So I was on Radio Cymru on Friday morning! In my spare time I help promote science to kids and at our university we hold a quiz in a University Challenge style format.
Fast forward to 1h19 to get to the story. I’m on at 1h23
I wish I had said more- I was a bit nervous, but it wasn’t a case of it being in Welsh. I’d never been on radio or tele before (in any language). When I started about 3 years ago, the quiz was just in the South, but now we’ve spread across Wales. Heres a bit more information.
Oh, hang on… that sounds as though you might be making a mistake! We have emotions for a reason - they’re navigation devices - so if you feel bad about this decision, it’s worth re-thinking it.
Perhaps you’re falling into the trap of comparing your progress to an imaginary perfect person - I think we might have talked about that before? - and if we could get you here on a residential, you’d probably see that other people have similar challenges and uncertainties about their learning…
You are a loss to us, as a learner and as a person - we value every one of our learners! - but I think this is just a hiccup for you. Stay on the forum, stay in touch, and when you want to start moving again, talk to us about it, and we’ll help you get there - you’ve got the ability to do this - it’s just a matter of not giving up…
Oh, I wish I just fell into the trap of comparing my progresses to an imaginary perfect learner! See, I started learning totally eager, positive and full of determination. But I did quickly realise that only extremely little of what I learned and even repeated many times stayed in my brain and was reachable for me. You know, I really made an effort, pushed myself and worked often and hard…but the lack of even a little success took away the joy of learning, unfortunately. It feels like my brain rebels against learning and memorising. It’s probably because my life drains me of all energy; it’s a stupid thing to expect an already exhausted brain to learn properly, isn’t it. Maybe, if my circumstances were different, I could learn slowly but successfully. Right now, I don’t think I’m able to do so. But I’m not giving up, the wish to learn Welsh and Gaelic is with me since I was a child…and I still try to reach this goal. I’m used to waiting.
In previous years I rang round Welsh companies asking if they would like to “cefnogi” (support) us by donating a prize to a category in our online Eisteddfod and becoming one of our “noddwyr” (sponsors). It was a great chance to go along with the suggestion to “Dechreuwch bob sgwrs yn y Gymraeg” (Start every conversation (or chat) in Welsh). My favourite conversation was with the uncle of a singer I admire a lot - Einir Dafydd. He is something to do with Sain…
Always a pleasure to ring him back!
As I said on the Oxford learners’ thread on Friday, at our meet-up that lunchtime I was amazed to discover that I could understand much more than I could at the previous meeting (before the summer), and also managed to join in with some actual sentences It was really a great surprise to me to find that I was better than I thought. I discovered an interesting effect of this … the realisation that I can understand more Welsh than I thought has flipped a switch in my mind and all of a sudden I am understanding much more when I listen to Radio Cymru. It seems to me now that language comprehension has a lot more to do with confidence and self-belief than I had previously imagined. I spent the whole summer in Wales, listened to Radio Cymru constantly (understanding very little) and was too scared to attempt a convo with an actual Welsh speaker because I was afraid of looking like a food when I had to ask them to switch to English. No wonder kids are so much better at learning languages - they don’t have all these hang-ups
Sat here in Becws Islyn café in Aberdaron kicking myself for not ordering in Welsh. Completely bottled it, after feeling chuffed that I’d managed to pay for the parking in Welsh. Not too hard, and he lost me with the bit about national trust membership, but I was happy. I know this is not a new experience for people on here, but grrr it’s so frustrating. Like taking one step forwards and two back. Next time.
The thing is, I’ve been listening to radio Cymru every day, and other things but without bottle I won’t achieve anything. My last attempt was with a lovely old lady at King Arthur’s labyrinth in June, which consisted of about five “diolch yn fawrs” and “croesos”!
What Rob said - and also, remember that speaking Welsh in public with people you don’t know is THE DEEP END - the deepest part of the deep end! So don’t be too hard on yourself, and keep giving yourself conversational opportunities with people you know, and it will get easier…
But that ‘only extremely little’ - that’s comparing yourself - and you don’t know how much most other people do/don’t remember!
I’m going to open another thread so that we can try and figure out where you are with it all, so that I can give you an idea of how you really compare to other people…
didn’t do it I’m afraid. But after a chilled out afternoon at Porth Oer, and a run up Mynydd Penarfynydd, I feel a lot better about it. Tomorrow’s another day.
Well, I was sat outside the Tŷ Coch Inn at Porth Dinllaen today, and the big man himself Sir Bryn Terfel was filming there. The cwrw chwerw was whispering in my ear that I should go over and “Esgusodwch fi…”. Wisely I didn’t listen to it!
Little victory today in Criccieth. Managed to get into the castle using only Welsh. Asked first for “tocyn teulu” but the lady asked how old the twins were and I replied “tair oed”. As they were under 5 she explained it was cheaper just to get adult tickets. I added “dwi’m yn siarad Cymraeg yn dda iawn eto” (thanks SSiW) and we chatted about how long I’ve been learning. She was very kind and lied that I was very good. Weird thing is you start off ok because you’ve semi prepared your opening gambit, but then your brain realises what’s going on and says “what are you doing? you can’t speak Welsh!” That’s when it gets hard!
It’s quite possible she was telling the truth. You told her how long you had been learning, she knows lots of people who have been learning longer and not doing nearly as well. She may have learned Welsh herself and have thought “My gosh you’re good”. Why do we automatically do ourselves down when given a compliment? And very good doesn’t have to mean perfect.
I know the thought well. Well done.
I mean how you somehow manage to conduct a conversation in Welsh whilst your brain is going: " I am hopeless at Welsh, but I am somehow speaking Welsh and I’m understanding what is said to me, so perhaps I can speak Welsh, oh hang on i’ve forgotten the word for X, oh no, my roundabout explanation is confusing them, maybe I just managed to sound like I could speak Welsh and now I can’t and I just look a complete fool, well i do anyway, but more so as I pretend to speak Welsh, Wait they’re smiling at me now, did I actually make sense or do they just find what i say amusing, I am so stupid if I hadn’t gone on this long wittering train of thought i could invest more attention on the conversation. Pam ydy i’n mor dwp, fedra i ddim yn siarad Cymraeg o gwbl, hang on am I thinking yn Cymraeg rwan?.."
Me again. I noticed that I am speeding through level 2 of the challenges and getting the words out easily about 80% of the time. I used to find it pretty exhausting doing several challenges back to back but that seems to have improved. It doesn’t seem to be because the material is getting easier … has anyone else noticed a similar effect?
One reason might be that I have stopped feeling bad when I forget something or get it wrong. I’ve read all the SSIW guidance about how it’s fine to make mistakes, and while that made sense, it took a long time for me to internalize it. Now when I forget, I know that I haven’t really forgotten - I just haven’t finished memorizing it yet Perhaps that is why the challenges seem to flow better?
That’s exactly how I feel about it @rebecca. Once you give up worrying, doubting and comparing, suddenly there’s all that brainspace to fill up with Welsh.
I imagine the words are going round on a little train in there - if they’re somewhere else right now, they’ll be back. And again, and again…
Sounds like you are doing fabulously!
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(I would do this myself when in Wales if I wasn’t always having to drive and/or supervise kids)