Hello everyone, thought I should introduce myself. I have been signed up to the newsletters for a while but have now actually got my backside into gear and started course1, just finished lesson 10 this morning. I studied Welsh at GCSE and enjoyed it and was decent at it too, but that was 25 years ago. Amazingly, my brain seems to have kept a lot of it locked away and it is coming back quite easily (so far!). Although I’ve lived in England (and a little bit in Holland) over the last 12 years, I’m always watching the rugby on S4C so I suppose it must sink in eventually. I live in Carterton, Oxon so only 2 hours from Caerphilly (hometown). Try to get back as often as I can and ensure my 2 kids never forget they’re Welsh (even though they were born in England). 
I don’t know of any Welsh speakers around here, I appear to be right in the middle of 2 meet ups; Gloucester and Oxford. I’m aiming to get along to one soon.
Croeso i’r fforwm Antonio! Having got as far as lesson 10, hopefully you are already sold on this fantastic method of learning a language. It will be great to hear of your progress, and don’t forget to ask questions here if you have any. I do recommend getting along to a meetup on a regular bais and also trying to find a ffrinDiaith or Skype partner, if you can. The more speaking you do, the better.
Pob lwc i ti!
Stu
A very warm welcome to the forum, Antonio - sounds as though you’re off to a fantastic start, so I’m sure you’ll be getting a lot of pleasure out of using your Welsh in the fairly near future…
How old are your kids? I’m currently of the firm belief that anyone who achieves anything (like remembering to breathe and stuff, let alone waking up an old language of theirs!) deserves a whole new kind of medal…
Thanks very much. My kids are 9 and 7, and can I just say that one of my proudest moments was when I took them to Wales v SA at the Millennium last year. The anthem finished and my daughter noticed I had a tear in my eye. “Why are you crying Daddy?” So I told her I was very proud that on our first visit to watch Wales the two of them had hummed along to the National Anthem, to which she replied “Yes, we’ve been searching through youtube to find easy ways to learn the Welsh National Anthem so we could sing it with you!”
Fair play to them - that must have been really special for you…
Ours are 5 and 3, and much more likely to shout ‘STOP SINGING, DAD!’…
@Antonio, I’m not sure how far Carterton is from Oxford, but you may be interested that the Oxford SSiW Meetup groups usually meets on the 1st Tuesday of the month (tomorrow for May 2014) at 17:30 in the Far from the Madding Crowd pub, which is sort of between Gloucester Green and the back of Debenhams.
Hope to see you there some time.
Hwyl,
Mike
Hi Mike, Carterton is about half hour from Oxford by car (depending on the A40!). I can’t make tomorrow but I’m hoping to be able to come along to the next one.
Great!
I hope you have lots of fun with the rest of the course.
Hwyl,
Mike
Gloucester Green… now there’s a few memories…mainly drunken of course.
Croeso i’r fforwm, Antonio. Good luck with the rest of the course.
There is an Oxfordshire Welsh Society.