David Lewis
I have just joined this course and I have certainly enjoyed it. When I was a child I lived in Merthyr Tydfil and spent a great deal of time with my grandmother who came from Rhydlewis , Ceredigion a nd was told I could mutter a few phrases. I went to two Welsh-speaking chapels, Bethesda, my mother’s Annibynnwr (that’s an error) and Elim my father’s Baptist chapel. I left Wales for University at 18 and never lived there permanently again.
I would like to come home as I’ve retired for good.
I have spent about 3 weeks a year in Wales and would like to live in Newport, Sir Benfro or Cardigan
I currently live in Caerlyr (Leicester) and joined a groupof about 7 learners led by John Evans Hughes who hailed from Llanrwst. When he gave up , I’ve joined a U3A group and struggled. I find it difficult to answer questions in Welsh. I need a 10 min gap before I come up with anything.
I like the course
I just registered tonight ! I’m a native Breton speaker and would like to seriously learn Welsh. I am finishing a Phd at the University of Swansea (not in anything related to Celtic studies haha) and I never really took the time to properly learn Welsh. Although I understand many words and sentences due to the proximity with the Breton language, I need and want to be able to have a conversational level in Welsh
Hi there! Very recently completed the “one sentence in Welsh” exercise. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Have been living and working in numerous locations in north west Wales since 1977. (Originally from Shotton, Deeside.) Currently living in Nant Conwy. Have never undertaken any “formal” Welsh language learning - apart from school, that is! Nontheless, I’ve always had a desire to learn the language in a “structured” way. (Unsurprisingly, given that my wife is Welsh-speaking and I have had many Welsh-speaking friends and colleagues down the years.) Unfortunately, in more recent years - and yes, when my desire to learn the language has become even stronger - I’ve not been able to discover, what I would consider to be, a method of learning Welsh which would “produce” for me. (Other, more widely spoken languages, yes, to a degree. But not Welsh.) Until now, that is! Now I’m here, I’m mulling over the best way forward. Something which does concern me is the fact that I’m not what you would call “techy-minded”. (You should have seen the trouble I had uploading my photo!) I’m referring, of course, to the possible requirement, later on, to start uploading words and sentences to the “sound cloud”, whatever that is. Seriously, though, I would like reassurance that I would not be in any danger of being asked to leave the course if, for whatever reason, such an exercise was beyond me. At least without a whole load of grief, which would, inevitably, stress me out! Glad to be here. (At last!) Any advice with regard to the next step appreciated.
Welcome to the forum and to SSiW, Robert!
Don’t worry - the ‘techy’ stuff is not obligatory, and you won’t be thrown off the course for not doing it. Having said that, it is there for a reason - that it helps with your learning, with building your confidence, and for ‘feeling part of the team’! The conversation practise on the Slack platform is especially recommended.
Everyone here is here to help through shared experience, so we’re all here to help you with the techy stuff anyway - in this community, you’ll learn all sorts of skills you never thought possible as well as Welsh!
Hi Siaron. Thank you for replying. Err…you know I said I wasn’t “techy-minded”? Well, feeling rather embarrassed at the “humungous” photo I’ve managed to upload. How do I get it put safely away in the little circle? (Where it belongs!) Or does SSiW take care of that, eventually?!
If you click on your ‘avatar’ (at the moment, that’s your pink ‘R’ ) in the top right hand corner, you should see a little icon that looks a bit like a cog or wheel - that will take you to your account settings where you can upload your image as ‘profile picture’ by clicking on the little pencil (the ‘edit’ icon) next to your current pic.
If you want to delete your big photo from this thread, click on the three dots under your picture, and there should be an option to delete the post (the rubbish bin icon).
Don’t worry - those of us who sound as if we know what we’re doing only do so because we’ve been here a while - we all started from scratch at some point, and can still find things that stump us too!
Hi All just on to my day two of speaking Welsh. I am enjoying it but maybe need to press the pause bottom ! On my dad’s side they came from Angelsey Amloch. Also they came from Caernovan and they owned a pub on the key called the Vaynal arms. I used to go to my dad’s aunts and they’d be gabbing away in Welsh about money ! They were very kind & I have lovely memories ! Lorraine
Yay - pics all sorted now, I see! Any other questions - tech-related or course-related, just give a yell and there’s always someone around to help.
Another tip though, on the top bar there is a ‘magnifying glass’ icon - that’s a search facility, and having a quick shifty for for whatever’s on your mind can often turn up an answer without you having to ask (but still ask if you feel you need to!)
hi izold, My niece is doing psychology at Swansea 3rd year, she is a welsh speaker but needs to practice as the course is english based. I 'l give you her name if you want.
I’m on the first course challenge 10. A lot to remember but I keep going because I’m welsh and i love it!
Hi I’m new to this group. I have always wanted yo learn Welsh as its my Mother toung. But have stuggled in the past. I have short term memory dyslexia. Which means I have trouble getting information into my long term memory. I have just completed the second lesson. I am so hopping this method will work for me.
Croeso i SSIW - welcome to SSIW and the forum - which is a good place to come for answers if you have any questions - or just to see what else is going on!
My mother spoke Welsh before English, and my grandfather wrote poetry in Welsh. After my mother’s death I came across all of his letters to her which were written in English on one side of the paper and Welsh on the other. (This was perhaps for the benefit of my English father but also, as anyone who knows anything about Welsh history in the 20th century will acknowledge, English became so well entrenched as a language of commerce, industry and interaction that as she spent more of her adulthood in London, it may have just became easier to use English). He left school at 11 but strove to better his Welsh and would write I’d say an Englyn a week or every two weeks to send to my mother. She had cuttings of his poetry that were published, as well as long essays in Welsh among his papers, many written in a beautiful copperplate script that he was taught. So my main interest I suppose is in wanting to read what he wrote, which colloquial speaking won’t necessarily help with! But I feel closer to my mother doing this, and in addition I feel it’s important to keep languages like Welsh alive. The more people who are motivated to listen, learn, and speak it, the greater the chance that will happen. I think both my grandfather and my mother would like that.
So far, so good! I like the fact that you can choose the dialect.
I’m from Wrexham, now living in Cheshire. Welsh teaching wasn’t the best in school (30 years ago!), so I never got very far with Welsh, but having another go now.
I came here from a Duolingo forum, so I’ll do both from now on and see how it goes. One notable absence from the Duolingo Welsh course is speaking practise, so this seems ideal.
Prynhawn da, Sally dw i. Dw i’n hoffi dysgu Cymraeg.
Like the poster above me I started on Duolingo but felt that I needed a bit more. I’ll try to juggle both and see whether the dual approach helps me out. No real reason other than I like Wales and the language seems unlike any others that I’ve attempted before, so I’m looking forward to getting my head around it a bit more.
