My introduction, and Diolch, Aran!

[Karla]

Though if I were a Welsh or Irish child, I’d certainly learn the language, just so that I could speak with my friends and know that a lot of adults won’t understand me!

I’d definitely do that too!

[aran]

I am wondering if/why some people pick up languages more easily than others? I would love to learn more but am struggling with even just cymraeg

One of the neurological differences seems to be the strength of working memory - remind me (!), did you post a score in the thread on working memory?

[seren]

Diolch yn fawr, @Karla and @geoffreywilliamson, I was so very impressed with how quickly you are doing the lessons that I decided to maybe try a bit harder and accidentally finished Course 1. Thanks a lot for the inspiration

[JustinandEirwen]

You know, immigrants are a very special case. Having had some immigrant experience myself, with all the pleasures of being made fun of because of my accent, I wouldn’t find the courage to judge any person who would try to assimilate as much as they can. Unfortunately

My Grandmother spoke 6 languages but as an immigrant to the U.K. hid that. She thought it would be better for her children if they hid their immigrant background and ‘‘pretend’’ to be English. So I eventually was raised by my parents uni-lingual English.

How sad and how I miss not having the opportunity to learn those other 5 languages as a child!!

Justin

[Karla]

Da iawn ti! I’m glad I was able to help!

[seren]

I was actually surprised it finished so fast, I thought I had a lot of lessons to do still:) Level 1 now, I’ve been look forward to it for a long time.

How sad and how I miss not having the opportunity to learn those other 5 languages as a child!!

I was a child who had to learn 5 languages:) I can’t say I was very happy, I was much more interested in music and dresses, really. I think we approach language learning in a much more meaningful was as adults.

[Karla]

Level one is great - you’ll fly through it! Are you going to do the vocab lessons first, or skip them for now?

And I agree - we do appreciate language much more as adults. I wish I’d paid more attention to Italian at school!

[seren]

I’m rather interested in them, and I do feel that my vocabulary is very very limited (something I’m trying to fix with the help of “Colloquial Welsh” and trying to read the news on the BBC Cymru website). But Aran normally advises to go straight to Level 1, so I’m not sure… Did you do them?

I wish I’d paid more attention to Italian at school!

It’s never too late:)

[Karla]

I did do them - I found them quite difficult, but once they were in my head, I was really glad I did. It’s stuff like months of the year, days of the week, and some more advanced conversational stuff. I find in conversations I end up using a lot that I learned in the vocabs.

And yes, I do plan to tackle Italian properly one day.

[seren]

Thanks, then I’ll definitely do them:) I have the days of the week and the months somewhere in the book, but the very thought of trying to learn a list of words by heart makes me suddenly remember all the things that I need to do right now, so I’ll probably never learn them on my own.

[Karla]

Agreed. I hate learning anything that way.

[JustinandEirwen]

I think we approach language learning in a much more meaningful was as adults

I would prefer to be one of those adults who can’t remember how I learned to speak those languages so early on in child-hood. I would have learned three times as fast and probably mastered the languages to a higher level of proficiency. However, no use crying over spilt milk. I will do my best to encourage all my family to be multi-lingua in futurel.

Justin

[JustinandEirwen]

And yes, I do plan to tackle Italian properly one day

Italian is such a beautiful language. I love the way nearly everything ends in a vowel which makes it so lyrical

Justin

[Karla]

I agree. I’m a classical singing student, so I sing in Italian a lot, and it’s one of my favourite languages to sing in! My aim one day is to not have to rely on translations in order to understand what I’m singing!

[JustinandEirwen]

I do feel that my vocabulary is very very limited (something I’m trying to fix with the help of “Colloquial Welsh” and trying to read the news on the BBC Cymru website

I think that all the current SSiW courses, including the vocabulary modules, leave you with a vocabulary of about 700+ words. I would like to rapidly extend that to about 2000 words. @aran The SSiW course is so incredibly effective that it leaves you with a huge thirst to express yourself with an extended vocabulary.

How do you find Colloquial Welsh? Is it an effective tool for rapidly accumulating vocabulary. Here’s praying that SSiW thrives to the extent it adds a ‘‘Rapid Vocabulary Extension’’ dialogue-based module.

Justin

[henddraig]

they hid their immigrant background and ‘‘pretend’’ to be English

A friend in school was half German. She spoke German at home. In school, she wasn’t very good at French (the first foreign language taught, in year 1 of Grammar School), so she was judged too dim to study languages!!! When we moved and I went to that school, I asked her if she’d told them she spoke German, and she said, “Oh yes, but they didn’t think I’d manage the lessons!” (The Headmistress was particularly narrow minded and, frankly, thick!!!)
My problem was always that as soon as I moved somewhere, I auto-picked up the local accent and was indistinguishable from the others in days!! (It no longer is true. I do not sound in the least Scots!!!).

[JustinandEirwen]

Though if I were a Welsh or Irish child, I’d certainly learn the language, just so that I could speak with my friends and know that a lot of adults won’t understand me!

I love speaking Welsh to Eirwen in Italy and in France for that very reason. The clandestine nature of it adds an extra thrill!!

Justin

[seren]

I like Colloquial Welsh very much, the mutations are marked excellently, the differences between the spoken and the written language are explained, and it is, as you said, very useful for accumulating vocabulary:) I also have “Welsh in three months” (despite its not very serious name it’s a very good book I think) and “Teach yourself Welsh” which I use mainly as listening and reading exercises. I’d also love to find a book with just a lot of exercises, because I just can’t manage to remember the personal pronouns and mutations, but I still haven’t found anything like this.

Here’s praying that SSiW thrives to the extent it adds a ‘‘Rapid Vocabulary Extension’’ dialogue-based module.

Oh yes, that would be excellent!

I love speaking Welsh to Eirwen in Italy and in France for that very reason. The clandestine nature of it adds an extra thrill!!

I love it when people try to guess which language I’m speaking!

[JustinandEirwen]

I love it when people try to guess which language I’m speaking!

I understand completely - I was intrigued by a couple in France recently who I discovered on asking were speaking Czech.

And again in Wales I couldn’t figure out at first that a couple were speaking Turkish.

I love sitting on the Metro in Paris and trying to tune into five different conversations at once to see if I can cope with so many languages in play at the same time.

Justin

[Sionned]

[quote=“aran, post:75, topic:3518”]
My step-father had a little Gaidhlig from his childhood - which has similarly challenging spelling! He used to like to say that it was important to have a lot of spare letters in case any of them got lost or broken… [/quote]
I have a friend who used to talk about the French language in a similar vein. He said French pronunciation was based on the “principle of vowel exclusion” - you look to see which vowel is NOT in the word, and pronounce it that way. For an example he used the word eau which is pronounced “oh”