Welsh in Colombia

Yeah. It gets about, doesn’t it!
I’ve been recording an audiobook for an author who lives in Colombia. She’s interested in languages, and speaks several, including those of the indigenous peoples of the country. Some discussion from her about how to pronounce certain words in her book (it’s a fantasy, with some fantasy languages) led to discussions about Welsh. And the fact she has a six year old son who is very curious (I mean that in the good way!) and single minded has led to her son insisting on telling people that he doesn’t eat dragons but he does eat people - in Welsh, and wanting to know how to say all sorts of things. Also, the author has started to learn Welsh- encouraged by her husband gifting her an online course in it- partly to keep her occupied and sane whilst her next book is edited (her words, not mine!). It’s all a bit wonderfully bizarre.
Now what I have popped up to say is that I have always recommended SSIW whenever I encounter anyone wanting to learn Welsh. But this is the first time I’ve found myself in a position where I can’t. Because the author has hearing problems - to such an extent that she has to rely on lip reading with her son more than hearing. Despite that, his pronunciation- and hers - is astonishingly good! But the purely audio structure of SSIW wouldn’t work here. So just popping up to say that, and to say this as a compliment rather than a complaint or point it out as a fault - of all the situations where I have talked to Welsh learners - and there have been a fair few - this is the only one where I wouldn’t feel that SSIW was appropriate!

7 Likes

Am I misremembering things, or did there used to be a learning Welsh through the medium of Spanish lessons? That could be useful for her son- or for her to do along with her son perhaps. It’s been some years since I checked, and things have changed, so I could just be making that up!

Thanks for all the spreading the word!

Yeah, it’s a challenge to figure out how best to provide for people with hearing difficulties - it feels beyond me at the moment, to be honest.

1 Like

It was Spahich through Welsh course. i have the link, but I tried it and it obviously doesn’t work anymore which means the course was taken away from the site or hidden in the background not to be accessable anymore. Unfortunately I have lost the downloaded files too as approximately 3 years ago my external storage where I all those files had stored has died and I couldn’t recover much from that.

2 Likes

Ah, of course. It was a while ago, and I got confused! Easily done. :wink: I’m sorry to hear about your external drive! It’s always annoying when that happens.

Thinking about it, the Spanish through the medium of Welsh course could possibly have worked well for this situation. It would just be the sentences in reverse order, if you see what I mean. She’s used to learning languages, and could probably have worked out how to make use of it and wouldn’t have been put off. Pity!

There are still some things remaining from that drive so I’ll try and dig a bit deeper into it if I can get out something useful. Let’s not loose hope yet. :slight_smile: I know this would be beneficial for her so it worths extra effort.

2 Likes

Oh, only if you can do it easily, Tatjana! Don’t spend too much time or effort chasing it! She’s got other sources, is used to learning languages, and, for what it is worth, has me to bounce things off! But really good and thoughtful of you, really - I see that has not changed! :slight_smile:

1 Like

This should, I hope, allow you to download them:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/nr5bn6wxkm5e8qjbud953/ACRinjYDGVdavH6Hz31bnOs?rlkey=a7clj88ubiussg8tvp0ozj48j&dl=0

5 Likes

@RichardBuck Excellent! I’m pretty sure Kinetic could have given access, but he’s super busy working on the new courses, so it’s great that someone else has them!

1 Like

Ah, that’s great- thanks very much! Yes, I’ve downloaded them. And thanks again to @tatjana for the offer, and getting the ball rolling!

1 Like

Thank you @RichardBuck! To be honest, you saved me some hard work here. I’ve saved a copy to my dropbox, too.

And, you’re very welcome @owainlurch-1 although I did nothing yet but get ball rolling.

1 Like