So I learnt Welsh in school, second language G.C.S.E and I’ve always wanted to be able to speak it. But I’ve always been annoyed that they taught you just to pass the exam, they taught us all the long from/written Welsh (rydw i’n, roedd i’n) all the way through Primary School and Comp until the G.C.S.E speaking part of the exam when they decided to tell us to say “dw i”
So I always say they didn’t teach us to speak only to pass the exam, but long story short before I open that can of worms… (they made Welsh compulsory to make sure people learnt it but they didn’t look at the quality of Welsh or open new Welsh medium schools).
Because I learnt Cymraeg in school I know a lot of stuff already which is helpful. But I’m noticing that the pronunciation I was taught in school is completely different (unless it’s just me). They taught us Sut wyt ti not Shw wyt ti… another example
I’m sure all the half songs I can remember and some basics are very helpful though as a good grounding but it’s really hard to change the habits I’ve had for so many years. I can’t remember it all anyway and I’m sure after a while I’ll switch over to the correct way of saying it. I’m just curious if anyone else has a similar experience? Surely there must be some here with the old T.G.A.U Cymraeg or equivalent?
- but I did learn Welsh the ‘traditional’ way (before internet!) so I know what you mean. Luckily I was surrounded by a lot of first-language speakers from all across Wales during that time, so I was able to notice the little differences in speech which weren’t covered by the course books. There are advantages - at least you will recognise fuller forms (rydw i, etc) when you come across them for instance, but as you’ve said, the disadvantage of only doing that type of course is that you don’t learn natural speech patterns.
