I had a C grade O’level welsh. Which to be fair wasn’t much more than days of the week, months of the year, the weather, numbers, the time, hoffi, eisiau, clothes, shops, mwynhau, and Ga i.
So two months ago I started learning Spanish on Duo Lingo and loved the app. I thought I would have a little look at the welsh version. Anyway, there’s a test to see how much you know and I took the test and it opened up at level 20.
I decided I would do both welsh and spanish and see how I got on. Welsh was easier as most of the above I still remembered. I have done 20 minutes a day on both languages for 60 days now. I have wrestled a lot whether I should be concentrating on just one and it feels like the time I am putting into welsh might have more benefit if I put that into spanish. However, I like welsh. I like the idea of speaking welsh and I am envious of those that do. I am progressing faster with welsh and I am more inclined to learn welsh in my spare time over and above the 20 minutes. It does seem hard though particularly with the mutations and having to learn both the formal and informal version of everything. It’s my plan to take far more notice of the informal as I can’t really see myself in many formal situations. I’m from the English speaking part of North Wales. live near London so I’m not going to get many situations to practice in although i have just discovered the London welsh centre online, so I am going to see if that is helpful.
Meanwhile if you are learning welsh and here are some of the things I have been using.
Duo Lingo - This is great, I really enjoy this. I find it much easier to do on my laptop than on my mobile. I feel like in 30 days I had far surpassed my o’level level and was getting the hang of mutations because of it. On a negative, there is a button you can press to go to the explaining bit but you tend not to use it and just crack on, the standard way of using it means you make mistakes like with mutation or formal or informal and don’t really know why. Another thing that’s a bit frustrating is they have teamed up with a welsh language course and there’s some dumb stuff in it that feels old fashioned like going on about harp’s and cottages and having a dragon as a friend and two imaginary characters called Dewi Lingo and Eleri Lingo. This seems to be dropped as you progress past the initial stages. Duo Lingo alone isn’t going to be enough to learn a language but my attitude is to do this 20 minutes a day mix in some youtube and see where I am in two years. On the whole it’s amazing and given me a real feeling that I can crack this language.
YouTube - Now you’re talking Welsh. In the early 90’s there was a tv programme called Now you’re talking welsh. Someone has kindly uploaded it onto youtube. I really enjoyed this program there are 36 x 20 minute programs. It feels really old fashion, a bit cheesy but it has some great things in it that were in our lives as kids that have gone now like Midland Bank and Manweb. It deals with the language for North Wales and South Wales and highlights the differences. However I think this might add some confusion. I am also not sure it fits in with the more modern way of teaching Welsh which seems to be taking a bit of North and South and mixing it in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RgBSQVhJFM
YouTube - Welsh with us. This is excellent. It really doesn’t mess about with chatting or over complicating anything, it just gets to the point. Each video is around 2-4 minutes, it’s clear and concise. It’s particularly good for if you want to look up a particular thing. For instance, I was struggling a bit on duo lingo with “I had, he had, she had etc”. I looked up the I had lesson on Welsh with us and within five minutes I had cracked it. The best way of using this is to click on the section that says playlist and it’s split into begginers and improvers. It’s listed there in the correct order. On a downside to these lesson there’s no real practice or use of what you learn, just the odd example.
Youtube Easy Welsh, These are interesting. It’s the interviewers just chatting to people on the street. A friend of mine inspired me a little when he said a lot of North Walians have an interesting way of mixing English and Welsh. It made me realise if you get stuck you can chuck in a couple of English words in the middle of a sentence and carry on, hopefully getting a way with it. There’s not really any other language you can do this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3bUF4CWX50&list=PLA5UIoabheFNGrS9AIUvXUgnwJmXyF-1u&index=1
Youtube Welsh Plus +
Not sure what happened here, these look handy but not overly useful and it seems like whoever made them packed in after about 20, but they are bite size with a light non serious feel and each edition lets you pick up a few new words
Youtube S4c - In 2015 S4c did a program called Hwb. I have only seen the first few of these and I’m not overly keen on the format but there are 112 lessons and I’m sure, I can pick plenty up from it.
Say Something in Welsh - Here I am it’s my first day here. It looks great but I have have been saying Eisiau as AY-Shy and now it’s here as AY-SHO
