This was posted on the old forum by Carrie so I offered to post it on here for her while she gets her account sorted …
"S’mae pawb, finally remembered my password to log in here
Thought I’d pop in and say helo.
My name is Carrie and I’m a board member of ‘Canolfan Gymraeg Wrecsam’, we run Saith Seren (the Old Seven Stars pub and Welsh center) in the town center. We run a variety of Welsh language events, Welsh lessons and also a free Welsh practice session run by Judith every Monday evening (Sure Geraint has already been on here to let you know about that one.
We’re a community run cooperative and have lots of volunteer opportunities (you’ll find me volunteering behind the bar every Monday), it’s been great to meet so many SSIW learners at the Monday practice sessions, I know the course has been a huge help to people.
I’m a Tresaith bootcamper as well, still very much learning but will always appreciate the time spent with Aran, Catrin and others at bootcamp which brought my Welsh along no end.
All our staff and volunteers at Saith are fluent Welsh speakers or learners (Even our Auzzie chef is learning fast!) , so please feel free to call in any time you want to practise!
Aran, ga i poster am y SSIW cwrs i rhoi fynu yn y bar plis?
I can obviously back up everything said here, the Monday evening sgwrs is my main weekly practice and I would urge anyone able to get there to make the effort. It’s a really friendly group and will make you feel very welcome.
The evening gets going around 7:15 and people usually hang around until after 9:30. Any level of Welsh is enough. If you are feeling particularly nervous just bring cake and I will be your best friend.
Mae’n drwg gennyf yn deud…had hoped to call in last Saturday before the Cup Final,…terrific game though, shame Aber got squeezed by a very good team in the shape of TNS…at least they will be representing Hen Cymru in Europe next season. Hwyl fawr pobol y Wrecsam.
I forgot to mention about the usual Monday night gathering yesterday but never mind.
Last night was brilliant for me for two reasons.
Firstly I got to chat a lot more than usual, something that doesn’t happen in a large group for me even in English. A lot of it was with Carrie who came up with a fantastic idea … more of which to come later in another thread.
Secondly, I had probably the best compliment on my Welsh so far. I won’t go into detail because it would seem rather “look-at-me” ish but needless to say I am really chuffed to bits. And of course an SSiW card made its way out of my wallet and into the kind person’s hand.
Ok, basically there was a first language Welsh girl there last night, just popped in for half hour and was introduced to us, she sat next to me and the group talked with her for a while. She then turned to me and asked if everyone in the group was a learner, I told her about two that aren’t but everyone else is. I asked about her family, bla, bla, bla, then she said that her husband has been learning in local classes for 4 years but isn’t very confident, then asked me how long I’ve been learning, I told her that I started in August 2011 so just less than 3 years and she said “sut wyt ti’n mor rhugl?”, “beth?” said I and she repeated it in English (the only English in this whole story) so I told her that I understood but didn’t believe what she was saying. So I then told her about SSiW and forced her to take a card for her husband, and about Skype sessions, about bootcamp and about a regular chat session like Monday nights in the pub … all these things raise confidence and that is the single biggest thing you need to get out there. The second biggest thing to raise your confidence is receiving compliments like this and you won’t get them compliments unless you get out there in the first place. So “chuffed to bits” doesn’t really cover it.
