I’ve been trying to tune my ear to the accents of some of the Welsh-speakers I work with at St Fagans (which is a lovely open-air museum near Cardiff, for those who haven’t visited us yet). To help me, one of my colleagues recorded a 3 minute audio file of him describing one of our historical buildings. I’ve found it really useful and it led us to produce a (rough) transcript in English and Welsh. So a bit of effort from him (in his spare time) means that I’ve learnt some new words, begun tuning to a new voice, and practiced my reading and writing.
I wondered if it might be something that would be useful for people here on the forum? It’s definitely not the easiest Welsh - he’s speaking at normal pace and in his normal (gorgeous) accent / dialect - but that was kind-of the point for me. Any feedback I get is something I can take back to our learning programmes here and, who knows, maybe it’s something we can do more of, and better, in future.
Add me to those who say “Yes!”
Jackie
p.s. It is probably wrong to say that St. Fagans is the best museum in the world, because I haven’t been to all the world’s museums, but it is so good, it must be up there!!!
That would be a great resource for St Fagans to offer actually. If they could do short talks on some of the main buildings and make them available for download with a transcript for learners to go through before they visit, then they could go to the actual building and engage in conversation with the guide.
There is a Materials for Welsh Learners competition in the Eisteddfod and it’s open to individuals or groups. Here’s a thought. If you could find two or three others willing to do a brief recording for you, say 3 minutes or so, then we could call for hands up on here for people to go through the recordings and make transcripts in Welsh and English, and we could enter them in the Eisteddfod with credit to all involved. It would be a great resource for learners, plus advertising for St Fagans and SSiW. It would need to be done by the end of this month though, so a bit of pressure, but could be fun
Brilliant. I’m delighted that this is of interest. I went out today and took some photos of the building so that people can visualise what’s being talked about in the audio. My next question is, how do I upload a “.wav” file? - or if that isn’t possible, I’ll email it round.
@Deborah-SSi I was hoping I might be able to get a few more done, and the prospect of winning a prize is always a good prompt! Spreading the credit around would be great also. I’ll go and try to galvanise support next week. (The fact that I can already go to people and say that within a day of offering the first audio I had ten people wanting to use it is obviously a big plus already
I’m not sure about uploading a .wav file so I suggest everyone that’s willing to help with the transcripts PM you their email address. I gather the first one is done, so if you could get a couple of others that should be enough to enter in the Eisteddfod as a proof of concept kind of thing. It would be great to have a cooperative venture between SSiW and St Fagans!
I’ll email Catrin at the Eisteddfod and double check that the materials actually have to be sent in by the 1st April, or if it’s OK to just send in an entry form but send the materials later.
Even if we can’t make the Eisteddfod it would be a brilliant project to work on.
Below is a link to a 3 minute audio recording produced by a friend of mine at St Fagans in which he describes one of the historic buildings which comes from Denbigh - not far from where he was brought up. The file is available on Soundcloud, although I can email a copy to anyone who is interested in having their own .wav version.
It isn’t an official guide to the building, but I’ve used it to help me learn new words, get used to a great accent, and practice transcribing and translating. Hopefully it will be useful to others as well.
Below are also a few images to help you visualise some of the features that are being described in the audio file.
I’ve got a rough transcription, but I won’t post that yet, as some have said that they’d like to work it out for themselves, but to help start things off, here are couple of key words:
Talwrn = cockpit
Ymladd ceiliogod = cock fighting
If the subject matter inspires you, you can find more information here (Although the Welsh page seems to be down tonight).
If you have any feedback - good or bad - let me know. If enough people think it’s worthwhile then I’ll try to get a few others done, and next time we’ll use some professional recording equipment to improve the audio quality.
He’s got an amazing voice hasn’t he! Yes, he’s been on TV a bit (news items, magazine programmes, possibly others for all I know) - certainly he should be thinking about doing more.
Yup, Denbigh or thereabouts. Well done! He picked the Cockpit (also from Denbigh) because there’s something nice about having the right geographical accent describing a building.
