The Diolch! Thank you! thread

Welsh General / Questions
#1

So… I’m already loving the Seren yr Wythnos thread… I see that outpouring of appreciation as hugely valuable, for the people receiving and for the people giving…

But there are far, far more people who help with every learning journey than the limited number (52 per year!) who can get outed as Seren yr Wythnos…

Let’s have a thread where you can say thank you, even just in a couple of lines, to everyone who helps you, whenever they help you. Other forum members, or people out in the wild, anyone at all - give them the appreciation they deserve (and if they’re not on the forum, you can still send them a link so they can read it), and give yourself the record-keeping system that will truly show you how many people are cheering you on with your journey…

In fact, why not aim to say at least one ‘diolch’ in here every week?

That’s what I’m going to do (although most of it is from memory for me!).

And my first thank you goes to my favourite ever Welsh tutor, Siwan Rosser - who took the advanced class for a week in my second Wlpan Mis Awst in Aberystwyth, and had an unruly bunch of overly confident learners eating out of her hand (even though she was really quite strict).

Siwan is a lecturer in the Welsh department at Cardiff University now, and it was truly delightful to see her just the other week (for the first time in a couple of years). I think I may have persuaded her to buy my book, and I hope she forgives me for making it so clear that she was our favourite tutor… :slight_smile:

#***#

How about you?

Who was the last person who helped you with Welsh in some way?

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#2

Mine has to go to Emma Gowman. She’s the catalyst that got me to pursue that previous etherial dream of “I’d quite like to be able to speak Welsh” not really believing it was possible. She has put up with so many of my questions of “why?” “how?” “what’s this in Welsh?”, and she’s patiently let me struggle my way through Welsh sentences and now it feels weird to text her in English (that’s going to be speak to her in English soon).

Beyond Welsh I owe her so much more, but I’ll keep it to Welsh for now.

Diolch yn fawr iawn cariad! Dwi methu aros i dy briodi di!

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#3

Wel. Rydwi’n meddwl fy mod i’n diolch SSiW yn gyntaf, am eich helpu chi â phopeth, y heriau a hala mwy o amser bob dydd i helpu ni gyd!

Joies i fe yn fawr iawn a joio bob her, bod dydd (hyd yn os rydwi’n teimlo yn ddrwg am dani am dipyn bach). Rydwi’n teimlo nawr fy mod i’n gallu siarad a ysgrifennu Cymraeg, pan oeddwn i’n dwedodd ‘alla i ddim siarad’ yn fwy aml na dwi’n hoffi.

Rydwi’n gobeithio i weld a ddysgu mwy a ddiolch yn fawr iawn i chi gyd!

Ail, llawer, llawer o ddiolch i fy ffrindiau i am gwrando a siarad i fi yn Gymraeg; hefyd y patience gyda fi pan chlywes i ddim beth dwedodd nhw.

Trydydd, diolch yn fawr iawn i chi gyd ar y fforwm am eich helpu chi hefyd! Rydwi’n gobeithio i helpu chi hefyd un dydd :slight_smile:

Well, I think that first SSiW deserve a huge thank you for all the help, the challenges and spending so much timing helping us all!

I have enjoyed it very much and enjoy every challenge, every day (even if I feel terrible for a little bit). I feel now that I can speak and write Cymraeg, when previously I said ‘I cannot speak’ more often than I liked.

I hope to see and learn more and many thanks to all of SSiW!

Second, many, many thanks to all my friends for listening and speaking to me in Cymraeg; also the patience with me whenever I repeatedly said I didn’t hear what they said.

Third, multiple thank yous to everybody on the forum for your help also and hopefully one day I can help you too! :+1:

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#4

@tatjana @Deborah-SSi @Sionned @garethrking for all the help of various kinds! To @Pete2 for unfailing encouragement and support! He doesn’t exactly need another Mam, but he’s like the son I never had!

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#5

There’s so much to tell but let it be just reply to this for now …

Thank you @henddraig for including me among those helping people. Thank you and all the rest for making me aware of that I can be of some use. I like to help if/when I can.

Diolch yn fawr iawn.

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#6

Diolch yn fawr iawn to @margaretnock for her encouragement and endless patience with me on Skype :slight_smile: And to everyone on this forum who has answered my questions and encouraged me. I wouldn’t still be here almost two years later without this wonderful community! :star2:

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#7

Not the last person to help me (that would have to be @Pete2 and the rest of the gang at our unofficial bootcamp, 5 minutes ago). But for her huge influence on my life as a Welsh learner - @Mererid, gifted, hilarious, passionate tutor and advocate for the Welsh language. Several months ago, she gave up her classes, and disappeared quietly from the forum, but anyone who has ever been taught by her is rooting for her, and hoping that she knows how much difference she has made to our lives.

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#8

This is already a lovely thread…:slight_smile:

If you tag or mention someone, do share the thread with them (see that ‘share’ button down at the bottom?) so that they get to hear they’ve been appreciated… :star: :star2:

I think this thread is going to help us find some of the real, unsung stars of the forum - there are so many people on here who help others all the time without us ever hearing all that much about (or anything at all, often enough!) about it… :slight_smile:

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#9

Bronwen, diolch o galon. A heartfelt thank you.

This has truly touched me, diolch. And you know that I learn and gain just as much from all of you inspiring learners who constantly surprise and delight me, and who never let me forget why I’ve chosen this path in life. The verb ‘dysgu’ in Welsh, as you know, means both ‘to teach’ and ‘to learn’, which for some is a source of amusement. But the Welsh got it right (well, actually, the Welsh got it from the Romans, I think). ‘Dysgu’ isn’t the oxymoron many believe it to be. Teaching, for me, is synonymous with ‘life-long learning’, and that happens to be my passion in life. Learning. That’s why I teach. Or to put it in other words, that’s why I help people who are, in fact, teaching themselves.

So, on that note, I would like to say a huge DIOLCH to everyone who is learning Welsh, especially to those from whom I’ve had the pleasure of dysgu-ing. And by that, I mean ‘learning’ as well as ‘teaching’.

Been quiet on here because it’s a forum that flutters its eyelashes at me with a ‘c’mon, just answer one little question, just one before breakfast now, you can shower after explaining the wonderful complexities of the verb ‘bues i’, c’mon you know you want to’, and by the time I lift my head up from the screen, I realise it’s the year 2037 and I’m still in my pyjamas, un-breakfasted and unwashed. THAT’s how obsessive I can be if I don’t curb my enthusiasm. You’ve seen me in class.

On a slightly more serious note, I’ve been quiet because I had a beast of a relapse and lost the use of my hands for a few months among other things that the nervous system does to one when it goes into ‘mischief-making’ mode. Just taking things slowly atm. It’s Mererid v. the urge to sleep all day, atm. But I think I’m winning.

Actually, my students keep me going! Had a great session this morning on Skype - in full Ninja Welsh mode - mixing tenses in one sentence, the differences between ‘who’ and ‘whom’ in Welsh, mutating direct objects. And now, it’s time to eat breakfast, get washed and check what year we’re in. :slight_smile:

Eto, diolch o waelod calon, Bronwen.

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#10

@Mererid I’ve enjoyed reading your blog. So sorry to hear that life is so difficult at the moment. Wishing you a rapid recovery - brysia wella!

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#11

Diolch yn fawr iawn.

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#12

Gosh far too many to mention. Lots and lots and lots. Encouragement, chats, praise from so many.

#13

@Mererid may I say that I have never met you, but every word rang bells with me! I found when quite young that if I showed someone how to do something, I learned it much better myself, that explaining my problems with understanding something often meant that I understood! I am so sorry you are ill. You are clearly the very best kind of teacher!

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#14

@Karla and @Flynn for being friends and practicing with me even now, though they are so much more advanced than I am:)
@Mererid for her posts and for being the lovely person she is - I still remember our conversations about tutoring, though we haven’t spoken in a while.
@aran (he should be mentioned first really, because I don’t think I would have ever made progress without the course and the forum, but that goes without saying)
@margaretnock for the enormous gift of having given me my first conversation in Welsh in real life
@Novem for being an inspiration - her ambition to do exams in Welsh literature made me recall my own dreams
@garethrking for his books, and advice and patience:)

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#15

It tells me that I can only mention 10 users in a post(( Ok then, update:
@mikeellwood and @netmouse for their always interesting and informative posts
@tatjana, @philipnewton, @henddraig and everyone else who has ever been kind and supportive

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#16

All of you, for being intrepid learners of this language!! :slight_smile:

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#17

@seren fach, Milla is @Novem on here! And I don’t deserve thanks for enjoying myself here!

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#18

Oh dear, this thread is making me a bit emotional! I’m not normally one for particularly long posts but I think you may have to bear with me here. (Actually this is part one, as I’ve just been told I cannot mention more than 10 users in a post.) Learning Welsh has made such an immeasurable difference to my life! The last few years have been fairly challenging in some ways, and I can honestly say that my little world of Cymraeg has played a key role in keeping me sane!

First and foremost, thank you @aran for dreaming up the whole amazing concept and @CatrinLliarJones for allowing it to become reality! I’ve said this before of course, but I remember realising almost instantly what a treasure I’d stumbled across when I first started the lessons. Exciting times!

Then thank you to @Iestyn and @Cat for cheerfully accompanying me through the many many hours of cajoling Welsh into my brain! The routine was both a challenge and a comfort, and I have to say I felt quite bereft when I finally ran out of lessons!

Around that time, and of course later, thank you to @arianrhod for patiently helping me with my early efforts to actually produce any Welsh in the presence of a flesh and blood person! (Which of course is different!) And in general for her unstinting support for Welsh in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Continued…

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#19

Part 2, continued…

I have spoken to so many lovely people on Skype over the last few years, I really don’t know where to start (or rather to end). Apologies in advance for listing only a few, but particularly - @sandramckenzie for sticking with me for a long spell when I first started really getting to grips with speaking. @ramblingjohn for coordinating such a fantastically mad international group chat - which I used to call in on after putting the kids to bed. (Or occasionally before, with the odd hyperactive Welsh speaking kid!) @tatjana for waiting up for me even when I missed the end, so I could still get my fix of Cymraeg! @Novem for being such an inspiration as to what can be achieved, and @seren - I just love the idea of sneaking off from Xmas parties to Skype with Welsh speakers in Finland and Belarus! OK then, @philipnewton too on that particular point! And recently @Flynn for always being up for a good sgwrs when I can fit it in. (Sorry for being a bit elusive the last couple of weeks - life. ) And everyone else on this wonderful forum - including @garethrking of course for patiently explaining stuff I could very probably have got out of one of his books, had I only got the patience to look!

And then I met @mererid. I know it’s a great luxury to be able to take lessons from a tutor as well, so I wouldn’t shout about it too much normally. But I have to say that she is a very special one! I only booked a session on a whim about a year and a half ago, but it turned out to be one of the best things I’ve done. Despite the challenges she’s been facing, she’s always positive, always smiling, full of ideas and fun. She’s turned out to be a bit of a rock for me personally as well - the role seems overflow into counsellor quite easily sometimes… I wonder if she has this effect on everyone?) Diolch, Mererid cariad! Dw i’n meddwl fod ti’n gwybod faint ti’n golygu i fi!

A diolch i bawb yma wrth gwrs! The whole Welsh journey has been such an enrichment, I couldn’t imagine life without it now.

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#20

So choose one to start with, and add the others one a week from now on - better than leaving them all out! :slight_smile:

@mererid - ddrwg iawn gen i glywed bod petha’n anodd - gobeithio wir y bydd pob dim yn well yn fuan…

This is gold already. Keep 'em coming!

And don’t feel you have to try and list everyone at once - maybe it would be more powerful to do one at a time, and keep on adding to the thread every now and again - after all, most of us are going to carry on having new people to thank… :slight_smile:

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