they were local and was astonished to hear that they both came from London. Their Welsh was excellent - better than mine and they told me that they were 14 and 10 years old. It transpired that they both attended the Welsh School in Hanwell.
Sionned, Jim and I were all delighted by this discovery which revealed the vibrant status of Welsh even outside Wales.
I am just about to write to the head teacher of Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain to compliment her/him on the confidence, politeness and fluency of his/her pupils.
(I shall, of course, give SSiW a plug)
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Just to stick my oar in for a minute: I love this thread…!
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I have finished Challenge 6 in Level 1 and suddenly I’m noticing I’m more comfortable with everything. Words and phrases show up faster, new ones don’t take long to assimilate and older phrases I’ve learned are solid. And I don’t fret if I don’t get out the longer sentences before Catrin. Diolch!
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That sounds like a real breakthrough! Take it easy, and enjoy every little (and massive!) success.
I don’t know if that is an effect or a cause. If you are down on yourself for being “too slow” it can affect your enjoyment and your confidence, and it si always so much easier to spot things going wrong than things going right.
So - enioy talking over Catin, and enjoy beating her to it, whichever one you achieve at any given moment.
And keep up the good work - your obviously getting on well!
Iestyn
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I started reminding myself how much I was getting right, even when I was struggling, and that’s when I started to relax. I can feel the results now. I thought it interesting that I kept hearing I’d be well on my way if I could make it through the 5th Challenge - lo and behold! Thank you for the encouragement!
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Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Peak Forum. Any question asked or answered from now on is just detail. Tattoo this on your eyeballs so that you can see it wherever you are, whenever you need it, because it is the key to success in anything, not just language learning.
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One of the nurses I work with is from Caernarfon, and she will always start conversations with me in Welsh Felly - diolch o galon iddi hi
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I think that this is the key to learning a language. Fantastic work, and best of luck for the future!
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