Hi everybody, I’m Lou
I thought I’d pop along and introduce myself as I’m finally a paid-up member! I’ve spent the past few years casually dipping in and out of the free challenges, never really making much progress, but I’ve decided it’s now time to get properly stuck in and work towards fluency.
So a bit about me. I’m a proud Snowdonian native; born and raised in Waunfawr and spoke fluent Welsh until the age of 10, but then I moved to Greater Manchester and forgot it all except for a few words here and there Losing the ability to speak Welsh has left me feeling rootless and now I’m older (32 to be precise) I badly want to reconnect with my heritage and bring it back to life. Hiraeth is so very real!
I’ve got a bit of an advantage as I’m not absolute beginner. I can read the words, I can pronounce the difficult sounds, and I know all the lyrics to Sosban Fach Oh and I still remember a palindrome I was taught in Year 3: lladd dafad ddall
Funny how your brain holds on to the most random things, eh?
With that said, it hasn’t made it easier to pick up conversational Welsh since I, well, there hasn’t been anyone I can have a conversation with! But I’m hoping I can turn all that around with help from this lovely community