I had a lovely experience today whilst visiting the National Roman Legion Museum (Amgueddfa Lleng Rufeinig Cymru) in Caerleon with my children.
I grew up nearby and I’m pretty sure that there are not a vast number of Welsh speakers in Caerleon, so I was really pleased to find that the kids quiz/treasure hunt sheets were available in Welsh and that I could have a chat about it to the nice lady on the desk who I knew spoke Welsh because she was wearing a “Iaith Gwaith” lanyard.
I was really pleased to be able to inflict some of my under-practiced Welsh on her and she seemed genuinely pleased to be having a little bit of sgwrs yn Gymraeg.
Which brings me on to my point - I often wear one of the orange Cymraeg badges from the Iaith Gwaith scheme of the Welsh Language Commission. Often people will spontaneously talk to me in Welsh when they see this and I do the same with others.
It’s mainly aimed at businesses who want to/should be offering welsh language services, but there’s nothing to stop anyone from ordering badges etc as far as I can see. The email footer etc is a free download.
I have a load of the badges myself and might bring them along for the table at the SSiW party, if anyone wants one…
I love days like yours, those little conversations seem so precious! I sometimes wear my Orange badge but I have to be a bit careful, my teenage daughter is going through a spell of finding it excruciatingly embarrassing that I speak Welsh in front of her!!!
I have tried several times to obtain 8 ‘learner’ and 4 ‘speaker’ badges for the Leeds meet-up group but my request is always declined as it comes from an address in England. They don’t seem to distinguish learners any more so if someone in Wales could get us a dozen I’d be very grateful (and reimburse you, of course).
The badge I wear is just “Cymraeg” on a little orange speech bubble. There is no distinction between “learner” and “speaker” (nor should there be, in my opinion - but that’s probably a whole other topic that we won’t go into here )
My address is in Yorkshire (I live near Halifax these days) and they sent me a load of them after I filled in the online form.
My business does work in Wales (and in Welsh), but I’m pretty sure I didn’t have to explain that on the form - I just said how many badges and lanyards I wanted…
If you are having trouble with getting them, I could bring a load to the Leeds meet up. It would give me an excuse to attend! When are the next ones?
No need for reimbursement, the badges are free from the Welsh Language Commissioner
I use one of those lanyards to keep hold of my dog-walking whistle, and have got into many a Welsh conversation in the park in the morning because of it
We don’t have to wear lanyards at work since there’s so few of us. I think there would be an amount of resistance if an edict from corporate HQ tried to force them on us.
That’s good to know! I bought ice cream yesterday, the whole transaction conducted in Welsh, and anyone would have thought I had stripped off and bought it without any clothes on But, as you say, his too shall pass
I wear a dysgwr lanyard in work. During a recent ISCE mock exam (an exam where medical students have to do a clinical activity e.g. explain a medication), quite a few students added in a couple of Welsh words which was lovely. Can’t let them do the entire thing in Welsh unfortunately. I’d love to do more things in Welsh with our students, perhaps when I’m better at Welsh.
If people are having trouble getting hold of them I could physically collect a batch from Tŷ Tawe (there usually seems to be a stack there) and post on?
Another option might be these red “Dysgu Cymraeg” badges from the Welsh Gift Shop - I ordered one from them (together with some other things) and they were perfectly happy to post it to Germany.
(As it happened, I got cold feet in the end and ended up not actually taking it with me on my trip to Wales, much less actually wearing it.)
If you don’t mind wearing a badge that’s not “official”…
)
But, as you say, his too shall pass 
