My friend called them ‘Johnnie onions’!
1950s I think, Sir Gar and east Sir Benfro.
I met about half a dozen first language Breton speakers in central Finistere in 2012. They told me that they spoke it with family and friends but did not seem to use it in public contexts. There is also a Welsh pub in Plouye, which burnt down and was being rebuilt - Tafarn Tŷ Elise. Apparently informal Breton chat could be heard there. At traditional Breton events e.g. pardons and music festivals, Breton has a more official role and it also has a strong presence in music e.g. Diouled ar Menez, Denez Prigent. An unofficial survey about four years ago found that 172,000 people could speak Breton but only 35,000 spoke it daily. The French Government does not allow the official counting of other languages in the Census and provides minimal support to Breton in public schools. Everyone is equal there apparently as long as they speak French.
Bonjour Aurélie
J’ai commencé ssiw en 2011, et terminé les trois séries depuis l’année dernière. Maintenant j’écoute les podcasts de BBC-Cymru. Je regarde aussi HwbTV sur youtube. Je suis encore loin de tout comprendre ! Ssiw est très efficace, mais il faut refaire plusieurs fois chaque leçon !
Mes amis de Brecon (Aberhonddu) qui est notre ville jumelle me disent que je fais des progrès ( ??) . « Mae dy gymbraeg in well bob dydd ! « (gobeithio bod hynny’n wir ??)
Le breton m’a beaucoup aidé, pour le vocabulaire, les mutations, les constructions … la prononciation et l’accent du gallois ressemblent pas mal au léonard, je trouve, mais ça dépend des personnes. C’est vrai que le vannetais ne sonne pas pareil.
Kalon vat dit, ha dalc’h mat ! Dal ati !
Yves (Gouesnou 29)
It can be a very good idea to go straight through a course without repeating individual lessons, and then revisit one or two to see how the spaced repetition has worked for you (can save quite a bit of time)… ![]()
Hello Aran
That is what I actually meant too ! I used to listen many times to each lesson until I felt I knew it, but I often too listened to previous lessons, in order to see what I had assimilated, and what not.
Hwyl fawr
This is the bit that it’s hard (but useful!) to skip - because the learning process will be working properly before you’re consciously aware that you’ve ‘learnt’ a lesson ![]()
If you’ve got that cracked now, and push on with new lessons without repeating, well done! You’ll be learning far more quickly… ![]()
Helo Yves!! I am feeling very pleased with myself because I understood all the Francais!! (Sorry, no accents in my typescript)! I had a weird experience when you switched languages and had read about 4 words before my brain noticed. At that point, I froze, and failed to understand!! I went back, realised, and could then understand fine!!!
I haven’t used my French since I stopped coming to Paris for what was then 5 Nations!!
Félicitatiions Yves et Aurélie - français, anglais, breton et gallois - très impressionnant. Malheureusemant il n’y a que dix-huit pour cent d’anglais qui parlent une autre langue et en effet, en Australie c’est pire. C’était un plaisir de lire un peu de français au forum.
Sorry for the “off-topic”, but on a French theme, my wife and I yesterday went to see a film called “Gemma Bovary”. It’s based on a cartoon series by Posy Simmonds that ran in the Guardian some years ago (there may also have been a cartoon book version) and is ultimately based on Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary”.
(It stars the actor who also played “Tamara Drewe” in another film version of a Posy Simmonds cartoon.)
Although we knew the cartoon series, we hadn’t actually researched the film before we went to see it, and I didn’t even know for sure if it was set in England or France, or what language it would be in.
Well, it’s set in Normandy and is mostly in French with English subtitles. The character Gemma says her French is not very good, but it doesn’t seem bad to me, and it improves considerably throughout the film (as her French neighbour remarks). Her husband is English, but seems fluent in French, and they have an English neighbour married to a Frenchwoman.
Our French friends here may well have seen it, as it had a 2014 copyright date, but presumably has only now hit our shores. I think it is a French production. Blackly comic and highly recommended!