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

I want to be a welsh speaker because I want to feel I have a right to identify myself as Welsh

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because itā€™s important not to lose the use of the language

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my husband is Welsh but hasnā€™t used the Welsh language since his mother passed away.

I enjoyed learning languages when I was at school, many moons ago!!, and learning Welsh will be good exercise for my brain!

On niā€™n trio dysgu Cymraeg blweddyn yn ol mewn ysgol nos, ond oedd hiā€™n rhy anodd! Dwā€™ i wedi blino ar ol gwaith!

SSi is a brilliant way to learn in your own time and at your own pace. Sorry about the spelling above!!

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then I will be able to understand conversations with my Welsh speaking children, partner and family.

When I am a Welsh speaker I hope Iā€™ll be able to get to know my family a little better.

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I want to be a Welsh speaker becauseā€¦I had an academic interest that snowballed into a love for the language? Honestly reading all your messages has helped a lot because Iā€™ve felt silly wanting to learn a language that I have no real ā€œuseā€ for. Which of course isnā€™t a helpful mindset, so Iā€™m working my way out of it!

Anyway, basically I became interested in reading various iterations of Arthurian legend and I tend to get frustrated while reading if I donā€™t have a decent grasp of pronunciation of some words. Which led me to think, ā€œWhy donā€™t I learn some Welsh?ā€ since I was using Duolingo for Spanish at the time. But overall Iā€™ve found duolingo helps me with reading, but doesnā€™t given me much confidence to speak, so I started looking for more options and found myself here. Just a long-winded way of saying I accidentally fell into learning Welsh and realized I loved it.

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because my family up unto the 1930s were welsh speakers and even though they are mainly all gone I want them to be proud that someone is trying to speak welsh again.

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I am buying a cottage in North Wales for vacation and I want to show respect for the people in my adopted home.

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It was also part of my family, my mother only spoke Welsh as a young child but for my generation it was thought to be a handicap. Now my grown up sons speak Welsh and my grandchildren are in Welsh education. Now that Iā€™m 71 itā€™s a case of - ā€˜if I donā€™t do it now I never willā€™. So after a very busy life (still busy) Iā€™m making it a priority!
Itā€™s much easier to fit in the time with SSIW and a mobile phone and a little bit here and there. Canā€™t always fit in the little extraā€™s though - like this contribution - but will make an effort. Hwyl!

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Because even though Iā€™m English, I love Wales and have every intention of moving to North Wales in the near future, and I want to be able to talk to people in their own language. I think thatā€™s only right and proper.

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ā€¦because itā€™s part of who I am, even if it isnā€™t yet.

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I have now come to understand (albeit late in life) how important - and enjoyable - it is to be able to speak the language of the country in which I was born

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Iā€™m Welsh, I love Wales and want to be able to speak our language.

I hope to one day be able to converse with my partner in Welsh.

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When I tell people I am learning Welsh, they nearly always ask why ā€¦My answer is that I go to Wales every year on holiday. I love Wales. It is beautiful in all weathers. I love the mountains when they are moody and misty. I love the sea when it glistens silver. In the sunshine there is nowhere I would rather be. I even love walking along the beach when it is raining. There is something very special and magical about Wales. I have always been intrigued by the signposts in Welsh. I spent most of my recent holiday trying to pronounce llyfrgll (library). A very nice man in the chemist in Harlech finally helped me to crack it. Next year I will go and find him for a chat!

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I initially wanted to be a Welsh speaker because Iā€™d love to go to Wales for a holiday and understand more than the English bits.
Now, one month into SSiW, Iā€™m looking forward to understanding Welsh programmes on TV and radio. Also, learning Welsh is a cool challenge in and of itself!

Whatā€™s gonna change when Iā€™m a Welsh speaker? In the short term - Iā€™m going to an event in Finland in six months and I know that several Welshmen will also be there. Iā€™m positively gleeful at the prospect of finding them in the crowd and surprising them with my confident Welsh! (I hope some of them will be Welsh speakers too, otherwise it could get a little awkward! :joy: )

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I want to help my daughter in her schooling at a Welsh medium school.

I hope that I will be able to converse with her take the Welsh language with her outside of school as well as inside.

Update:my daughter is now in her second week of schooling at a Welsh medium school & when I visited prior to her starting the teachers were very impressed with my attempts to speak to them in Welsh & were parading me in front of the other teachers. They were very encouraging & I felt proud.

I was previously doing the 6 month course but found it too intensive to keep up whilst juggling other commitments so I am now on the 6 minute a day instead.

I enjoy the challenges but I have been terrible with the daily sentences even though they are magnetised to my cooker splash-back. I suppose we all learn differently. I do however go through various sentences including many of them on a daily basis and I actually struggle to switch off the attempts at sentences rolling around in my head at times.

Perhaps I am going about it the wrong way as I have created a little system for myself with each exercise whereby when each welsh word or sentence is introduced I write it down with the English but I write the welsh how I imagine it in my head, not as spelt in Welsh and I refer to these scraps of paper throughout the day when i forget something. It would probably look like a totally different language on paper. It does take time though especially the first time going through an exercise. I hope this is ok. I forget things and it is nice to scroll through my scraps rather than trying to find the word via the Internet.

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I want to become a Welsh speaker because its a beautiful language and I have personal motivation too because my Welsh father was never taught Welsh at school because in the 30s and 40s the authorities attempted to kill the language. Although Iā€™ve never lived in Wales, I have visited family there regularly and Regards myself as at least part Welsh. I think itā€™s important that the Welsh language is promoted so the majority of the Welsh population feel comfortable using it in every day life. Iā€™m also motivated because I have lots of cousins in Wales who have given up trying to learn. If I can learn without living in Wales Iā€™m hoping that will motivate at least a few of them to give it a serious go. Wouldnā€™t it be great too if visitors to Wales had a go at speaking at least a few words of Welsh in the same way Brits abroad do I Spain, France and Germany.

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Alla i dweud rhywbeth yng Cymraeg!

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I am English and live in London, but have had a house in Pembrokeshoire for 33 years. I respect Welsh culture and traditions, and while I will never be fluent, (I am 85), I want to hget as close as ossible to my many EWelsh friends.

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I really admire your gusto Bryan and you never know, once you gain momentum you may well become more fluent that you ever expected! APob lwc to you and keep us updated! :slight_smile:

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Iā€™m moving to Wales next year (back where I grew up) and want to socialise with Welsh people in their language. Learn Welsh at school but nowhere near enough to speak it usefully, 20 years on it will be different this time!

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