If you wanted to supplement your SSIW studies with a textbook is there one that is generally used in schools and adult classes?
Our class uses the Cwrs Sylfaen (Foundation) one but I canāt say Iād recommend it - itās a bit rubbish. Andā¦ahemā¦you can find scanned PDF versions of that and Cwrs Mynediadās textbook if you do a little search online.
I look forward to seeing what others suggest. An alternative might be to use a good Welsh dictionary (mine has notes on grammar) and some Welsh beginner reading books.
If youāre determined to be doing the whole reading/writing thing, then you could find no better starting point than Gareth Kingās āColloquial Welshā - not just the best Welsh textbook Iāve ever used, but also the best of Routledgeās āColloquialā series (okay, based on my experience - Iāve played around with Italian, Slovenian, Egyptian, Spanish, Breton, and some others I canāt remember right now).
Good grief! Donāt forget Manx!
I donāt think there is a Colloquial Manxā¦
I would fully second Aranās comments re.Gareth Kingās book. Also, Iāve found the 'Pocket Modern Welsh Dictionary to be very useful. Itās rather more than just a dictionary and itās also edited by Gareth. Doesnāt easily fit into a pocket and perhaps necessarily relatively limited in terms of vocabulary but more than enough vocab for general use. Wouldnāt be without it.
No Colloquial Manx, but I found those instead ā¦
Hmmmm ā¦ this sounds very interesting. To be honest, Iāve put some looks into it but hearing and reading some it sounded more formal then colloquial to me. But thatās another story not even a bit conected with Cymraeg though although the course in general is really good.
On the grammar part, Iām using Gruffuddās Welsh Rules with separate book of Exercises (not using it as much as Iād wanted though) and it seams quite good to me to.
Otherwise - be a kid and start reading with Golwg360ās WCW. .
I then found GKās Basic Welsh Grammar (followed by Intermediate Welsh Grammar) to be absolutely brilliant. But they do assume a certain amount of basic knowledge & vocabulary, so it kind of depends on your original starting point. (The Colloquial Welsh is, as Aran says, a great starting point for someone not ready for the grammar books.)
Friends of mine have highly recommended books by Heini Gruffudd as well, but Iām not sure which specific volume.
Are you so suggesting aran should get a muscle vest?
Seriously though, i misread aranās post. I hate to think how many languages he has tried!
He has tried them for sure but not neccessarily has he coped with them. Hmmm ā¦ Iām tempted to try some Slovene with him ā¦
On the other hand, Iāve tried quite some languages too (but surely not as many as majority of SSiW HQ and quite some people on this forum) but to be a bit proud Welsh speaker I believe, after English (take out Slovene and Serbo-Croatian of course) I speak Cymraeg the best. My German is rusted and whenever I try to say something I end up with Cymraeg. The Italian is the same āsongā as German just much, much more rusted and forgotten.
Yes, thank you @sarapeacock, I made a mistake in my previous message. Itās Heini Gruffuddās Welsh Rules not Griffits (Iām not sure where did I pick up this name though). Iāll go and correct my privious post. So Sara, Welsh Rules is the one and the exercises are separate book to buy.
Or Golwgās Lingo Newydd for adult learners Three colour-coded difficulty levels of articles, from beginner through intermediate to advanced; and sometimes the same subject is presented in all three levels.
Lingo Newydd has little boxes of vocabulary under each article that you might not know at that levelā¦ while Wcw has none at all! Just lots of Welsh
Well, it does come with a separate little insert with translations of all the games, activities, and little stories into English for parents with no Welsh or not much to follow along.
I found easy to use this separate part of English along with Welsh in the magazine because itās formed colse to how the text is formed in the issue in Welsh. So itās useful. Itās just that I terminated subscription this year due to some financial problems just before the new year and due to the fact that I have plenty material to read now from the Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi and Martha Jack a Sianco which both @margaretnock has given to me, all the way to WCW of the last year as I didnāt have time to read it all yet and some editions of Lingo Newydd and Golwg (well mostly those where I and all fellow co-bootcampers of July Tresaith bootcamp are in. To the knowledge, Golwg comes without any English thingys (as much as I could see) and both, Lingo newydd and Golwg you can get as digital issues on your mobile/tablet (whatever) through their app while WCW you can not get this way. Also to Golwg you can subscribe through the app also in order to get digital issues while Lingo newydd you can buy only one issue at a time and can not order subscription through the app. (unless thereās something new and I donāt know since didnāt use the app for quite a long time though).
Iāve probably failed to learn more languages than youāve had hot dinnersā¦
I am a multiple, serial, long-term language learning failure.
And I used to think it was my fault - that I was just one of those people who werenāt any good at languages.
Now I know it wasnāt my fault - it was a methodology problem.
I can assure you my waistline says otherwise!
@aran if it comforts you, here are two of us already! I always had exactly the same problem with one (little ā¦ ummm no, it might not be so little anyway) difference, that I quite some times still think itās my fault and itās my problem! But ā¦ SSiW models me slowly to get rid of this guilt ā¦ We all win when I succeed to get rid of that thinking/feeling entirely (which unfortunately might not quite happen though).
Iām another serial language failure if it comforts anyone. Mainly because Iāve flipped between Welsh and Portuguese over the years without concentrating on one of them. Therefore I know a bit of both rather than being fluent in one. A great frustration.
Itās possible to subscribe to Lingo Newydd in the app as well ā new issues will then be available and can be downloaded from inside the app; the button for doing so will read āAm Dimā rather than having a price on it. (Checked just now; there was one new issue available since I last looked inside my app.)
I donāt remember how I managed to create the subscription unfortunately; I think it was rather confusing since it was all in Welsh so I probably just clicked around until it happenedā¦
Oh, lucky you. When I last checked there was no price but just something like āClick for infoā and then youāve got a price for 1 single issue which was around 2.50 GBP or so and that was all. Iāve bought those 2 issues which interested me at that time but Iāll look into it soon as I want to buy February issue as one of rugby players is interviewed in (if I saw things correctly on twitter).
Level coloured sections are really useful, I agree. And, for those who didnāt noticed, in the app some articles or part of them are narated so you can listen and read at the same time. I was thrilled with that option really.
LOL! Holy crow! I just looked on the Canadian Amazon site for Gareth Kingās books. Whereas you can get the 2015 edition of Modern Welsh on the UK Amazon site for Ā£49.50, they want $211.88 for a paperback version of the 2003 edition on the Canadian site before taxes and shipping!!! I mean, yes, thereās exchangeā¦but HOLY CROW!!!
Yikes! Thatās a little more than Iād recommend paying, excellent though it isā¦ But if youāre looking for a learning process rather than a comprehensive grammar, Iād recommend Colloquial Welsh - which you should be able to get for about Ā£20ā¦