I’ve just returned from an excellent total immersion weekend organised by Marcus of Paned Cymru, assisted by our own “Cymraes Cymraeg”, Nia Llewellyn.
The weekend was appropriately called “Codi Hyder” / “Raising Confidence” and was held in the Ty Glyn Davies Centre near Ciliau Aeron.
The first full day was spent in the audience at a Noson Llawen recording in the presence of and celebrating the imminent 80th birthday of Hywel Gwynfryn. We had a full day of watching the best of Welsh talent performing and usually doing retakes. On top of this, we all got paid (I won’t tell you how much for tax reasons ). Now that I’m a showbiz insider, I can’t really reveal how things were conducted. All I’m saying is that I’m expecting my Equity (Actor’s Union) card in the post any day.
The Noson Llawen will be broadcast in October. Look out for me. I’m the one with the silly grin in the front of the audience.
On the next day we went to a “Taith Tractor” event in Felinfach. After watching hundreds of tractors driving off into the Ceredigion countryside, we left for our next challenge.
The Historic Vale of Aeron pub in Ystrad Aeron has been bought by the local community. We had the pleasure and fun of helping to decorate before its opening in a fortnight. I brought home several samples of the pub wall colour (hessian) on my sweatshirt for my wife to see.
The best thing about the experience for me was the company of Marcus, Nia, her dog, Sam, and my wonderful fellow learners. I have found on this and a number of SSIW bootcamps that they bring together such friendly people. Perhaps it’s our shared pursuit of the Welsh language and wish to encourage and support each other.
Diolch Marcus, diolch Nia ac, yn arbennig, diolch ffrindiau newydd.
Well done Huw, you’ve summed up the weekend brilliantly with your inimitable humour! So I’ll just say, yn gloi, nes I joio - help, more gogs needed, I’m turning into a hwntw! Diolch pawb am eich cwmni a diolch Marcus a Nia am eich gwaith galed, fel arfer.
Penwythnos Codi Hyder really was an excellent weekend
While all of the activities definitely added to the overall experience, the best part was, as Huw’s said, the group of us sharing the weekend and our Welsh journeys together. Some were more, some less fluent, but that didn’t matter - we grew together, discovered and shared things together, laughed and lived together. And we all grew. The chance to ‘stay’ in Welsh for a prolonged period made such a difference, but best of all was doing so as part of a small Welsh ‘family’.
(And if you’re wary of a whole week of a Bwtcamp, why not start off with a long weekend - also helpful for those of us who struggle to be free for a whole week away at the right time anyway!)
Diolch Marcus a Nia am eich gwaith caled i gyd; diolch ffrindiau newydd amdanoch chi.
I learnt about it from both WSP and the SSiW newsletter; it’s not run by SSiW though, but by Paned.Cymru. If you go to their website you’ll be able to see what they have coming up soon.
A little post-weekend joy…
I travelled to and from the weekend via public transport, aided by kind lifts to and from the bus stop (diolch Marcus ). Heading home on a filling bus, on about the second stop I moved my bag to make room for someone to sit down, saying ‘Tywydd hyfryd heddiw’. Bit of a pause - was wondering whether to translate when the lady replied (in Welsh), saying sorry that she was slow, but she was a learner. Assured her no problem and that I was a learner too - and we went on to have a lovely Welsh chat all the way to Aberystwyth, covering subjects as diverse as learning Welsh, art exhibitions, lockdown and a love of space! The lady said how much the chat had boosted her confidence - it boosted mine hugely too. A weekend of Welsh had made starting and continuing a Welsh conversation seem far more ‘normal’.
Footnote - back in school in Norfolk the next day, all the English seemed very odd - kept wanting to speak Welsh!!
I am looking at Paned’s next event now, but there’s no contact details or a way for me to ask them about it (where exactly it is in lampeter etc). Do you have contact or do you just get sent this info once you purchase?
I’ll forward your post (anonymously) to Marcus, the organiser, to let him know your questions and send you a PM with his email. Hope that helps.
Please note that I don’t represent Marcus or Paned Cymru. I only heard of the Codi Hyder weekend through the SSIW newsletter and was pleased to report on it in this thread.
Apologies, I have only just been made aware of this thread. If anyone is interested in the next weekend, it is 2 nights rather than 3 and is only £99 we are paying tribute to the Welsh band datblygu for their contribution and commitment to the Welsh language. Arrival from 3pm Friday, Accomodation is at a special accomodation unit at the University, it is a nice standard. Food is not included on this particular weekend but the cafe’s around are very reasonable. On the Friday we will be viewing a film together, On saturday afternoon there will be a Q and A session, and on Saturday evening we will be hosting a gig to celebrate the music of Datblygu and on the Sunday we will be travelling down to Aberteifi to visit some important places special to the band. We expect to finish around 3pm Sunday.
In other news, I am currently working on accomodation for the summer courses and hopefully will have some news soon regarding dates. The normal format is 3 nights accomodation including most meals for £165, we stay in Welsh across the weekend. There are plans to have some weekends revolving people’s interests such as gardening, sewing, walking etc. There will also be a dipping your toe into the language weekend for people taking their first steps in Welsh. If you would like to be added to the list to receive details of future courses please email contactpaned@gmail.com
Hi Huw, sounds like a great weekend was had by all. How do you get into one of these weekend events? I had so many things lined up and then annulled by Covid and would love to get into bootcamp but as that seems to have disappeared, these weekend could fill a gap.
Thanks for posting this review,
Gareth
I learned about this through the SSIW newsletter, but I understand that it was also publicised through WSP on Slack
It was organised by Marcus of Paned Cymru not by SSIW. Marcus has posted a link to the next event above and also included an email for requestiing details of future courses.
As I said earlier I do not represent Marcus or Paned Cymru but I did enjoy the one weekend I attended.
I have been the beneficiary of a number of total immersion SSIW bootcamps which have been suspended for some time. I hope that these may be resumed in some form, in fact I know that there is a lot of interest and “moves are afoot” to relaunch something similar.
Hello Barbara
To be more sure of reaching @MarcusWhitfield you’d be better to use the email contactpaned@gmail.com or this forum’s private message facility or (my least preferred) tagging him as I have done here.
Reminder
With a couple of special thread exceptions, English is preferred for all posts ( the reason is explained in the forum rules). Welsh is, of course, perfect for private messages, emails and the dedicated Welsh threads.
). Now that I’m a showbiz insider, I can’t really reveal how things were conducted. All I’m saying is that I’m expecting my Equity (Actor’s Union) card in the post any day.
I brought home several samples of the pub wall colour (hessian) on my sweatshirt for my wife to see.
Diolch.
Diolch am rhannu