I want to be a welsh speaker because I am Welsh (born and bred) but I dont necessarily feel Welsh when I am unable to participate in the Welsh Language.
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I want to be a welsh speaker so I can join in with conversations with my friends in their primary language. I feel itās a necessary step to help me fully identify with my country and culture.
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I now visit West Wales regularly and I want to be able to speak to the locals whose first language is Welsh. I understand Welsh having been learning for many years but I am still reluctant to speak it. This course is helping me speed up my responses and giving me a stock of spoken language.
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About 20 years ago I discovered contemporary Finnish folk music, loved how the language sounded (spoiler: it sounds very musical) and made a brief effort to try to learn the language. There just arenāt many resources for learning Finnish, so that didnāt last long, and then my kids started being born, and that was that. A little over 10 years ago, I started hearing Welsh-language music, some really weird, wonderful stuff, and the music-language symbiosis struck again. At some point I discovered SSiW and got as far as subscribing to the weekly newsletters, but didnāt start any formal learning untilā¦
March 2019, I drove four hours from my home to Chicago to see one of my favorite bands ever, Teenage Fanclub, a show (gig) I was especially excited about because of their newest member, the legendary Euros Childs. Euros is āperhaps best known as the frontman for the band Gorkyās Zygotic Mynciā, according to Wikipedia. I was lucky to have a couple pints of fine craft lager with Euros after the show, and at one point I started asking him about growing up speaking Welsh and something possessed me to mention SSiW. He turned to me and said, āI can teach you to say something in Welsh!ā Yes, please! He taught me āFy enw i yw Jim.ā He tried to get me to repeat it for his bandmates and I just couldnāt get it right. I drank only two pints with him, but they were my 6th and 7th of the evening, so short term memory wasnāt sharp. But after I sobered up and spent a couple days with friends, I got on the internet and looked around for some Welsh resources so that the next time I crossed paths with Euros, I could speak a little more.
Now to the point: I want to be a Welsh speaker because I love the music, Welsh people seem really chill, the country is beautiful, it looks great for cycling, Iāve been meeting Welsh friends online, and I might have some Welsh ancestry (a family legend without any evidence), but most of all, I want to speak Welsh so I can blow Eurosā mind.
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When I was a student, I worked in a holiday park called Green Acres at Black Rock Sands near Porthmadog.
A lot of the guests stood at the bar, talking in Welsh. In the town, I could hear a lot of Welsh and certainly on the bus.
As a language student of French and German, I really wanted to know what everyone was saying .Itās frustrating to me not to be able to understand people.
Also, I liked The Alarm and listened to some of their songs in Welsh. i prefered the Welsh versions and thought the language sounded really good.
I had learnt a bit of Irish Gaelic at Uni for fun at an evening class. Iāve always been intrigued by the other languages of the British Isles.
So here I am 30 years later, starting to finally learn Welsh. Why the wait? Well, life happened - teaching career, marriage, kids, being widowed, single parent, marriage, working part time and finally having the time to do it.
The kids think Iām bonkers as they tell me everyone in Wales speaks English. However, this is my Xbox or Play Station. Itās a challenge.
Although, there probably arenāt any mono Welsh speakers anymore, apart from some kids under 5, I think itās really important to keep this amazing language alive and to preserve the culture for future generations.
I still go to Porthmadog once a year with my daughter. Welsh is spoken in the bar at the hotel. Last time I was there (February), I promised myself I would definitely learn it. I started on Duo Lingo and then found the SSIW site. It is a really interesting method for language learning. I have trialled it in German with my Year 7 class during their Remote Learning. They have produced some fantastic work.
On a stranger note, I got done for speeding just before last Christmas going to Chester. The Sat Nav took me over the Welsh border onto a road I was unfamiliar with. I thought it was a dual carriage way and the speed limit was 70. It turned out to be 60. Ooops!
I was sent the details of my offence in English and in Welsh. At the time, I thought why are they bothering sending me the Welsh bit cos I canāt read it?
I probably can read some of it now lol!
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I want to speak welsh because I live in Wales and want to feel I am fully embracing the culture (after all, if I emigrated to France, I would learn French). I am also a priest in the Church in Wales and am determined to be able to carry out services fully in Welsh when required.
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I have enjoyed feeling connected to something bigger than myself. My fiance is Welsh and as our wedding has been postponed to 2021, I would like to use the time to learn some Welsh and be part of a beautiful culture.
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I want to be a Welsh speaker because it is my Partnerās first language. I donāt want to have to be the one that everyone translates for. I have no other connection to Wales and would never probably have known how big a community of Welsh speakers there is, if we hadnāt met. But I am not only loving learning, I feel a really weird and inexplicable sense of familiarity with the language, somehow. I canāt describe it any better than that, and I canāt understand why I feel that way, but I do.
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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I want to be able to have proper chats with my friends (and Iām already on the way, which feels wonderful!)
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I want to be a Welsh speaker so I can converse using our native language with my Grandchildren,who are in Welsh schools.
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I want to be a Welsh speaker because ā¦ I want Welsh to live on in my family.
I hope to be able to sit down and have a nice chat, in Welsh, with my mother over a cup of tea one day.
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I want to be a welsh speaker because I love the language & have always hated that I couldnāt speak it. I canāt wait to chat with my friends or earwig conversations & understand them!
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because my grandchildren go to a Welsh school and i want to converse with them and because I want to speak to people in Aberdaron when am on holiday.
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I want to be a welsh speaker because my dads family are first language welsh speakers and my little niece will also be raised speaking welsh and i donāt want to miss out on the opportunity to speak with them in their native language. Iād love to be able to join in when my welsh family have their crazy wonderful sing-a-longs to welsh folk songs such as counting red and blue goats! Also, given i passionately support welsh rugby, it would be great to be able to sing (and understand!) the welsh national anthem. Wales really is land of the song!
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Welsh was my first language but I stopped speaking it when I was 8. I want to salvage what little language I remember and become a Welsh speaker again
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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I am very proud to be Welsh, and want to do my bit to preserve our lovely language. And if I can make some new friends learning Welsh along the way, even better!
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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I want to be able to speak to others in Welsh, and I enjoy learning languages.
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My fiancĆ© is first language Welsh and when he starts speaking it to friends or on the phone I am mesmerised by it (plus Iām nosey and would like to know what heās saying!) and Iād love to be able to watch Welsh language dramas without having the subtitles on.
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I come from Wales and can speak three other languages but not Welsh!
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