There’s a Facebook group for International Mother Language Day as well https://www.facebook.com/groups/209376066111/
Some countries seem to really make something of it, but it’s virtually unknown in others. I’ve always known a bit about it through Esperanto, as Esperanto speakers are generally very supportive of minority languages.
My slightly longer answer would be this…
When I came to Cardiff I wasn’t living in a nice arrangement and I was going back to Bristol every weekend. When I found somewhere new to live I really began to enjoy Cardiff. I made a friend (though not anymore) online and she convinced me to come to Tafwyl. She was running an activity and was fluent, having studies Welsh and music at university. By then I had only done three lessons of SSIW, thanks to the Welsh shop near me (Cant a mil - Whitchurch road ) introducing me to the website.
When I was at Tafwyl everyone was friendly and I really liked what I saw and thought it would be nice to take part in this. So, I started to take the course more seriously and began to power through the lessons.
I practice at work with some speakers and they are amazed at how natural I sound and how quickly I have picked up the language. I already speak a few languages, different levels so I wasn’t worried by this myth that learning Welsh is difficult. As I read more about the language and history of it, I began to appreciate it and realised that you can’t the soul of a nation if you understand the language. So I persisted! Whenever I hear speakers in shops and in public I’m always jumping into the conversation whether in a cafe, or grocers, train etc! It really is a big part of my life in Cardiff now.
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That’s a really terrific story, Mihil - thank you so much for sharing it… 
There’s nothing like discovering something you didn’t even know you were looking for, is there? 
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Beautiful and highly motivating - what languages do you speak?
Justin
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Hi Justin… in order of fluency
English. Oddly enough, I was a slow starter in English- possibly as it’s my parents third language. I think when you are young the standard of your parents English has a bigger influence. As I went through my teens I got much better and now I speak it better than most people my age who have two English parents!
Gujarati . The first language of my parents. They speak to me mostly in Gujarati. I taught myself how to read and write a little - but I’ve forgotten now!
Hindi -I taught myself during my A levels. This coincided with when my English miraculously became better.
Spanish- Well, this is scraping the barrel really. I got an A* at GCSE, but of course never needing to use it, alas it has mostly evaporated away. I was surprised at how quickly some of it came back when I was in Barcelona last summer.
I’d place my Welsh between my Gujarati and Hindi.
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I know, it’s a fantastic feeling. When my mother moved to Llundain in 79’ she used to work in long hours doing odd jobs, but she would go to English classes with her younger sister. It feels as though I’m doing something similar. It’s a fantastic way to balance my academic life.
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I’m tempted a little to do Hindi one day. I’m influenced by a friend of mine who made a point of learning a language from every major continent. I lack an Asian and African language to meet that goal - though I’m also attracted to learning Thai or Japanese. On the African side I’m flirting with the idea of Swahili. I have to be careful though not to bite off more than I can chew.
I really enjoyed hearing how your Welsh is progressing. The SSiSpânish has two levels now and I think they are going to do the third level soon. It’s worth a try as the quality is like the Welsh.
Justin
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This links with the discussion we were having about love of Indian cinema!
Actually, I have to thank my friends with families from around India for introducing me to ‘Bollywood’ and impressing me with being able to speak multiple languages: Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, even Sanskrit! so this was a part of my inspiration to learn Welsh and I’ll hopefully go on to learn more languages (though maybe not as many as @tatjana ) We await Say Something in Hindi!
I impressed myself today, by listening to Radio Cymru I was able to follow the gist of the between track banter. I understood >50% of what was said on Sbridiri too!
So, I’m beginning to understand how important other languages are, that language is an extra dimension to Welsh culture, things said in Welsh do have this different, I don’t know ‘feeling’ compared to a similar sentence in English and I’m just starting to grasp this.
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@Y_Ddraig_Las thank you for the mention, but I’m not the one with the knowledge of the most languages. There are surely people who can more languages then I do, like @JustinandEirwen, @Deborah-SSi, @brigitte and many more who are also the more successful learners of any language then I am. For the now being I’m trying to experiment (yes, I’d say experiment) to grasp some Russian just for the sake of kind of similarity of some words and the fact that the languages are in the same language group in order to see how knowledge of similar language being mother tongue influences the learning of the one which is not mother tongue. That’s why I might like to see SSiRussian being out as soon as possible. Will run some willing test in order the results might be interesting for developing the further SSi or just of any interest to @aran and the rest of you …
Oh and, I wanted to say this so many times: I enjoy sessions in which you’re participating @Y_Ddraig_Las because your speach is so clear and understandable. All in all, those group sessions we’ve had so far were very enjoyable as we all are very keen to talk as clearly and understandably as possible and I thank each and everyone who participated so far. 
All these good things give me the moment when I don’t really question myself why I’m learning Welsh. It’s because of the beauty of the language, Welsh rugby, Welsh culture and the people like you all - the enthusiasts who are driving the learning process forward in all aspects.
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Hello everyone!
Here is my story. I studied languages (French and Italian) at university and when I graduated I moved abroad - first to France for two years and then to Italy for six years. When I finally came home a year ago, I told myself that if I ended up finding a job and staying in Wales I would learn Welsh. The reason for this was that if I could no longer spoke Italian well I would at least be able to speak another language that I could use every so often. I did really enjoy Welsh in school but I never kept it up as I went to an English primary school over the border and did my GCSEs there. I like how Welsh sounds and I think it is a nice language to speak. I think Celtic languages in general are really beautiful and they have an exotic quality to them.
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A warm welcome to the forum, Moochi - and thanks for sharing your story - sounds as though you’ve got a great attitude, and will do brilliantly with Welsh…
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Diolch yn fawr Aran 
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Helo a dyma fi.
I am learning the language principally because it has always been a big part of my life – my mothers family were all Welsh speaking, but my Mothers generation and her siblings were the first to really be brought up primarily to use English, while still being able to fluently converse in Welsh at home or with the older relatives who rarely spoke any English. I heard plenty of Welsh as a child in the family and in the streets around my grandparents and my Mother used a fair bit at home, but not really conversationally. I am as comfortable with simple parental style commands and instructions in Welsh as I am in English, but I have never had the skills to hold any form of conversation.
I learned Welsh as a second language up to what was then O-level in the old days and quite a different language that was in many respects from anything I had ever heard before – I could write verb tables in every tense with all the correct endings and became very proficient in using all the right mutations when I was writing, but you really didn’t need to try to speak much back then and I never did. I learned stock phrases suited to writing very descriptive essays rather than for speech – my brain seems to recall all the useless expressions and forget the really useful stuff - I suspect, that I won’t ever have much call to use ar bugair drain in conversation, but who knows, unfortunately much like ivraisons d’etoffe in French these expressions are engrained for life.
I did all the SSIW materials a couple of years ago (apart from the Gogleddol) and I’ve gone off the boil a bit and thought I’d come back and try the new Level 1. It is an excellent way to learn the language, particularly if you can’t go to classes and SSIW really is the closest I have heard to my Mother’s Welsh. The missing bit for me now is psychological, I think I have tied it up in so much romanticism that when I dare to venture to speak it, it almost offends me how bad I am – I really wouldn’t care less or have those inhibitions in any other language. I think for me, I will only really progress to any form of fluency now through immersion in the language for a few months and unfortunately that’s not going to happen any time soon. I think now, yn y cyfamser, I’m going to give SSI Cornish a whirl.
Very pleased to see that there are plans for SSI world language domination - it really deserves all the appreciation of how good a platform it is and hats off for all the hard work that you have put into developing it…
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The new Levels are excellent and by the time you reach the latter challenges of Level 2 I hope you have a renewed confidence in reaching fluency. The prospect of the arrival of Level 3 plus subsequent accelerated accumulation of vocabulary envisaged through the project SSiW-4K may have you rethinking the height of the mountain you have to climb to be fluent. Perhaps the immersion you glimpse in your crystal ball may turn out to be more a fun adventure where you are already fluent via SSiW before you enroll. Enjoy your new Welsh adventures,
Justin
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If that’s true, that would be unusual!
Yes, speaking to Welsh-speakers is the best way to improve your Welsh. But most people I know who have become fluent in Welsh have done it through speaking to people as and when they come across them, seizing the opportunities with acquaintances and friends, rather than having to immerse themselves completely in it.
I don’t know what opportunities you have for speaking Welsh, but any and every conversation you have will improve your confidence in speaking Welsh and increase your fluency. Simply sieze opportunities and go out of your way to create a few. It’s good to be immersed, but you don’t have to be. 
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Seeing this reminds me that to an IT person, 4K is not 4,000 but 4096 (since 1K = 1024), so let’s hope when Aran is on the threshold of world domination, he makes sure to include those extra 96, which might make all the difference in seeing off the competition (not that there is any real competition, but better to be safe than sorry…).
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I was born in Wales but never learned the language. Both my paternal and maternal family are Welsh!!! My maternal great grandparents could not speak any English but when my grandmother went to school she was told to always speak in English and punished if she spoke Welsh. So she never used Welsh around my mother and consequently the language stopped there and in a generation the language was lost to us. My grandmother lived with us for a while and I asked her to teach me Welsh but she said not to bother and keep to ‘the English’ but she said lots of Welsh words to me and watched all the Welsh language progammes on TV. I even tried to do Welsh as language at my school in Tredegar but Welsh was not available to me although I could study Latin, German and French!!! I am now 61 and as I always been sad I could not speak Welsh I have decided to do something about it.
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What a great idea - a bonus dialogue of 96 words,
Justin
You are about to embark on the most wonderful journey that will restore to you your rightful heritage. The same happened to me with another language and I can’t tell you how much joy it is giving to me now I am able to speak it. Have fun and enjoy the ride,
Justin
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