These are not my toddlers, I just helped out. And the quickest runner is no longer, in fact, a toddler…he just has a lot of energy and clearly good legs.
Mixed results. Success in Caernarfon. I went into Palas Print and said that I was looking for books for learners. A kind lady showed me the right shelves and pointed out stories and textbooks. I bought four storybooks. Then I went to Caffi Maes and asked for tea and cake. I said something wrong about the cake because I had to point, but I got what I wanted.
I so nearly didn’t get the chance. I was on a coach outing with other pensioners from England. The plan was to catch the train at Porthmadog, arrive at Caernarfon at about 1pm and get back on the coach at 3pm. The train ride of course was wonderful and we reached Beddgelert Station on time. There we stopped. They told us that a works train had broken down further up the line and our engine had to go and rescue it. Then they had to send a diesel up from Porthmadog to tow the works train back to base. That would allow the passenger train from Caernarfon to come into the station so that we could both continue. All very interesting, though we had to stay on the station and not wander off into the town. It took nearly two hours, but the train staff were great, keeping us informed, giving us a free cup of coffee, and coping with far more orders of food than expected. We reached Caernarfon at 3pm, but all was not lost. The coach driver met us and said that we would leave at 4pm. Hooray. An hour to explore.
Not so good in Aberystwyth. I went in Siop y Pethe to buy some birthday cards, but I completely lost it and was unable to get a word out apart from a final Thank you.
Then there was the “free day”. I took the (big) train to Porthmadog and walked down to the harbour. I was sitting in the cafe when an elderly gentleman asked if he could join me. We were having a conversation (in English) about various subjects, when I thought that I really must try Welsh. I therefore told him (in Welsh) that I was learning. He was delighted to hear it, but a brief oral examination exposed my limitations so he switched back mostly to English, but threw in the odd phrase in Welsh, ended every sentence with " 'te" and asked me the meaning of assorted place names. He offered to take me to see the Lloyd George museum at Llanystumdwy, but I said that I had to catch my train. A fun day.
Sue
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That’s a very significant success, Sue - well done! It takes a lot of courage to use your Welsh - and the quickfire, no-time-to-think interactions in shops are one of the toughest arenas of all, so don’t be hard on yourself… 
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Thank you, Aran. Wow, that was quick.
I should say that I don’t make a habit of picking up men in cafes.
Sue
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That seemed like a very impressive added string to the ‘learning Welsh’ bow… 
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That sounds amazing, Sue! And Palas Print is a great place for practicing Welsh–they are so patient!
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Not a success on my part but but I did have a really weird experiance today
I had literally just come off a beach by a lake in the east of the Netherlands close to the German border having listened to Challenge 19 and reading “The history of Wales” by John Davies, when I saw this Welsh flag with the word Cymru on it.
Were talking triple take I was so surprised.
If it is still there next time I’m there I will investigate.
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We went to Gwynedd over the Bank Holiday weekend – the first time I’ve been to Wales at all since starting to learn, and the first time I’ve been to that part of Wales since childhood. I mean to write more as some sort of a blog post – possibly in Welsh – at some point, but for now: we needed to get lunch pretty much as soon as as we got to Caernarfon, and wound up in a little café in Hole in the Wall Street with the unpromisingly English name of “The Bell Tower”. Still, it looked pleasant enough, and it turned out the menu was written out bilingual, so after the rest of the family had ordered in English I braced myself and ordered in Welsh. At first I don’t think the waitress caught what I said – in retrospect, I think she’d heard such English accents thatg she just wasn’t expecting me to switch gear without warning – but then it went straightforwardly, and when she came back to the table we had the predictable little chat about how well I spoke Welsh, and how long had I been learning, and so on.
What tickled me, though – given that I’ve never yet tried a single bit of SSiW South – was that she reckoned I had a bit of a South Welsh accent. I said I’d been learning Gog, and would have thought I ought to have had an English accent, but she said no, I definitely sounded like a bit of a southerner. Afterwards @aran pointed out that as far as Caernarfon is concerned “South” starts about 20 miles down the road – but I was pleased not to sound too English. (Maybe it’s all that binge-watching of Parch before we went…)
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Which dialect does Parch primarily use? (I have yet to see it).
Oh, they’re all southerners. Sa i’n this and so fe that, and moyn all the time, you know?
Actually, I really enjoyed it – but I’m not sure it’s even still online, and if it is, it’ll be gone soon. It’s well worth a look, if it’s not too late.
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Oh and I’ll bet they’re always “wi”-ing everything and “ma fe” all over the place. It’s like another language sometimes isn’t it?
I’ve heard good reports, but the idea of it put me in mind of “The Vicar of Dibley” and I wasn’t sure I was up to it.
They tend to “gweud” things in Parch as well
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Helo Aran
I never heard further about this, but am still available to chat. However, it is best to email to set a time first.
All the best,
Marilyn
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On Saturday I had quite a long day out with my local Merched y Wawr. A lovely drive through our beautiful country, chatting to friends, refreshment stops, a visit to Ysgwrn House (the home of the poet, Hedd Wyn) so, film, tour guides etc in Welsh (I have to admit I didn’t understand all of it) and a meal on the way home. So a whole day spent living yn y Gymraeg! Exhausting but very exhilarating!
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Oh, what a pity - that usually means that the story has fallen off their ‘to do’ list… I’ll give them a nudge, just in case…
My personal ‘breakthroughs’ have been (so far):
1 - Discovering SSiW,
2 - Visiting y Steddfodd and chatting to people yn Gymraeg (mostly successfully),
3 - discovering the joy of reading llyfrau Gymraeg,
4 - Being able to dispense with subtitles on S4C - at least some and now most, of the time;
5 - My first dream yn gymraeg;
6- Finding myself talking to myself yn Gymraeg! - I do this quite a lot (and I live in England - WsM!),
7 - Actually ‘Reading’ rather than translating whole passages - even a page or two (this happened on the weekend) in my welsh language books,
8 - Meeting the SSiW team at the annual parti this last weekend and talking to so many lovely people yn yr iaith yr nefoedd.
There are a lot of frustrating times along the road in learning Welsh but these ‘Eureka’ moments more than make up for them. The two most important phrases i have come across are ‘Mynd amdani!’ and ‘Dal ati’. If you do ‘go for it!’ and ‘keep at it’ you will be rewarded many, many times over. Diolch i bawb, Cris.
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A silly “breakthrough”, really, and not even a speaking one, but I did fill in the online car tax form yng nghymraeg last week. Sadly it was the day of the Visa problems, so I got a nice notice in Welsh about “anawsterau technegol” rather than new car tax…
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I think that was a euphemism for “llanastr go iawn”
(or “a right horlicks” in posh English. ).
I am on Week 14 of the six month course and although I had some Welsh lessons previously I never attempted to have a conversation in the wild.
I have just been on a short holiday to the Llyn peninsula and my aim was to speak as much Welsh a day as possible.
I started on the way at Trawsfynydd and ordered food and drink in Cymraeg, the only difficulty was when I was asked for payment in Welsh so I smiled kind of knowingly and gave the man a £20 note which I knewnwould cover cost.
The next day while waiting for the boat to Ynys Enlli I spoke for a long time to a first language speaker from Ynys Mon and about 75% was in Cymraeg. When he spoke any Saesneg I tried to revert conversation to Cymraeg when I could, poor chap.
The following day went tomthe Maritime Museum at Nefyn and there were three lovely ladies there and they patiently listened to me and asked questions.
The next evening I went to the Penygroes meet up that Nora hosts, everyone made me very welcome and enabled more practice.
On the way back home I went in several shops in Harlech and had small conversations, one lady corrected me because I said ‘a’ instead of ‘ac’ for ‘and’ and stopped my flow so I had to go back to the beginning of my sentence and make her suffer my stumbling Welsh again.
I was really surprised that I could have any sort of conversation in Welsh, some people were easier to talk to but everyone was very supportive and helpful. I always explained I was a learner and I think that helped and in some situations I felt more confident than others.
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Oh @Tricia, that’s AMAZING. Just over three months with SSIW! Really, I know people who have been ‘learning’ for years and can’t do that. You had the confidence to keep on with the conversations, and to turn the conversations back to Cymraeg even when it’s sorely tempting, sometimes, to go with the flow. You have come a long way. You will go a very long way!
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