Will see you tomorrow there if not before. As long as I get to the sinemaes early for the screening of Monday nights pobol y cwm I’m good.
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Well, that was fab!
I want the full week-long package next year, please.
Diolch, everyone!
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A diolch i ti, Isata!
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For today, Saturday, in the brilliant SSiW Amserlen_Eisteddfod (diolch @Nicky!) there’s :
“11:00 - 12:00: SSIW Meetup? What about an SSIW meetup? We’re all SSIW members”
Is anyone planning on coming along?
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I’ll be there! And @vgh50 tells me he’ll be coming along too.
The Amserlen suggests meeting by the Siop y Pethe stand outside Shwmae Caerdydd/Pierhead. The forecast suggests it probably won’t be raining… If it is, or if the area by the stand is too crowded to linger in, shall we adjourn to the Shwmae Caerdydd cafe again?
For the record, a good few of us got together yesterday in the Pierhead: @Isata and her mum Megan, @johnwilliams_6, @Betterlatethan, @peterallen and his sister Jillian, Louise from Cardiff, Mark from Brighton, someone else from Brighton, and me. @Macky was there for a bit at the start too, and @Hishiv was there for the first few minutes, before the rest of us had found each other…
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Steddfod - wandering around on my own at times, catching up with old friends and newer ones, having interesting chats with new people. The Maes in the city has meant hearing more English, and sometimes chatting in it. I have liked a few chats with non-Welsh speakers who appear to be really appreciating that Welsh is a living language for the first time, and hearing some of the people working in food stalls use more Welsh each day, and a couple of chats while wearing my SSIW t-shirt with people who have studied Welsh a bit and would love to have the confidence to use it (hopefully they have the website name clear in their minds!)… I haven’t liked so much when people I suspect are Welsh-speakers have said excuse me, asked where the loos are, or told a group where the park and ride goes from, and used English first in the usual default way - but this isn’t bootcamp, and we’re not in Gwynedd…
I’m fascinated by having several more conversations with people who explain to me why, despite how much they can read in Welsh, or how much they understand, they will probably never be able to speak it - and explain all this to me in Welsh! And the conversation in French with the English speaker who was explaining why she chose French over Welsh in school was fun, if weird… I think many people are ready to be listened to about their language learning experiences, and I suspect for a good few that having someone listen relaxedly with interest and empathy (but without agreeing that Welsh is too hard/political/irrelevant or that they are too thick/old/un-Welsh) is an unusual experience, and in a relatively short time can in some cases allow them to reconsider whether to give it another shot…
Anyway, enough rambling on! See some of you at 11! 
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Ditto. And I had a lovely long conversation with a woman in Maes D who was there with her (amazing and beautiful) baby. She had never heard of the Eisteddfod before this year, but was thoroughly enjoying it. Neither she nor her husband speak Welsh, but she goes to a Welsh-medium mother and baby group and wants to send her son to Welsh school, but commented that she wouldn’t then know what her son was saying. So I mentioned the six month course and she said it sounded ideal. So hopefully it will become a trilingual household: English, Urdu and Welsh. (And, just in case you ever join the forum and read this, woman whose name I never learned, know that your son made me very happy!)
I was a bit disappointed in my first 20 minutes or so on the Maes, as this is the first Eisteddfod I’ve been to where I felt relaxed enough not to have language panic and rehearse every exchange beforehand in my head, yet the woman I bought my wristband from didn’t speak Welsh and in the first few stalls I went to I was spoken to in English by default. In the U3A stand I chatted to two wmen for a while (in English), then someone else came in and I realised they were in fact both first language Welsh speakers. So from then on I made sure I got my Welsh in first or answered English greetings with a bit of ‘testing the waters’ Welsh and things vastly improved.
I had a great time both days, one on my own (with unplanned and planned meetups with SSiWers) and rabdom meetings with other people I knew or didn’t know, and one with my mum, who had a great day too and enjoyed meeting everybody yesterday. I loved the moment when we were chatting away at our meetup and the people on the other half of the table suddenly leaned over and said: ‘are you with SaySomethingInWelsh? We’re with SaySomethingInWelsh too!’ And the size of the group suddenly doubled.
If anybody had told me a few years ago that I’d go to the Eisteddfod alone and feel like I was part of it, I’d never have believed them.
Best. Eisteddfod. Ever.
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Thanks mintonman, now I don’t have to spend hours trying to identify each person I met on SSiW!
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When I first tried to learn Welsh about 30 years ago I had a friend called Henry. He came from Swansea (and we were in London) and didn’t expect him to be a Welsh speaker. We probably went out for a drink every week or so and knew each other well. After he went back to Swansea a mutual friend asked me how much help I got from Henry in learning Welsh. I looked at him blank and then was told that Henry was a first language Welsh speaker. I suppose the story here is never assume anything. However, it is a sour memory, not because Henry was nasty, but because many people keep their Welsh to themselves. At the London Welsh Centre (I was on the stall for a while on Thursday) there is a woman there whose mother was born in London and whose grandmother came to London when she was four. All of them speak Welsh, an unbroken line! If only my grandfather spoke Welsh to my mum and she spoke Welsh to me… Okay, then I wouldn’t have met the other SSiW’ers!
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Really enjoying reading about your experiences at the Eisteddfod. It appears than so many of you have had wonderfully fulfilling experiences wandering The Maes in The Bay, catching up with other SSiWers and saturating yourselves in the language, culture and atmosphere.
We arrived Tuesday and left Thursday. We managed one full day at the Eisteddfod on Wednesday, but with a sick child in tow, it wasn’t so easy to completely chill out and be free to wander and chat. So sorry to all those we missed!
We wish we could have stayed much longer and experience more of this wonderful city based Eisteddfod, but it wasn’t meant to be. We will be at the Llanrwst, Conwy Eisteddfod for the full week next year, from the 2/08/2019 to the 10/08/2019, so hopefully see you there!
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I’d never thought of it that way before. Maybe my great grandparents did me a favour after all!
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Hi All,
Sorry I missed bumping into you all on my flying (well, walking) visit, but I felt sort of in company, knowing that you were or had been somewhere close-by.
Even though my quick visit was during the quiet evening period between the day time activities and the night gigs, I must say that I enjoyed soaking in the atmosphere. Also as it was my first Eisteddfod, it felt great to be amongst non-traditional Eisteddfod Cardiff visitors of many languages and also to hear Cymraeg accents from all regions.
During my free visit, I saw The Welsh Whisperer, Yws Gwynedd (plus colleagues). Also being unaware of the Maes B charges, I accidentally gate crashed Serol Serol’s rehersal. It was strange being around these groups that I had heard but never seen.
On my walk back to Penarth, I walked past a young bloke looking at his phone and walking the opposite way, who was the spit of Huw Stephens. As I’m terrible at recognising people, I didn’t realise that it actually was him. Also as a final touch, I witnessed the Barrage draw bridge opening to let a boat come past.
Yes, a nice experience, especially as it was around the area which had previously been some of my work sites. It was great to see them being put to this use, and an encouragement to me on my Welsh language journey.
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Lovely to meet a big crowd of SSiWers this morning in Shwmae Caerdydd. I spent a hour chatting away to various poeple and laughing at @Nicky new challenge of ‘Welshifying’ rock or pop bands, (eg Môn Jovi - American pop.star moves to Anglesey to take up a career in Welsh rock… ABBA… nabod fi, nabid chi…aha…etc)
I also spent 15 minutes explaining Slack and Hangouts to one of the ladies serving coffee…she had already done the SSiW challenges but was wondering how to get more active.
I also met @nia.llywelyn in the afternoon to enjoy ‘Taith yr Iaith’ in Shwmae Caerdydd again. A one man show covering the entire history of the Welsh language in 45 minutes!! Well, not quite ‘one man’; there were some bit parts for people in the audience to help with. I got the starring role of ‘Harry Wyth’ (Henry VIII) and was roucously booed off stage! Fabulous fun.
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Well, what an amazing week that was. 
I was able to experience a full range of activities yn Gymraeg: music, comedy, science, politics, dance, yoga and more. Apart from the occasional conversation with non Welsh speakers, I was speaking and hearing Cymraeg all week. I feel like my level has improved massively. Dare I say, it might even have been better than Bwtcamp (sorry @Iestyn 
).
I also loved the idea of the 'Steddfodd yn y Dinas. Located in a multicultural part of the capital city, for free and open to all. Definitely a step in the right direction, and hopefully a glimpse of what the future of the Welsh language could look like.
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Yes, 100% agree with that!
(… and a quick aside, while the audience in the Pafiliwn were awaiting the mixed choir competition result, instead of what might have been just the song “'Why are we waiting!” of an audience in Lloegr, there was this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/45156738 !)
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Sacrilege!
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We managed to visit for 3 days - arrived wednesday and left friday evening. We went to two gigs at clwb, and spoke lots of welsh. it was my first steddfod, but won’t be my last! we didn’t go to any talks, we spent most of our time at either ty gwerin, caffi maes b or the main stage - it was all about the bands for us. We saw Adwaith (brilliant!), HMS morris, the gentle good, mellt (who also won the gold medal for their latest album, and they are still at/just left school!!), twm morys and gwyneth glyn, and various other bands too. Next year we will go for longer, so we can go to some of the events too - but with a 5 hour drive from york, and children farmed out to grandparents for the duration, that was all we could do.
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It sounds like you made excellent use of the time you had! What a great Eisteddfod baptism!
You know when the Eisteddfod has come to an end when you receive the e-mail for a survey about your experiences. Link below:
https://cardiff.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dbtlLEHdp0YVeAd?mc_cid=c34dbd87dd&mc_eid=46a10e11d0
It is also available in English! That was really hard going, lots of dictionary use. Kind of liek those times 1st language speakers don’t realise or forget that you are a learner and don’t make it easy for you. After three Eisteddfodau (Eisteddfods) i felt I had to do it in Welsh. I am very tempted to do it again in English as iI find it hard to believe the questions would be the same, but i expect they are.
The most interesting question was, List three memories of the Eisteddfod, good or bad. So, why not ask the same question here?
For me it was:
Being the translator for my dads first Eisteddfod experience.
Meeting someone who starred in a Brecht play whilst I was an undergraduate in Aberystwyth and the brainshock of realising I went to a three hour long play performed in Welsh when I understood practically no Welsh, I’d forgotten that.
Being able to hold my own in conversations with strangers without it being traumatic.
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The Eisteddfod organising team have talked about the success of this year’s Eisteddfod in Cardiff Bay:
“This is how you introduce Welsh to an unfamiliar audience; this is how you change attitudes towards the language – and this is how you encourage people to learn and use the language in all aspects of their lives. Put simply, this is how you show everyone that Welsh is a dynamic, natural and relevant language. And this will be the Cardiff Eisteddfod’s greatest legacy."
Full bilingual item here: https://parallel.cymru/diweddariad-yr-eisteddfod-genedlaethol/