Shwmae pawb. I feel I need to write as I’m extremely excited.
I contacted someone on the ffrindaith service a week or so ago now. And today was our first Skype session. All I have to say is, where on earth did all that welsh come from. Whilst I didn’t understand everything that was said I could either work it out or he would explain differently (in cymraeg).
Having hardly spoken a sentence, ( apart from the 4-5 little sentences with my partner) to having a 30 mins conversation with about 80% cymraeg has left me speechless and on such a high I think I might have trouble sleeping tonight.
I found myself forming sentences about things without much thought process and then thinking “did I just say that”
Felly, diolch yn fawr to all those who believed in me and offered advice and support recently.
You are clearly doing The Right Thing. The subconscious mind is a great learner and a great helper if we will let it do its stuff.
I am always a little sad when I see people clinging to their dictionaries and course books for dear life but full of fear about opening their mouths in case their sentences come out less than perfect. And happy am I when I see people actually speaking and discovering what I found for myself earlier this year, that it all comes together if you let it. I will certainly use a dictionary, too, after a good chat, to check any new words I came across and whether they mean what I had guessed in the context of the flowing conversation (they usually do!)
welcome to the Club. You are now a Welsh Speaker. Next stop - Dreaming in Welsh!
YAY! I finally am making at least one person happy then.
Well, the bad thing maybe is that half of the words I have “learnt/discovered” in a conversation vanishes the same minute I finish talking … Umm … well they eventually come back at one occassion again … vanish again … etc, etc …
And @Dan_Crosby i actually was/am as happy for you as I earlier have posted. You see those stars on the picture I’ve posted? THEY’RE ALL YOUORS NOW! and there are more to come and shine for you!
Enjoy learning, speaking, exploring … ohhhhhhhhhhhhh … I surely do - even too much maybe.
When I first started learning, I had a really bizarre dream, entirely in Welsh.
I was speaking it, as was everyone around me, but I couldn’t understand a word of what anyone was saying, including myself! It was really unsettling, until I woke up and realised that I did actually know all the language that I heard in the dream.
I am never aware of what language I dream in!! I used to have a recurring dream in which I was a cave man… yes, I do know it may be an odd dream for a female!! I was scared, or rather the person whose body I was in was scared. I knew I was just observing. He crept forward to peer over the brow of a hill and saw a phalanx of soldiers with round shields marching towards him. I knew he didn’t realise what they were and was running in terror from a monster! ‘We’ dived into a river and swam incredibly quickly and well, got out and ran to a hole in the ground. “Oh, he lives in a pot hole!” I thought.
There was a whole community down in this deep cave sequence, including my host’s wife. He reported what he thought he’d seen to someone higher up the pecking order and went to ‘his’ little cave where he flung himself down on a heap of furs. Wife threw him a hunk of meat which he proceeded to start chewing. I woke up.
This happened every night or every other night for at least two weeks. I desperately tried to see more, but I had no control. He did the same every time. It was as if I was trapped in his mind during the most terrifying sequence of events in his life. I tried to work out what language he spoke, but somehow I didn’t take that in. I understood as he did, but had no input or extra output.
It was weird, but since then, I have realised I don’t notice language in dreams!!
Oh, I can know at the ‘half asleep’ stage, that I’m ending a conversation in Cymraeg!!
That sounds really strange! I normally dream in English - mainly because up until now it was the only language I actually spoke. But since I started learning Cymraeg, I find myself more and more often waking up taking to myself in it!
I’ve started dreaming in welsh…usually it involves me speaking fluently. Which is fairly ridiculous cos i can’t…i can never remember what is being said though!
That time rings a bell. And it was about the time I ran up to the top of Gibraltar starting from the dockyard. I’d need a car to do that these days. I’d settle for a horse though. Or even a donkey…
