'I want to be a Welsh speaker because...'

I agree! Same reason for me :smiley:

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Itā€™s the first language of most of my family, so I feel Iā€™m missing out on an important part of my heritage.

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I feel Iā€™m missing out and I want to be part of this AND itā€™s a great challenge AND I,m keen to see if this method works better for me than more traditional methods.
Iā€™m still too shy and under confident to be able to experience one good thing from learning Welsh, however I am secretly enjoying myself when I can now recognise words and phrases spoken by my bi lingual work colleagues :nerd_face:

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pssst - which good thing? Someone like @garethrking might pick up on a subjective clause and get a curiosity pique :laughing:

Welcome to the forum. Being here is one good thing that you can enjoy regardless of how shy you might be. Lurk around, read and digest and enjoy the community atmosphere.

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So I can speak to my family and friends for whom Welsh is their first language. My dream is to read the first chapter of a Welsh novel written by someone I know

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I now live in Wales and itā€™s the right thing to do.
I hope that being a Welsh speaker will help me understand the history, culture and traditions of my home and the people I meet.

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I have lived in Wales for nearly 3 yrs - Carmarthenshire, work with Welsh speakers, live in a Welsh speaking community and really want to feel part of it all. Also, love watching Pobwl Y Cwm. :blush:

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Iā€™m an English girl living in Wales who had a Welsh baby. This is my home and I want to learn with her.

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I have learnt a small amount of welsh phrases in work and in my daily life, but I have always lacked the confidence to speak Welsh in public as I do not know sufficient to hold a conversation.

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@amanda-evans-1 @michael-owen @JudeJenkins @Celia6694 @soo-vinnicombe @katherine-king @gwenda-owen @alex-jones @mcbrittany @claire-w

Welcome everyone to the forum! Youā€™ve found an amazing place, not only to learn Welsh, but to share in the memberā€™s passions for the language. SSiW is truly a unique place.

There are 650 posts in this thread and Iā€™ve read them all. Nearly everyone is learning Welsh to either connect with their past/heritage (parents, grand-parents spoke Welsh), be present in the now (speak with friends, family, colleagues - no one wants to miss out on good Welsh gossip :smiley:) or build a bridge to the future (wanting their children to learn the language). Thatā€™s really cool how learning a language can do that. I certainly donā€™t think about English as a connection to my past or a bridge to the future. Itā€™s merely a tool, but Welsh seems to be so much more than a tool for communication.

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ā€¦ I now live in Wales with my Welsh wife and Welsh child(ren) and I would love the babies to grow up bilingual.

(And I want to impress my wife and in laws)

Child(ren) because my first was born in England, although I suspect sheā€™ll think of herself as Welsh!

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my Dadā€™s family is Welsh but no one in the family speaks it anymore.

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Since I chose to retire to this predominently Welsh speaking West Wales (Cei Newydd) it is the profound joy I get from using my limited Welsh and the obvious appreciation I receive for my efforts.

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It will be interesting to hear if your Dadā€™s family begin to use some words or phrases. I live in the United States and neither my Wife nor Daughter have any interest in learning the language. I use it a lot, mostly with the dog and every so often, I will hear them use Welsh too. I have no illusions they will ever speak it, but I like knowing that indirectly they are absorbing bits and pieces.

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Unfortunatley not. The only members of the family that spoke Welsh are no longer with us.

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Dear Holy Llama, I do feel just like youā€¦ Wales, the Welsh culture and the Welsh language have such a pull on me and I felt like I just HAD to start learning Welsh. It wasnā€™t even a conscious decision, it just happened. Good to know, there are other people like me out thereā€¦ :star_struck:

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ā€¦my son and his fiancĆ©e are both Welsh speakers and, having been asked to speak at the wedding in May, I hope to do so half yn Cymraeg, half yn Saesneg, using phrases in which I will be confident from SSiW. But also because I can engage more in my local community. Sorry, two reasons, both equally applicable.

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ā€¦because I want to be able to talk to my daughter in Welsh as she moves through the Welsh language education system.

ā€¦and when Iā€™m a Welsh speaker I want to strike up a conversation with a stranger in Welsh.

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I want to speak with my friends in Welsh.

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I want to be a welsh speaker because, now that I have learnt a little of my countryā€™s history and culture, I want to be a part of it! I am incredibly lucky that my girlfriend is a proud first language welsh speaker she has shown me that there as entire side to my heritage that I have been missing out on! I went to Tafwyl for the first time last year and was absolutely blown away. It was like an entire culture going on underneath my nose! Iā€™m learning Cymraeg because it is mine to learn (itā€™s everyones!), and I cannot wait for the day where I can speak to my girlfriend only in Welsh!

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