i have, as usual at this time of year, been watching coverage of the International Eisteddfod Llangollen. It occurs to me that by starting this and welcoming the World in 1947, Wales showed that the land of our fathers is open to the World and to learning about all people!
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I donāt think that someone who asks you why on earth youāre learning Welsh is necessarily narrow minded or anti-Welsh (although perhaps some are). They might just be interested in learning about your motivation. I think that if I encountered someone who told me they are learning a language not usually mastered by people i know, Iād be interested in hearing about what led them to it.
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Well, to be honest, I didnāt read all the posts but Iāll be really short with this: for me the person who doesnāt recognize no matter what language of the World no matter how dead or alive the language is and has a negative attitude toward it, isnāt open-minded person!
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Living in London, I have not had anyone seem very surprised that I am learning Welsh. In my work and in my childrenās schools there are many who speak other languages, those who only speak English are in a minority in both situations. Iāve only been asked āWhy would you learn WELSH?ā by friends in Wales who donāt speak Welsh.
My best friend has admitted she has guilt because she moved back to Wales and didnāt put her kids in the Welsh system. She feels it is now ātoo lateā for them (at 15, 13, 11 and 9) - I said if itās not too late for me itās certainly not too late for them! However it seems, sadly, that the Welsh teaching in S Wales English medium schools is doing a fine job at putting children off languages all together. My friendās opinion is that all the good Welsh teachers are now in the Welsh medium schools and who can blame them?
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I hope my post didnāt sound bitter about my Welsh friends, I think it is the two world syndrome, it is perfectly possible to live and work in Cardiff and pretty much ignore Welsh (or it was when I lived there). Whereas for those who already speak two or more languages it is not actually that remarkable to be learning another. So my small mission is to share how much fun I am having discovering a whole new world, so that they will WANT to join us!
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One day I woke up with this wierd feeling that I want to speak Cymraeg. I was really lucky to find such an easy way to learn Welsh (talking about SSi). Here in Russia we donāt have any opportunity to learn or practise this beautifull language. When my friends or family hear me practising they think that Iām talking elfin-language or casting a spell 
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Croeso to the Forum @Rg1. Where in Russia are you? Can you get S4C International on line to help with your Welsh?
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henddraig, thank you for a great idea, even though I donāt to watch TV Iāll give it a shut! I live in Yekaterinburg, and every time I drive to work or go my Irish dance classes I listen to SSi and try to practise (people in traffic jams look kind of frightened with what the hear, they cannot understand neither English nor Welsh)
Can you suggest any resourses to learn more about Wales?
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as your Welsh improves, you might like to see if you can get Radio Cymru on line. Many Forum members listen. @tatjana any ideas? @Sionned maintains the map of SSiW folk. I cannot see any in Yekaterinburg!
There is one other person on our map near Yekaterinburg with the profile name argkh (if you click that link it will go to the profile where you could send a private message if you wish). That person appears not to have been on the forum in more than a year, however.
Welcome to SSiW and the forum!
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@Rg1 welcome first.
Then on: you have various āresourcesā through you can listen to BBC Radio Cymru and I believe from the next year at some point BBC Radio Cymru 2 will start its broadcast aswell after all successful (according to BBC) BBC Radio Cymru Mwy. I (when I listen, but to be honest I didnāt for quite a while) usually use mobile app āTuneInā which doesnāt give you the possibility only to listen to the Radio Cymru but (almost) every radio of the world. The best thing is that you have one profile on TuneIn, put your favourite stations in it and then you can listen to those stations wherever you want - on the phone, tablet or on your PC. I love the app as it provides you high quality performance and fluent streaming so itās rearly that playing would stop in the middle of the stream. TuneIn app you can find in App Store or Google Play for sure and on the net on www.tunein.com.
Others are podcasts you can find on BBC Radio Cymru site - podcasts of verious broadcasts of which some are even downloadable. BBC Radio Cymru you can find here. Explore the site and you might find something of your interest.
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Another way of listening to Radio Cymru (and any other BBC radio station, including Radio Wales, which is the English language BBC radio service for Wales) is via āiPlayer Radioā. This can either be used from the BBC website using a standard web browser, or a mobile app, the iPlayer Radio app, which is available from the usual places for mobile apps. You can either listen live, or listen āon demandā to any programme that has been broadcast, usually for about 28 days afterwards, although a few programmes are available longer. Nowadays, I think you have to register, but as far as I know, there is no restriction to stop people from outside the UK using it.
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Radio is not restricted however TV is and if you want to watch something on iPlayer rather then listen, it simply says iPlayer isnāt working for you (if youāre outside UK).
Tatjana, after your suggest Iāve been listening to BBC Radio Cymru, so thanks again for your hint. It is really exiting to hear Welsh speach. Iām not confident enough to trio siarad Cymraeg eto so listening to BBC Radio Cymru helps me to get used to hearing Welsh.
Did you ever get to practise your Cymraeg with any of native speakers? Also, what is your favorite word in Cymraeg?
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Did you ever get to practise your Cymraeg
I can answer that - yes she did - frequently and impressively. 
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Iām not so sure about thisā¦
I work in science in Caerdydd and whilst many people are āopen mindedā when it comes to language, theyāre not. They are often polite when they know you speak Welsh. But believe me, when they are amongst their other Anglophone middle class friends/colleagues behind closed doors, the gloves will be off and they will be talking down about the language. Itās more to do with whatās in the psyche of the collective, which is determined by culture and history. In Britain, because weāve never been on the ālosing sideā or repressed, most just canāt comprehend why Welsh should be. Itās like asking someone to understand a red and green painting when they can only see black and white.
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May I respond with a positive statement that very, very few of my Anglophone, friends, family, colleagues or acquaintances of whatever class fit into the picture you paint. I seem to have been lucky with my scientific colleagues who were, on the whole, pretty open-minded socially as well as professionally.
There are, of course, bigots in any community. You have less scope when it comes to your colleagues, but at least you can choose your friends
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Itās tricky to get the balance right on this - Huw is right that we bend over backwards to make the forum a positive place - at the same time, itās important that we can talk honestly about both sides of situations.
It didnāt strike me that Mihil was saying that scientists are close-minded per se - it came across to me more that he was making a legitimate point that public/private statements are often different, which offers an extra layer of complexity to this interesting discussion.
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Thanks for this clarification, Aran. I have PMed you my explanation.
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