When I was a teenager I studied French, Italian and Spanish and then spent most of my 20’s and 30’s living in mainland Europe. I was desperate to get away from South Wales but I learnt the very hard way that Wales is actually one of the best places in the world to live. For me learning Welsh is a way of making peace with my beloved homeland.
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Hi Alan,
That doesn’t sound very friendly, and one of the core rules of this forum is that we ask people to make a particular effort to be friendly.
Please have a read of the forum rules:
You’ll be very welcome in this community if you’re happy to abide by the rules… 
I want to be a Welsh speaker because I want to contribute to keeping this beautiful language alive.
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I tried to think of some rational or practical reason, but I didn’t find any. 
The one I feel true, silly as it may be, is that once travelling around Europe I had great fun trying to sing along a few Datblygu songs on my iPod (even though I didn’t understand anything). Then I heard the singer - who seems a bit grumpy and as harsh as a “ch” sound at times - speak about the language. And his authentic love and passion for it was contagious. (It was quite a few years ago but I only found this website now!)
I hope to be able to plan a trip to some town in Wales where most people speak Welsh (only?) and…enjoy it!
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I think that’s as good a reason as any! And once that would probably please Dave Datblygu…
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Maybe I should add to my plan a trip in the town where he lives and tell this to him in Welsh then. 
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Welsh school children used to receive corporal punishment for speaking the language in class, and official reports denigrated it. All in the name of English. Well, I’m English and that wasn’t right.
That’s the big reason. The small reason is that I enjoy trying to speak foreign languages when I’m on holiday. Put the two togther and it’s a no brainer.
David
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for my daughters. My eldest will be starting the Welsh in September and I want to be able to help her and talk with her in our language. I feel it is an important part of who we are and it is fading away.
Dw I’n trio dsygu Cymraeg - ond mae rhaid i fi amarfa moy! ( I hope that is spelt right 
)
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I can’t choose between three reasons, so be it:
- it’s a beautiful language
- I would like to understand Welsh songs and poetry and so on (that, I guess, also answers the question about what I hope for)
- and this one is a bit more generic, but I seriously think it’s important to know a Celtic language (I already know one Romance and one Germanic, not counting English, plus my native Slavic language, and I feel like it makes sense to cover all the main language branches of the region, to have a kind of an overview of our intertwined histories?).
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Because Welsh sounds really beautiful, almost magical, with its musicality.
And because I fell in love with Wales on my first holiday there, of course. 
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! want to be a Welsh speaker because … it is something I feel, and have felt since I was a child, that I have to do to live up to my Welsh heritage.
Achieving it will resolve a longing I have felt ever since I was a child in the 1970s.
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7 posts were split to a new topic: An unpromising diversion from the ‘reasons to learn Welsh’ thread
I want to learn Welsh because many of my generation were robbed of the right to learn it, and I don’t want to go to my grave never having learnt my own country’s language; the language has skipped two generations of my family already since my great grandfather died, but it’s not going to happen on MY watch!
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I love the language and what it represents. The poetry, the songs and the need to preserve this old tongue. I’ve lived in Australia for 36 years but was born in Carmarthen and grew up in Burry Port. I visit Wales every year or so to visit family and would love to be able to have conversations with friends and folk in shops in Welsh.
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Originally I wanted to speak welsh because it sounded cool and was a little more obscure than Irish and I wanted to be the cool one. Also because Eve Myles is welsh and I had a MASSIVE crush on her and her accent.
Now though it’s partially just determination to do it eventually (since it’s been about 8 years since I started trying, I think) and partially just that Wales is sort of my adopted homeland? I’m adopted and know nothing about my birth heritage, but I’ve been told I probably have a fair amount of some heritage from the UK and Ireland by multiple people. The first time I came to SSIW (back on the oooold forums with my old handle that I miss, Bixy) I mentioned that I felt more connected to Wales than any other part of the isles and was promptly adopted as an honorary Welshman. So I want to be a welsh speaker to forge a connection to my (adopted) heritage so to speak.
As for what I want to DO with it… I want to be able to experience another culture in its own language (at a distance alas why are you so far away???) and to be able to maybe spark interest in Welsh in other people.
And heck. I can’t do much to preserve Welsh in Wales, but more people speaking and reading Welsh around the world certainly can’t HURT the cause now can it?
(Sorry this got really wordy. I want to be a welsh speaker because for a brief period before my vocabulary expands, I’ll be forced to be more succinct!)
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We should be able to get you back to being Bixy - I’m away the next couple of days running an intensive, but if you remind me end of the week, I’ll try and figure it out…
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Hi David, your reasons for learning Welsh have struck a chord with me. I sometimes wonder how many people know about that part of Welsh history. As a Welsh person, it matters to me hugely that the language should not die out and I am always appreciative and slightly in awe when English people want to learn Cymraeg. Diolch yn fawr
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… Because I’m learning Cornish (I’m an expat Aussie with Cornish ancestry) and Welsh is one of our sister languages. I haven’t started learning Cymraeg yet because I’m still getting my grounding in Kernewek (Cornish) and I don’t want to get the two confused when I’m studying for Kernewek exams. But within the next couple of years there’s a possibility I may move to Greater Manchester (depending on a work prospect), and if that comes about, I’ll be very close to North Wales and would love to slip over the border regularly and try speaking even a little Cymraeg! 
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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I am part of a close community of both Welsh and non-Welsh speakers. I would love to be able to chat with my Welsh-speaking friends in their own language.
The big difference will mean that my friends will not need to switch to English so that I am included.
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I want to be a Welsh speaker for two reasons:
- it’s my girlfriend’s first language so it would be nice to be able to speak to her in Welsh
- I believe it’s central to Welsh culture and identity which is important to me.
- I’ll be sending my kids to a Welsh speaking school so it would be nice to speak to them in Welsh too!
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