Huge achievement, Margaret - llongyfarchiadau mawr IAWN! 
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Congratulations from one phone-hater to another. I never use the thing if I can help it. Making a phone call in Welsh is amazingly brave and clever.
Sue
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Well, it’s not really speaking – more stream-of-consciousness-typing in spoken-style Welsh – but I was quite pleased with myself for messaging S4C on Facebook just now, pausing only to check the plural of wythnos: I tried emailing them about subtitles and got no reply, so just sent the following…
Haia – Wnes i anfon e-bost cwpl o wythnosau yn ôl, ond yn anffodus dw i dal heb derbyn ateb. Dw i di dysgu Cymraeg dim ond am tua blwyddyn, ac yn arferol dw i dal angen isdeitlau cymraeg neu saesneg i helpu fi deall. Dw i’n byw yn Lloegr, felly dw i’n gwylio ar-lein – fedra’i ddim gwylio S4C ar y teledu – ac yn eitha aml mae rhaid i mi wylio ar iPlayer yn hytrach na Clic. (Wnes i drio gwylio Rownd a Rownd neithiwr ar Clic achos does dim isdeitlau ar iPlayer, ond oedd o dal yn stopio pob 10-15 eiliad i buffering: ar diwedd wnes i roi’r gorau a gwylio fo ar iPlayer heb isdeitlau…) Y problem ydy, dydy gan iPlayer dim ond isdeitlau Saesneg: fedra’i lawrlwytho rhaglennau o iPlayer (dim o Glic), ond weithiau byddai fo’n defnyddiol medru gwylio nhw efo isdeitlau Cymraeg. Oes unrhyw ffordd i lawrlwytho isdeitlau Cymraeg ar gyfer rhaglennau S4C o S4C? (Dw i’n gwybod oedd o’n bosib cyn i newid y wefan, ond dw i ddim yn gwybod sut i wneud o rŵan.) Diolch yn fawr iawn am eich help. Richard.
With any luck that should be mostly comprehensible and error-free, and only one word of Saesneg. "Hi, I sent an email a couple of weeks ago but unfortunately I haven’t received a reply. I’ve been learning [yes, I’ve just seen what I did there – default ‘foreign language’ thinking over-riding 'I have said this 15 million times in Welsh again] Welsh for only about a year, and I usually need English or Welsh subtitles to help me understand. I live in England so I watch online – I can’t watch S4C on television – and quite often I have to watch on iPlayer rather than S4C Clic. (I tried to watch Rownd a Rownd on Clic last night because there weren’t any subtitles on iPlayer, but it kept stopping every 10-15 seconds to buffer/for buffering: finally I gave up and watched it on iPlayer without subtitles.) The problem is, iPlayer only has English subtitles: I can download programmes from iPlayer (not from Clic) but sometimes it would be useful to be able to watch them with Welsh subtitles. Is there any way to download subtitles for S4C programmes from S4C? (I know it used to be possible before the website changed, but I don’t know how to do it now.) Thank you very much for your help.
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Problem is (I think ) that it was never their intention that people should be able to download subtitles - i.e. it was probably an oversight, and they’ve now closed the loophole.
Problem will probably be copyright / licensing or whatever.
Of course, I will be happy if I’m wrong.
I expect you’re right - but I did get a reply, saying they couldn’t see any sign of my previous email, but if programmes were breaking up could I mail them details of platform, browser etc. So I did, and mentioned the subtitles again, and got an email reply saying that the details had been passed on to the various departments (y gwahanol adrannau), so we’ll see what they say.
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FWIW, I didn’t get a reply to my last message to them (also about subtitles - missing in one episode of RaR) which surprised me, as in the past they had pretty much always replied.
I’ve just got back from a gym session. In the class was a guy called Rhydian. We’ve been in the same class a few times and I thought, “I bet he’s a Welsh speaker” but the session never lent itself to a conversation. Today it did;
“Where are you from?” I asked
“West Wales” he said
“Oh yeah, whereabouts?”
“Er, have you ever heard of Llandysul?”
“Of course! Wyt ti’n siarad Cymraeg?”
and the rest of the session was in Welsh.
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Was rewatching my monthly progress video with my two year old next to me. At the end he said “Hwyl am y tro, Mummy!” Somebody has been listening to quite a bit of SSI 
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Kids, huh? They just swallow that stuff up…
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Most of my interactions in Welsh are largely initiated by me, with a few exceptions. But Cardiff being what it is, most Welsh speakers opt for odds on that you’re an English speaker. Makes sense.
Today one of the surgeons started a conversation with me on Welsh. It was great, because he’s always spoken to me in English up to now and I’ve not had the confidence to change it. So now he has, I’m happy to start convos with him in Welsh
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It’s a HUGE sign of success when you start changing people’s expectations/norms like that - llongyfarchiadau mawr iawn!
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Diolch 
I would be very happy living in an area with more Welsh used daily, however, I do love where I live. So it means loads to me that people are using their language with me.
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When Welsh speakers decide of their own accord to change to Welsh with you, you know that you’ve totally succeeded. I’ve known that about you for a while, of course, but it must be great for you to have confirmation!
But believe me, it’s far bigger than that. You are changing the world. You are making a Welsh speaker get used to the idea that other people can become Welsh speakers. In terms of what that does to people’s expectations, that is the revolution that makes the government’s million speakers goal possible.
Diolch o galon, Anthony!
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Diolch i ti Iestyn, am bopeth! Mae dy eiriau di yn werth y byd i mi
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It’s a small thing, but last night I had an (admittedly short) conversation with my mum on the phone, and neither of us spoke English at all! First time we’ve managed that, I think, so it felt like a milestone.
Catriona
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That’s not a small thing!!! That’s huge!!! It’s so hard to change the language of a relationship even for short conversations!
Llongyfarchiadau!
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What Anthony said! NOT NOT NOT small, but massive.
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Thank you!
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I have just been to a twmpath in the next village. Lots of people both English and Welsh speakers. I sat at a table where there were a couple of ladies speaking Welsh. I introduced myself and they switched to English at which point I proudly said (in Welsh) its ok you can speak Welsh to me. They then spent the next 15 minutes grilling me on who I was, where I was from, when I moved, why I’m learning Welsh, do I have children etc etc. and I coped, I didn’t go back to English, so I’m feeling quite proud of myself.
One of the ladies is a French teacher at the high school and she suggested that I try duolingo. I could then tell her all about SSIW which is much better.
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Da iawn ti! Well done! Doesn’t it feel feel great?!
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