Your version may have been better.[quote=āAnthonyCusack, post:15, topic:6858ā]
Iām starting to learn what a word means through context without having to look up the English meaning.
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Along similar lines, in recent months I have been going through Welsh texts with a Skype partner, reading them out and then translating them. His Welsh is much better than mine, but quite often, neither of us can come up with an exact English equivalent for a particular Welsh word, or more likely, phrase, even though we know basically what it means, or what itās getting at. And thatās good enough, I think (although it took me a while to realise that).
Thatās definitely progress! Itās easy to get caught in learning a language as a translation of your mother tongue and never fully understanding it as a stand alone. That obviously takes looooooads of time to fully achieve, and no course is, nor professes to be, able to teach that. Thatās all about reflection and time.
I recently went on a teaching day about how to mentor students in physio. They talked a lot about enabling depth of learning. They also highlighted how important holidays are as part of the learning process. Everybody bemoans the length of summer holidays when you donāt have them yourself. However, the consolidation of learning is quite remarkable.
Therefore, itās a fools errand to seek fluency as fast as possible, because, actual understanding is more important. That takes consolidation.
I now consider myself a speakerā¦a fluent speaker with a limited vocabulary.
I should explain. There are some conversations i have no difficulty with at all. There are others where i have no idea what is going on.
This by the way is in English.
The other week i was in Dolgellau and was perfectly understood in the cafe and in the pub. Even the barman spoke to me in welsh when he came to apologise to me when Mr Angry had a go at me at the bar for learning. So a cymro cymraeg actually defaulted to speaking Welsh with me, Mr Not Fluent. Hmmm. Time to rethink which i have done.
This weekend another jaunt into Welsh speaking areas too. So if you see someone failing to understand what cut of meat he wants in the butchers, remember thatās outside of his fluent vocabulary, in the same way that string theory in physics is outside my usable English vocabulary!
Thatās a good way of putting it Pete . I was feeling frustrated this morning as I hadnāt had a conversation with any native Welsh speakers for a good few days. I tend to feel frustrated when I feel that I havenāt had enough exposure for a while so I decided to go on a big walk around the village in order to seek out a decent Welsh conversation . I ended up having 3 different conversations . The first one didnāt go brilliantly as it was one of those days where my brain seemed to have reset back in to English mode . The second brief conversation I had was a bit better but the 3rd conversation I had when I bumped in to someone I know while walking down the beach was quite substantial and lasted about 20 minutes. I got home feeling nice and satisfied with my brain now switched back in to mode Cymraeg
Today Iāve been reading about ānew speakersā, which is an emerging concept in sociolinguistics. Basically, itās those of us that didnāt learn our language through our family at home - so that covers kids who go through immersion schooling as well as those of us who learn as adults. I like it (so far - lot more to read yet) because it seems to me to do away with so much of the hierarchy. Sometimes I tie myself up in knots trying to explain to people: āYes, I speak Welsh. Well, Iāve learned. Well, I sort of taught myself but thereās this brilliant websiteā¦ā And new speakers are going to be hugely important to get to those million speakersā¦
Donāt forget - even people who speak Welsh as a first language are still learning new words and expressions all the time - it isnāt a process with a final end point.
This is why I donāt quite agree with the (well intentioned) advice sometimes given here of ādonāt call yourself a learner - youāre a speakerā. I donāt see the two as being mutually exclusive.
I agree, I have a teacher who has learnt Welsh and I said this very same thing. Once Iām happily chatting away Iād still want to tell people Iām a dysgwr. Why deny all the hard work? Iām proud of it.
Your version may have been better.[quote=āAnthonyCusack, post:15, topic:6858ā]