Tricia, you are totally doing the right thing. Using your Welsh in the Wild will make a massive contribution to your ability and confidence, even if/when you might feel you are going backwards anytime.
Hopefully you will get a chance to visit Cymru Cymraeg again before too long, now you know how invigorating it can be.
I consider myself fortunate that Greater Manchester (where I live now) is only about 40 miles from the border, so I go to conversation groups in Wrecsam and Prestatyn regularly. But I do try to go to Gwynedd as often as I can, for real street conversations.
It will be even better later this year when I move permanently to the Welsh speaking zone. And to think, three and a half years ago I could barely order Fish and Chips in Welsh, but now I am ready to live in Welsh permanently, thanks to SSiW and all the Welsh speakers and learners who have patiently endured my verbal ramblings.
Anyway, Pob Lwc!, wherever your linguistic journey takes you - the skyâs the limit
@margaretnock@Bob Thank you both so much for your kind and supportive comments. I live on the border near Welshpool but there arent that many welsh speakers to hi-jack here.
Another stupid one (sorry if people are finding these mundane): crossing the second Pont Hafren on Saturday, I remarked that I couldnât see the old bridge very well at all. My partner said, âAh, but can you say that in Welsh?â. I thought for a second and said âAlla i ddim gweld yr hen bont yn dda iawn o gwblâ.
Not an incredible sentence (hopefully itâs correct) but it made me think: Iâve never learnt another language where Iâve been able to form a sentence like that after so short a time. I think this course is remarkable in that respect. In a classroom situation it would probably take far longer to get to sentences like that.
The title does say ââŚsmallâŚâ, so here goes.
Friends are actually asking me questions about Welsh, now.
Iâm feeling more confident, and indeed, compelled, to use the Welsh Language at every opportunity. Today, I pestered a friend with âShwmae, shwd yt ti?â, when to be fair he was too busy to talk. Never-the-less, he came back with a quiet âMethwyl, methwyl, methwyl,â (Thinking x 3). At least he felt comfortable enough to think in Welsh, in an English speaking environment
I keep getting âSteve speaks WelshâŚâ whenever the subject of Welsh arises at work (as it often does as we also have an office in Cardiff), which is a gross misrepresentation of my ability in Welsh!
On the other hand, we do have a fluent speaker whoâs happy to answer any questions I have, so thatâs nice.
Sorry, Stephen, it canât be a gross misrepresentation because I see you are the proud owner of
a pink bubble. That, in my eyes, makes you a Welsh speaker.
Diolch yn fawr! I never noticed the similarity between meddwl and meddwi before! Mind, some people swear that alcohol is necessary to help thought! Me, I always found it to inhibit rational thought!
I am on Wythnos17 of 6 months course. So needed to have 20 minute sentence swap. Thank you Anne for what turned out to be a great 40 minute conversation about Rugby and other things. I never believed I would have the confidence to siarad Cymraeg quite naturally. Thank you SSIW for a great course.
I rang a Welsh speaking friend this morning. I usually just start with a Welsh greeting then give up and revert to English. But this time I said what I wanted to say to her yn y Gymraeg. When I had finished, a rather puzzled voice said âIs that you, Andrea?â. When I confessed that it was indeed me she got quite excited and responded with âChwarae teg, Llongyfarchiadau!â. It gave me a real buzz! Onwards and upwards!
I usually listen to Radio Cymru in the car, only picking up the odd word. This morning whilst waiting for my grandchildren I decide to pop on the earphones and listened to Radio Cymru and there were items about an autistic boy in Swansea speaking in public, fires on Saddleworth moors and student stress. And yes yes yes i understood most of the item.
Following the advice of others I now stop trying to to translate and just listen in Welsh.
That is a lovely feeling when it happens and I think itâs something everyone will experience if they stick with this course and constantly listen to the radio. It may take two years or more (it did for me) but itâs incredibly rewarding when it happens
The first truly amazing moment like that for me, was when I found myself laughing out loud at some rugby commentary and I was so wrapped up in the commentary that my translation head had disappeared.
I then look back to the torture I felt when trying to understand something a few years before about my local village and the only words I understood were the name of the Village, a pemblwydd hapus and the word Bocser - referring to a famous Boxer.
Wow amazing! Thatâs something I need to start doing. I caught myself thinking I agreed with something when I didnât realise I was listening and realised I wasnât frantically trying to translate it!
Great stuff! I must have been listening at the same time, Gary, because I was understanding the same things (my ears particularly picked up at the student stress thing as the word âarholiadâ kept appearing and Iâm in the middle of marking A-level exams).
Not sure I can face Pobl y Cwm, but Iâm enjoying Hansh (not least because it makes me feel better about chucking in the English word every time I donât know the Welsh) and Cic Lan yr Archif.
I volunteer at Llanelli Coast parkrun. Since it started itâs been pretty much a Cymraeg-free zone, apart from hearing Welsh spoken by some of the participants. Occasionally Iâm the run director which involves a pre-run briefing and starting the run off. Even before I started the 6mws course, I tried to inject a bit of token Welsh (Croeso i parkrun Arfordir Llanelli etc), but managed to chuck quite a bit more in last Saturday, albeit in fragments among the English. Carreg filltir is one of my favourite terms now!
I also managed to have a little chat yn Gymraeg with one of the other volunteers who I didnât know was a Welsh speaker.
Iâm not sure if my tiny efforts might have been a catalyst, but our event director is going to get his son to do the new runnersâ briefing in Welsh as well in a couple of weeks.
Da Iawn,for Ant. Is the coast park run held on the site of the old Duport Steelworks where I worked many moons ago? I went to a Noson Gyrri last night and managed to get a few sentences in. Iâm ok talking but replying to a question can be a problem (unless of course it is something like âBle wyt tiân byw?â . I Find people are great and quite happy to repeat question/part translate when they see the quizzical?? look on my face.
Pob Lwc gyda dy marcio⌠I decide to reclaim my summers by retiring from Assistant Principal GCSE Physics with AQA at the end of last year.
