Y Selar mainly 
Iâve found it in some pubs in Ceredigion.
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Yesterday, I went to the pharmacy at my local surgery to pick up a prescription. I thought, Iâll do this in Welsh, itâs simple to ask whether they have a âscriptâ ready for me. It was simple, but unfortunately only one of the two items ordered had come in, so they said to come back today. No problem, all understood.
I went back today and the same person was on duty and started speaking in Welsh immediately. Ok, I thought, not too difficult. But the item was still out of stock with their suppliers and so she offered to go to see one of the doctors to ask whether there was an appropriate alternative.
All of this was explained in Welsh. Part way through, it suddenly struck me that she was talking to me as if I was a ârealâ Welsh speaker. I wanted to shout out, âNo, no, stop! I donât speak Welshâ, but instead I just nodded and smiled. It all turned out ok - Iâm all in one piece and came away with my âalternativeâ ear drops!
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You see, if you had said, âI donât speak Welsh!â it would have been a lie!!! You do! You did! Ad not just about the stuff you learned on line! At least, I donât remember @aran mentioning a prescription for ear drops, much less one for unavailable ear drops!
Well, I donât know the words for ear drops, I just asked for the âsecond thing on the listâ 
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Clever! Was it âdiferion clustâ? My efforts at looking up produced this!
I would think it highly likely that at least some first language speakers might use âear dropsâ. In that situation, Iâd probably just stick the English in and carry on. Full marks to you @helenlindsay for thinking on your feet, though!
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Oops, responded to wrong person and canât delete post!
Da Iawn Anne
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I managed to buy a set of guitar strings in Aberystwyth today by using the hastily put together sentenceâŚ
âOs periant cerdyn gyda chi?â (Something along the lines of âHave you got a card machine?â Which I made up on the spot as I assumed I had cash in my wallet.
It worked as the shop owner handed me his pin machine
Then did the standard âDych chi wedi bod prysur heddiw?â (Have you been busy today?) before he said that he wasnât busy yet as musicians donât wake up before midday!
All in all, decent and another shop I know I can practice my Welsh in.
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This isnât necessarily a specific for Welsh but it is connected. I was talking to a Belgian, who spoke Flemish, and a German yesterday. They were talking about the languages they speak to their children. Sadly the Belgian a chosen not bring up her children bilingually. However, we were discussing bilingualism and they said âThe Welsh are so much better than the English with how many are bilingualâ. They then asked where I was from, I said Plymouth, âoh but youâre bilingual, so we didnât mean youâ. Itâs nice to feel a part of that European/International mindset, that we all speak more than one language. Irregardless of the language.
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By a massive co-incidence, Iâve just submitted this to a careers conference which requested examples of how being a Welsh speaker had helped me in my job (it relates in part to dealing with people from Belgium and Germany).
Although use of Welsh in our office is restricted mostly to social pleasantries, my work
obliges me to communicate widely with people across the world. English speakers
in the world of business have a reputation for being arrogant and
one-dimensional, but when colleagues and customers discover that, like so many
of them, I have both a local language and an international language, it opens
doors to a whole different level of business relationships: Ironically, being a
Welsh speaker means I have more, not less, in common with my contacts in
Europe, Asia and Latin America
In my experience, aside from Brussels and its suburbs, Belgium is not a bilingual country. People in Flanders speak Dutch, do everything in Dutch, and if they learn another language itâs more likely to be English than French. All public signage and information is in Dutch only. I assume the situation in Wallonia is similar vis-a-vis French. So itâs unsurprising to me that your Belgian friend is not raising her children bilingually.
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Diddorol iawn! Every person actually from The Netherlands whom I have met has been at least bilingual (Dutch and English). Most of them were scientists, not the group best known for linguistic ability in UK! However, I also include a traffic cop in Rotterdam and assorted Star Trek fans! Is it possible that more people in Belgium learn English than learn the other language of ther own country? Is there historic reason? I forget who conquered whom!
Belgiumâs âconquering and conqueredâ history is chequered and not that obvious. I think itâs less a case of the French conquering the Dutch, it was the Spanish drawing a big line around them and merging them together (see Spanish Low Countries). They were at one point a united Netherlands, with one predominantly Catholic (Now Belgium) and one predominantly non-conformist (now the Netherlands). Then there was a war or several (surprise surprise). Eventually leading to the Treaty of London, which was auspisciously used as Britianâs justification in getting involved in the 1914-18 war.
Interesting history that region.
Oh, yes, I remember the Spanish rule now! Not sure I recall how come The Netherlands managed to be totally Dutch speaking, so free to pick a second language, and Belgium ended up part French (Walloon) and part Dutch (Flemish) so maybe have conflicting attitudes to bi and tri lingualism! I suppose us getting claws into the sovereign Prince of Orange as half of U.K. Head of State (William&Mary!!!) encouraged use and teaching of English!
The Dutch speaking, or whatever form of Germanic thatâs called, region then had a big line drawn down the middle and split in two. The French monarchy held the lands round Liege (I think) and Flanders after taking them off the English. So they were Norman/Plantagenet at one point.
The Netherlands fought a war for independence but lost the lands that are now in Belgium. I think a lot is to do with the War of Spanish Succession after the Habsburgs died out in Spain.
Of course the real debate these days is who makes makes the best chips and mayonnaise 
Family Fish Bar on Salisbury Road, beautiful!
This is very late and to be honest it could (no, should) have been written much earlier; I wasnât sure whether I wanted to but hopefully it isnât as gloomy as it starts out to be!
Last year after finishing my way through L1 and halfway through L2 and several months of listening very closely to Radio Cymru, rhaglenni ar S4C, a cerddoriaeth yn Gymraeg, I took the chance to go and experience the Eisteddfod in Y Fenni.
Admittedly at the time, and for several months afterward, it felt like a huge failure. I very nearly gave up learning. Genuinely I thought it would be okay. Not necessarily amazing or as easy as it might be for others, but with my hearing (or lack thereof) itâs always difficult to understand anything said irrelevant of language.
This is especially true with noisy environments, as lip reading only goes so far and Cymraeg is no easier to see on the lips.
So, skip forward several months of self loathing, tears and generally ignoring the successful moments; it eventually dawned on me that not only had I thrown myself in the deepest, biggest, and darkest pool I could find, but Iâd actually had several successful interactions with lots of lovely people.
All yn Gymraeg, a nid gair oâr Saesneg. Even if they were rather painful for the (mostly patient) people on the receiving end of my repeated âChlywes i ddim beâ ddidest tiâ.
Admittedly for the rest of that year I spent the majority of my time drowning myself in sound daily for hours. If it existed, I probably listened to it at least once. Every month or so I would go through challenge 25 again.
By this point I felt as though there wasnât really any huge improvement, new year was around the corner and by this point it was far more tempting to just give up. However, just after the start of this year, it was backed to square one.
Only this time there would be no pausing, no rewinding, every last bit of attention focused on each lesson and forget everything else in the world (well, except maybe fire). Everyone and everything thing else, had to wait the 30-45 minutes a day. I bowled through the first set of challenges again but opted for the southern variant.
It was hard. Possibly one of the hardest things Iâve done in. I felt like it was all a blur, a mess, all but impossible; especially as @iestyn speaks much faster than @aran (not a complaint, honest!) and is just as sneaky, if not more so, with casual variants thrown in into sentences.
Something magical happened although it wasnât obvious to me until between challenge twenty and twenty five. After the initial tongue twisting experience, not pausing felt natural, even spending less time trying to process what was said and just going with whatever I heard.
I have no idea whether this is simply the break between restarting, the excessive time I spent just listening, or some combination of both; Cymraeg (and to some extent Saesneg) genuinely seems more intelligible to me than before. Iâve seemingly exchanged âChlywes i ddim beâ ddidest tiâ for âwnes i ddim deall beâ ddwedest tiâ instead.
Maybe itâs time to drop myself in the deep end once more, and experience this yearâs Eisteddfod?
(Apologies for the looooong post)
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Never ever apologise for a long post! Yours is inspiring! Here I am muttering and moaning about being tired and old and any other excuse I can think of, when I knew a lot of Cymraeg before I started and really have no excuse not to fly through - and you have to battle with your hearing, yet have done a lot more than me!
Da iawn ti! @aran @Iestyn tell this lovely @cwningen that she had a lot to teach an old dragon!
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The Eisteddfod is the deep end. Itâs loud, busy and obviously has a central theme of everything being in Welsh, so I think we put more of an expectation on ourselves to use perfect Welsh. Whereas, in more natural conversations youâd probably drop a couple of words in English to help it flow and not feel so self-conscious.
Last year Iâd just finished bootcamp leading into the Eisteddfod. I felt pretty confident about my Welsh but was now talking only to first language speakers. It was much harder! So youâre not the only one!!
The break will have done you a world of good too. There is a point to school holidays beyond giving teachers a break and letting kids go and help with the harvest - it allows the neurones weâve challenged over the previous term to settle and bed in. At least thatâs what my physio lecturers told us. At some point you donât need a break as much. However, donât feel guilty for taking them!
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