[quote=“aran, post:40, topic:13733”]
Do you folk have any easier way of saying American/Canadian?! [/quote]
How about “North American” - not much shorter but ties in with some of the organizations we’re talking about?
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Thanks @aran for your report; you capture a remarkable event, and helps us to give perspective on our language and efforts to use and promote it in Wales. I can’t really imagine being somewhere where it’s cool to speak Welsh, so I’ll have to go there next yar (if possible!) and experience that.
For any readers on this thread, I’m happy for the digital magazine parallel.cymru to publish articles and resources to help educate and connect people in North America. I can provide a quick and easy way for you to have an item online with a custom URL to share such as parallel.cymru/north-america-is-amazing. Of course I don’t want to take anything away from existing organisations and the amazing work that they do, but I’m happy to discuss on PM here or by email parallel.cymru@gmail.com if there ways I can support you all.
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Hmm - this may be easier to say, and I know it’s in the name of the excellent festival we are talking about, but the second largest country by population in North America (and in NAFTA) by many definitions is of course Mexico (and then there are all the Caribbean islands which are usually placed on the same continent). Although US/Canadian English speakers often do use “North America” to mean just Canada and the USA, that’s a somewhat odd thing to do from the perspective of many internationally, including for example my cousins in North America, and their 120 million Mexican compatriots, who look south to the Central America isthmus that they are definitely not part of …
How about US/Canadian? (as “US” is usually used as the adjective from “USA” or “the US”). I don’t think anyone has yet found a universally acceptable perfect solution to the “what to call the bit of the Americas that calls itself America” problem (my Mexican family have things they call my US friends, but they are definitely not universally acceptable … 
).
Nonetheless, as an international and inter-lingual community, might US/Canadian work OK?
Many apologies if I have poked a hornet’s nest - I love reading about how much fun has clearly been had and how much potential for good things there following on from NAFOW and definitely don’t want to get in the way of more of the same!
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US/Canada sounds really good, and fits neatly… 
I’m always checking out Parallel Cymru, love the website.
I had not heard of forumwales.com before. It was active until 2016 and the screenshot is from November 2016. But this is not the type of forum I was thinking of.
I can see why it failed. I was thinking more of a forum where the forum reaches out to the various groups and invites them in helping to create conversations and links between groups. Much like SSiW does for languages. Employ a solution with that has a high degree of success.
US/Canadian works fine and could even be abbreviated further…USCAN or CANUS. 
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Just to say that I think this is a really interesting project. On the one hand, it might seem that promoting Welsh across the Atlantic doesn’t increase the number of speakers using the language in Wales in every day life, but I feel strongly that it does huge things for the status of Welsh to have an international following with obvious enthusiasm coming from overseas.
I don’t know whether I can offer any practical help, but I will keep following the discussion and chip in if I have any ideas.
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I’m okay with Slack (although as yet I have barely any experience with it) or the forum. I’m flat out at the moment, but next week I should have more time to think about all this and chip in some ideas.
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I am glad to see this thread up on the forum. I have been using SSiW for only a short amount of time (only in Level 1 Challenge 11) but it has helped me immensely in my speech and understanding of the Welsh language. So much so that when I stumbled upon NAFOW I found a way to go to the Conference. I was so excited to finally meet others who were learning Welsh and those that were native speakers.
I loved my time at NAFOW, and it was where I had my first Welsh conversation with someone from Wales. It was intimidating, especially since my only Welsh exposure was listening to S4C, Radio Cymru and speaking with my cat, but after the first day, I was relaxed and enjoying the interactions I was having with everyone.
I want to help find a way to connect others who are in the same boat as me. I live in Florida and I feel like I am the only Welsh learner in my area. I do know of to St. David Societies in my area and I plan on meeting up with someone I met at NAFOW to talk about starting one closer to our respective houses, but I would love to be involved on a grander scale. I have a hospitality/event/ restaurant background and currently I work at a university in Education Abroad. I am always ready to jump in when people need help with connection, communication, creating a space for people to gather and what not. I don’t know how I can help with all of this, but I have a passion for it and would love to be involved.
Thank you @aran for coming across to America and inspiring us learners. Hopefully, we can find a way to strengthen the connection.
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Croeso, KellyMoore!
My Cymraeg story runs nearly parallel to yours. NAFOW was my first exposure to “Cymreig anything” but I could only attend Saturday, and it was a whirlwind day and in some aspects life changing for me. I didn’t want to stop speaking Cymraeg after my day. I have a dog who listens extremely well…he’s a bit short on words, though.
If you live near DC, @tahl has a monthly meet up, the first Saturday of each month in a cozy teashop. You can find the information in the Meetups section of SSiW. I’ve not been, as DC is a bit of reach to talk. One day, I’ll bring my family and have a day of it.
I’ve been amazed at how many Welsh Societies have Facebook pages. Try this search and see if there are any hits near you. “Welsh Society” your state site:facebook.com. For an example, I live in Delaware, so my search is “Welsh Society” delaware site:facebook.com. I am in the process of joining up and working with the President to create some sort of meet up to siarad Cymraeg.
The quotes " " tells the search engine to look for whatever words are within the quotes and in the order you specified. site: forces the search engine to look for the search criteria on that specific website.
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I meant to highlight this much earlier. It’s amazing what can happen when passionate people come together to share an experience.
I don’t know what Aran’s expectations were when he boarded the plane, but I suspect it wasn’t this. For myself, I didn’t know what to expect, so I left myself open to all experiences and it changed me as well. Here we all are working to create new avenues of communication between disparate groups in multiple countries. How cool is that?
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Hello! I met tahl at NAFOW this year. And i enjoyed the experience at NAFOW so much. Unfortunately I am in Florida, a wee bit far from DC, but I have two societies somewhat near me and I hope to start one myself with another person I met at NAFOW.
Thank you for the Facebook information! I appreciate any way I can get connected to the Welsh speaking community.
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Also, have you looked at our map? There may be others near you who are doing SSiW. For that matter, I’d love to put you on the map if you want to tell me where in Florida I should put you. 
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Hi Sionned! I didn’t know about the map! I live in Tampa. Thank you for putting me on the map!
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Lovely to see you on the forum, Kelly!
I think this week is a good week for deciding our next set of baby steps for SSiW-US/CAN
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Sound wonderful! I’m in and ready to go!!
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We have that already I believe Delaware Jones! The NAFOW umbrella organization is WNAA - Welsh North American Assoc - under which many /most of us Welsh organizations are covered. We have tried many times to get info shared amongst us but it hasn’t been too successful so it does need to be improved. Maybe a rep from each one? Let’s talj!
Susan Davies Sit
Welsh Soc of Western New England
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There’s already a list on the WNAA website
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The Welsh organization list on TheWNAA.org should be made into a email group by everyone (we have done this) and fur example mail each others newsletters to each other. This is important to stay connected.
Susan Davies
Welsh Soc of Western New England
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Count me in for helping with this! We have enthusiastic Welsh learners here in anew England
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