Rough estimates

Welsh General / Questions
#21

Maybe i should start a business. Haha. Welsh learners weekends…
Cooking in welsh
Mathematics in welsh
Six nations in welsh
…

That is a fabulous idea! I’ve been fantasising about having a place in the country and being able to run courses on things (but I’m such a city chick, I don’t think I’d be able to cope without being able to walk to the shops…)

FWIW, I found that once I’d finished SSiW I had all the grammatical structures I would need for day-to-day speaking. (I then went on to teach myself the grammatical structures for more formal usage and for reading/writing, but they’re not really necessary for conversational Welsh, IMO.) I then learned words as and when I needed them. I think it’s a far better way to go about things - there’s no point in my spending valuable energy learning the vocabulary for something like ‘parts of an engine’ or ‘football banter’, because they’re not things I use.

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#22

Yes i agree totally.

I actually bought a grammar book the other day. Books are nicer than using the net.

Just for stuff like baswn i etc.

Now it’s a case of exposure. More radio, more reading etc…though of course the rest of level 3 when it’s out.

I’m so glad i didn’t do a traditional course now last May. And that i didn’t do one in September after finishing the lessons.

I just can’t imagine being in a classroom saying “Pete ydw i. Dwi’n byw in y Gogledd” :wink:

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#23

Surely you would be in a more advanced course than that???
ps What about people like me who are interested in :- history, politics, justice, some science, rugby, science fiction, etc. etc. Oh and have a wide and idiosyncratic vocabulary in English and would love to prattle in Welsh using a similar word set!

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#24

I remember in July one tutor showing me the mynediad book. I looked at him and said something like, “i fod yn onest, dwi’n meddwl y dylwn i drio gwneud rhywbeth arall”.

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#25

And you were right! What is uchel level like?

#26

No idea. I’m just doing my own thing!

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#27

Just what I did, Pete - until I went to do a ‘gloywi’ course for fluent speakers (which covers some of the grammar I hadn’t found for myself). Dal ati!

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#28

A good place to start, if you’re not already there, is BBC’s Cymru Fyw online - you can switch on the ‘vocab’ facility, which hyperlinks some of the words/phrases to a dictionary definition (really useful). I found Golwg a good next step (again, there’s Golwg 360 online for those who don’t live near a stockist or don’t want to subscribe) - it begins to touch on some of the subjects you’ve mentioned there. And of course there are some good TV/radio programmes for politics, justice and history (e.g. Post Prynhawn on RC, Mamwlad on S4C). I had bought a subscription to the magazine Barn for my wife (who was a bit rusty on ‘posh’ Welsh herself, despite being a native speaker), but now I find that I read it more than she does - very good on politics and literature. There are a number of other publications out there that are more highbrow (e.g. O’r Pedwar Gwynt), but I don’t have the time for anything else at the moment.

Science fiction, though … sorry - drawing blank there! (But it’s not really my thing, so I’m not tuned in to it.)

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#29

Oh dear! I realise laziness is my besetting sin! Yes, I thought, reading your suggestion, but I still have the rest of Challenges to do and it is currently much easier to watch/listen to/read news /politics etc in English!
So, maybe when I have done all the level 2 and 3 Challenges, then look at Cymru Fyw each day!

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#30

I thought I knew how to turn on vocab, but on my iPad, I can’t find how! @sarapeacock help!

#32

I’ve just had a look on my iPad. I can’t seem to find the button if I open a story in the app. But if I go to the Cymru Fyw site via my web browser (Safari) it’s there at the top right-hand corner. Hope it’s the same for you!

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#33

Diolch! This seems to happen to all apps! Damn!

#34

I reckon that if anyone has completed Level 1 and Level 2, they will almost certainly know loads more words than just those which are in the courses. Because most people will have also exposed themselves to Welsh TV and Radio, and with a bit of luck, some “Welsh in the Wild”, and a bit of reading as well.

If you want to estimate your vocabulary, here is one trick which will appeal to those of a certani mindset (and probably horrify everybody else):

Take a dictionary, such as the Pocket Welsh dictionary in the Oxford series (edited by one Gareth King).

Open a page in the Cymraeg-Saesneg section, and quickly scan down the page, counting up the number of words you know. Be generous and count the words you only recognise if they look very familiar. Don’t worry about genders and plurals etc.

Do the same for 9 other pages, chosen at random.

Total up the number of words known over the 10 pages.

Count the number of words on one of those pages.
Multiply it by 10. That’s the total words in those 10 pages.
Now work out the percentage of known words in that total of words. That’s your percentage of known words.

Now count the number of pages in the Cymraeg-Saesneg section.
Multiply by the number of words per page you counted up earlier.
That’s the total number of Welsh words in the book.

Multiply that total by the percentage of known words you worked out for the 10 pages.

The result is a very very rough estimate of the total number of Welsh words that you know.

This probably works best for people who have a few years experience in the language, and probably have a lot more words under their belt than contained in Level 1 and Level 2, but just want a rough idea of how many. I suspect most people will be surprised (in a good way) at just how many words they do know, or at least recognise.

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