I just tried speaking for real

… like, for real, in the real world with real people.
And given the very confused look I got from the chip shop lady I’m assuming I didn’t get it right. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Yay! Well done, that’s a huge step forward! And don’t worry about the reaction - sometimes it happens because they aren’t expecting you to speak Welsh at all! :smiley:

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Could she speak Welsh? I’m only asking because I’m the only person who can go to a 90% Welsh speaking village and talk Welsh to someone who doesn’t. :smiley:

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At least you had a go :grinning:

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Don’t worry about it. We booked 2 nights in a hotel in Llanberis for me to practise “In the wild” and the only living creature there who spoke Welsh was the parrot who greeted me with “Bore Da” at breakfast each morning! :rofl:

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Ah no way. Yes Llanberis is so popular that some people have moved in and started their own businesses. I suppose the hotel trade is famous for that. I found so many people in places like Beddgelert that seemed only to speak English out of politeness and didn’t even sound as if they had a strong accent. And yet only one sentence or question in Welsh had them being so kind to me in helping and encouraging me in the local dialect. I was fortunate to have 3 weeks in the Caernarfon area and to be honest it did take me a good few days to get going. But those three weeks were a real turning point in my confidence. I will now try with anyone who sounds like a speaker even outside of Wales :slight_smile: Anyway, I suppose I’m saying - just give it a go and enjoy your mistakes :slight_smile:

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Well, I didn’t give up…I then subjected the staff in the Spar to my efforts :lol:…except I cheated and asked them if I was saying it right…all through perspex and their face visor masks…bechod, they were very sweet and patient!

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Brilliant! Well done on plucking up the courage to ave a go and huge well done for keeping on going. Now I’d rather like to see that parrot enrol on SSiW - a future project maybe @aran?:rofl:

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Da iawn! That first step is everything. I need to take that step myself, if I don’t do something often enough I lose my nerve.

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We tried speaking to the people in our chip shop and got the same reaction. Turns out they do not speak Welsh. x

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As I listen more I find i can hear individual words better so was able to hear @aran 's sign off ‘Hwyl am y tro’ recently. Looked it up and put it in to practise last week! My Welsh-speaking visitor was impressed. Onwards and upwards :slight_smile:

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Yes I wouldn’t worry too much if someone can’t speak Welsh. They won’t be offended. It must be a common occurrence, because even I have had a couple of conversations when the other person has started in Welsh. So, with me being a stranger, they couldn’t have known which language I would have.

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When I was in Sir Benfro a couple of years ago, I didn’t find a single person who spoke Welsh. I asked plenty of them, too. One response I got was “No… wel, tipyn bach… but I’m fluent in Spanish!”.

In retrospect, probably not the best place for Welsh “in the wild” anyway!

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So this happened unintentionally, but I got a huge kick out of it:

I started my course on Monday. Husband hasn’t joined in (he’s still processing our traumatic morning class experience six years ago, tee-hee), so to wind him up a bit, when I went to make myself breakfast at last at around quarter past ten (after this morning’s Q&A with Deborah), I said, “Dw i’n mynd i gael brecwast nawr.” We’ve got the builders in the house, and one of them whipped round and said, “Did you just say you’re going to have breakfast, IN WELSH?” (He knows we’re German.) - “Why, yes, you’re not a Welsh speaker by any chance, are you?” - “I am indeed!” - “Oh, da iawn, dw i newydd ddechrau dysgu Cymraeg, um, this week …” - “Oh wow, you’re doing well.”

Wasn’t I half chuffed! The poor lad doesn’t realise yet that he’ll be linguistically brutalised all week …

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What a great surprise! Dal ati!

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