Hi All SSiWers,
My name is Richard and I am new to this game having started Challenge 1 Level 1 (Southern) at the beginning of July 2015. Prior to this I had no idea Wales had its own living language. Today I find myself having just completed Level 10 (the recommended 80% out before Cat) and can’t believe how much I am enjoying this way of learning. I would never have believed that a language could be absorbed so quickly and with such ease and enjoyment if I hadn’t experienced it firsthand.
I must say a big thank-you to Gavin (Faithless 78) who has encouraged me to introduce myself to the forum and has responded to my initial concerns with a great deal of enthusiasm .
My short term aims are to try out a bootcamp (though that won’t be for some time yet) and long term aim is to move to Wales and integrate into a Welsh speaking community (South West Wales). I know it’s a broad question and I’m not giving much to go on but which towns would you SSiWers recommend/not recommend?
Right now my conversational Welsh is limited to chatting with my imaginary friend or occasionally the primates in the Borneo jungle where I live. The nearest Welshman must be hundreds of miles away or more.
About to step into Level 11
Regards - Richard
YAY! CROESO YMA! 
Keep up doing a good work. It seams you are doing superbly well.
Croeso!
Welcome Richard. I also long to live in Wales (North) and I am so looking forward to that day and the opportunity I will then have to improve my Cymraeg, hearing and speaking it daily. Pob lwc!
Hi Richard, welcome to the forum! You’ll find there are a lot of people here who aren’t from Wales or the UK - were quite a global community, so we understand your position. 
Croeso, Richard! I’m in the United States, so I can’t help with your query about where to live, but I hope you find a wonderful place in Wales where you can use your Welsh every day. You will find the forum to be full of friendly people who, as Karla says, come from all over the world. Dal ati, pob lwc, and keep posting!
[quote=“YDraigGoch, post:1, topic:3492”]
Right now my conversational Welsh is limited to chatting with my imaginary friend or occasionally the primates in the Borneo jungle where I live.[/quote]
Borneo?!? Really!? I’d love to put that on the map if you give me a little more specific location.
Croeso. This is a great forum with great people.
Welcome to the forum and to the Welsh language.
To be honest, I’m speechless- in a very, very good way.
I just so much want to hear the story behind this incredible, wonderful, bizarre (in such a good, good, way!) three month journey!
Hi Sionned,
To be a little more exact, Brunei on Borneo. And here is a tarantula I snapped in the jungle last night in a very ready state. Provoked my myself and a very long vibrating stick.
Richard
Hi Owainlurch,
Long story short. Picked up on the language by chance and fell in love with it. Originally from Lloegr now working on Borneo. Trying to save some money for an affordable property. Prices are more attractive in Cymru than Lloegr and apart from the weather in Wales things look quite appealing. South West Wales I believe speak more Welsh than the south east so a move somewhere in the south west is more likely. The language has been all go since I started early July 2015. Iestyn’s SSiW challenges have been playing over and over and over. In quiet times I mumble what I can in Cymraeg and find I enjoy talking to myself (don’t tell the men in white coats this). The phrases are now becoming quite familiar with less time pondering over the required translation. However, I am aware that all learning is so far stored in my short term memory and unless I continue this trend, I will lose what I have learnt thus far. I have a target to take a break after Challenge 12 and consolidate what I have learnt for a couple of weeks before moving on to the next challenge.
Looking forward to a Welsh victory in the upcoming Lloegr v Cymru game.
Richard
Eeek! this arachnophobe wishes that picture weren’t quite that big!
Re: where to live: I have to say that I love living in Cardiff (slightly off message, I realise, as SE not SW). There is a small but rapidly growing Welsh-speaking community here, and lots to do.
The SW is a really lovely area, so it really depends on what you’re looking for. I really like Narbeth (where my mum used to live), which has become quite ‘chi-chi’ recently. And we spent a weekend in the summer at Llandudoch (St Dogmaels) which is a gorgeous village on the Teifi estuary, very near Aberteifi (Cardigan) - a town well loved by Bwtcampwyr and where there is a fair amount of Welsh spoken, I think. Then that coast from Aberteifi down through Pembrokeshire is stunning. My friends really like Newport, Pembs, but we found it a little too full of posh English people (but perhaps that was the time of year we were there?)
TBH, you’re spoiled for choice. But no tarantulas (I hope!!)
Hwyl from hen to coch!!
- There is a ‘What’s outside’ thread with ‘Warning Copyn’ to protect arachnophobes like me!! (I had a nasty experience with an invading, non-British 8 legged monster when I was quite young!).
- You are doing incredible well, but I warn you that @Iestyn has an eastern accent. People in the south west will ask which of the valleys you come from!!
- I now live in Yr Alban (Scotland) and could not share a country with your 8 legged friend. I used to live on beautiful Gower, which is just next to Swansea, lovely, expensive and, now, almost entirely English speaking. I think you would find more Cymraeg by going into Ceredigion, but I’m not really qualified to advise as I moved here 12 years ago!
- We have a World Cup thread. I am worried, we have too many injured and didn’t play well against Uruguay.
Let’s put some input here …
Here it is: What’s Outside
And here we go with rugby thread: Cwpan Rygbi’r Byd - 2015 - Rugby World Cup
[quote=“YDraigGoch, post:10, topic:3492”]
To be a little more exact, Brunei on Borneo.[/quote]
Hooray! Another marker in a previously empty-of-markers area! But I gotta admit, that tarantula makes me shudder, too!!!
Croeso @YDraigGoch
Places: Well, some people here with an utterly un-unbiased opinion say that Llandysul, Ceredigion is not only the best place in Wales, but the best place in the world!
However, you have a get-out clause if you must live somewhere near the sea.
Or in the mountains.
Or in a city.
Let’s face it, you can’t go far wrong wherever you choose.
What an absolutely fantastic first post! 
And how very seriously cool to have a marker in Brunei!.. 
Hi Sarapeacock,
Thanks for the welcome. Sorry about the rainforest shock. Here’s one for you. These two cuties are currently nesting on one of our outside lights.
Sorry sionned about the rainforest shock. Try these sweeties currently nesting on one of our outdoor lamps.
I hope this is the last posting I make without using any Cymraeg. I feel a bit of a fraud not using at least a few words having gotten through Level 10.
Hi mikeellwood.
Just to say that I might take you up on the Ceredigion location. It’s on my shortlist.
Diolch yn fawr.