I’m Aurélie, 29, and I live in France. My plan for next summer is to visit Wales and I’d like to be able to chat in Welsh. I was looking for a good method to learn Welsh and I think I found it here.
I’m currently working on Level 1 lesson 8 (southern), after beginning Course 1 up to lesson 8, and I must say that I’m really improving fast! When I listen to songs in Welsh I can already spot words and bits of sentences. I wasn’t expecting it when I began learning but it actually works
I’ve taken the habit of speaking in Welsh when I’m alone and it’s beginning to come quite naturally…
I look forward to testing my new speaking abilities with real Welsh people!
Thanks! I’ve got a degree in English from the University of Nancy (France) and I’ve always loved languages. I’ve also studied German, Italian and Breton. Learning Welsh is my next challenge!
Welcome to the forum Aurelie. It is a wonderful feeling if you can speak yn y Cymraeg yn Cymru, or even if you surprise a Welsh speaker in England. I met a group of Welsh speakers today at work and they were so pleased when I spoke in Welsh. I think because Cymraeg has quite a small population of speakers it means a lot to first language speakers to meet people who are learning the language.
I’m not fluent in Breton (yet!), but I’ve learned just enought to understand what my favourite songs are about. I’ve lived in South Brittany during 2 years, which gave me an opportunity to practice the language (Brezhoneg Gwened) with real speakers.
So far, I know little about Welsh but I’ve noticed some similarities in vocabulary, grammar and I wasn’t surprised by mutations in Welsh because they exist in Breton. Pronunciation though is quite different. Breton might have been influenced by the French language…
This is the reason why I’m learning Welsh. I could just use English, but I know how happy people are when you make the effort to speak their language.
I had learned a few words of Arabic on a trip to Egypt a few years ago, and it was amazing how people changed their attitude towards me when they heard me!
Eirwen and I live on the Italian, French border and spend our week interchanging among, Italian, French, Welsh and English. We hope we meet you one day.
We have a daughter who commutes between San Francisco and Paris and speaks French and English
Diolch Aurélie. I’ve looked at a friend’s Assimil Breton course (base-language French), and I could definitely recognise the similarities from the written language, but not from the spoken language. To my English ears, it definitely had a “French” sound to it, but perhaps not to a French native speaker.
Great that you were able to practice with real speakers. I’d got the impression that they were fairly thin on the ground.
It certainly sounds like you’re doing well already, so I’m sure you’ll be well ahead with your Welsh by next summer. Make sure you let us know when you’re coming and where you’ll be. I’ve no doubt there will be other SSiWers keen to meet you while you’re here.
A very warm welcome, Aurélie. You’ll find that quite a bit of the more everyday vocabulary is the same as in Breton - cig, gwin, glaw, quite a lot of stuff like that, so you’ll have some pleasant moments of recognition along the way…
Helo a chroeso! (I think the mutation is right!) I’m sure you know that Brittany was settled as Armoria by Romano-British! I think they were refugees from Ynys Britain who left with the retreating Legions!!
A friend of mine remembered onion sellers coming over to Pembrokeshire from Brittany just after the last war and getting by in Breton, so any difference in accent didn’t prevent understanding!! He had the Lord’s Prayer in Breton and that certainly had more Latin in it, as I recall. I met some Bretons on a ferry when travelling to Paris for the (then) 5 Nations and was sorry to be told that their Grandparents spoke Breton, but they did not!! I honestly thought the language was virtually dead and I’m glad it’s not!!!
Breton isn’t really a first language for Bretons any more, but bi-lingual schools exist (Diwan) with circa 4000 students. The practice of Breton seems to have skipped one generation but now many adults want to learn their grandparent’s language and send their children to Diwan schools.
I know a man about my age who has been speaking in Breton to his son since he was a baby and now this little boy is fluent in both languages (French and Breton). Even if they’re not a majority, more and more people are working for a Breton revival so it is very promising
Diolch yn fawr iawn!!! Oh, that was so good to hear!! (Um, I think I mean see!!!) It is a language rarer than Cymraeg and if Breton can live again, well, our language still has big hopes!!! My Dad’s generation thought it useless, old-fashioned and not worth keeping! I have spent most of my adult life learning it, forgetting it and re-learning it!! I come on this forum for the joy of ‘meeting’ all these young adults learning so eagerly!!!
Diolch, diolch … If you ever come to Slovenia we have to meet to go for a cup of coffee (or whatever you drink) somewhere and if you’d stay in Bled I’ll buy you that famous Bled cream slice…
My wife’s parents said they came across them. Probably 1950s or very early 60s. I’m not 100% sure where they were living at that time though. They referred to them as “onion Johnnies”. Not sure why!
I have a few first language Breton-speaking friends…
But it’s certainly and sadly lost a lot of ground. Here’s hoping that Diwan can help make the difference, and that the French government’s attitude becomes more tolerant…
