[quote=“Toffidil, post:194, topic:3022”]I will only really progress to any form of fluency now through immersion in the language for a few months
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This would certainly be the quickest way, and it’s oh so frustrating when you know how quickly it would come if you had the chance! But most of us don’t have the chance to live in the language, even living in Wales. @owainlurch is right - it is perfectly possible to reach a very respectable level of fluency in a mainly English speaking area - you just have to be a bit more proactive… and a lot more patient! (Not my strong point unfortunately!)
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The closest I have managed to get to immersion was to do the SSiW Bootcamp - a week without a a word of anything but Welsh. That gave my brain an enormous kick-start!
And I’m off next week to do a short course in Nant Gwrtheyrn, so I hope to get at least 3 days of Welsh there. But, as Netmouse said, I have done it by speaking Welsh to as many people as possible as often as possible. Am having terrible trouble trying to get my partner to speak Welsh to me at home, though…
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Wow, I guess my frustrations came out in my message. Obviously immersion is not an option and I am amazed how patient, enthusiastic and determined everyone is on here. Personally, I have the enthusiam in spades, but I am also mindful about being obsessive, which is sort of in my nature a little bit - when I decide I want to do something I tend to go full out and I’m not blessed with lots of patience unfortuantely. It is an inspiration to hear the feedback and the commitment everyone here is putting in… I have done the first twelve of the level 1 lessons last week (an hour or so drive to work, means at least one lesson every trip) and hope to finish Level 1 in about a week or so. I am also planning to go along to a meet-up in Coed Duon this week - I did go along a few weeks ago and spoke Welsh for the first time in public - I was amazed at the standard of the Welsh and the warmth and support of everyone. This isn’t something I could do every week (hence immersion was a bit of a facile thing for me to say and is really only a hopeless dream), but the enthuisiasm of everone on here is quite infectious and more than makes up for that - the true strength of SSIW is the network that surrounds it I guess.
Anyway enough for now - although Glynsig, if you are ever back ar ben yr waun Tredegar, I’d be happy to help to reclaim a bit of the language in the area - maybe a street conversations one day, because that is where I am working currently - not a hot spot for the language by any means (although nearby Merthyr is clearly frothing away nicely I guess) and I suspect that if you scratch beneath the surface there are a probably a lot of people learning or wanting to speak the language in the area. The bit that is lacking in Tredegar is the schools - not even a WM primary in Tredegar and no prospect for that changing any time soon I suspect - also you’d have to look very hard to find a bilngual road sign even.
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Sara,
The bootcamps are a great idea - I don’t have the opportunity for doing that unfortunately - holidays are quite precious and probably prebooked for the next 15 years I imagine - so maybe I’ll best try to find ten minutes here and there in the day and hunt the unsuspecting learners out there to practice on - maybe have a plackard on the street saying something like “pregethwr stryd manig - sgwrs cymraeg gyda fi”…
Edit: Just reread my lazy Google translation of manic street preacher and thought Oh No - “Pregethwr manig y stryd” I imagine would be more in line with my intention.
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Try having a ‘Welsh only’ hour once a week - that’ll give you a regular foothold, and then you can aim to let mission creep do the rest…
Don’t underestimate the value of much shorter periods of immersion - from what you’ve done so far, you’d almost certainly find that even a single day spent speaking Welsh only would make a startling difference for you - and that’s certainly something you’d be able to arrange either in Tredegar or on a day-trip basis… 
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Don’t psychologists say that married couples speak to each other on average 8 minutes a day - or something like that. So this “Welsh only” hour once a week sound fascinatingly flirtatious!!
Justin
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Double benefit then, Justin?! 
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I’m often asked if my family were in the military, as we moved so often during my childhood. They weren’t. My Dad is Welsh (but grew up speaking English) and met my mum when he emigrated to Canada. When he took my mum back home shortly after they were married, she absolutely fell in love with Wales and his extended family. She wanted to move there and, shortly after I was born, they did just that.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t a great time in the UK economically, so they began a pattern of moving back to Canada for economic reasons, and then back to Wales due to hiraeth. So, I spent my childhood moving back and forth, back and forth. Living and going to school in the heart of Snowdonia, not to mention having lovely Welsh-speaking aunts, I picked up a lot of Welsh as a child. Later, as a young adult, I started going to evening classes; but when I ended up in Canada 30 years ago, I had no-one to practice with. By this point, I thought I’d pretty well lost it.
Apparently not, though! I’ve always regretted the fact that I never became as fluent as I thought I should be, and decided this year to give it another go before I saw my family again in the spring. A friend in Wales suggested SSiW, and I took their advice from day one to listen to BBC Radio Cymru in the background as I work. I couldn’t believe how much I was picking up, even on the first day - words that I had forgotten I knew just instantly translated themselves in my head! I was so excited!
I’m only a newcomer to SSiW - just finished lesson 2 - but I’m loving both the focus on speaking and listening as well as the fact that the first vocabulary makes so much more sense to me than with other courses. At this early stage, I don’t need to learn to talk about food or buildings anywhere near as much as I need to be able to say, “I’m learning Welsh” and “I don’t remember how to say what I want to say.” THAT’s vocabulary that will serve me well!
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stori hyfryd. Dal ati! Lovely Stori keep at it!
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Croeso i’r fforwm Margaret. Yes, stori hyfryd, as Sandra said. Pob hwyl.
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A very warm welcome to the forum - and thanks for sharing that lovely story…
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Hi all! I’m from Liverpool and (like a lot of people from my city) I have probably spent half my natural life wandering round Wales on many magnificent day trips and holidays, especially North Wales.
I’ve always loved languages, and as a child I used to love trying to memorise the meanings of words on street signs when we visited Wales. We almost moved to Wales when I was around 9 or 10 and I was overjoyed at the thought of being able to learn Welsh 
We ended up staying in Liverpool but I’ve secretly wanted to learn Welsh properly since then. I love the sound of the language too, and, for me, especially the way they speak it in Caernarfon for some reason! I’m now in my thirties and I was so happy when I discovered the app for SSiW last night! I’m making great progress and I’m halfway through lesson 2! The learning method really does work and I can’t wait to continue.
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Croeso Margaret and Jennifer! I really love hearing everyone’s stories 
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Welcome to the forum, Jennifer! My wife has a lot of family in Liverpool - very strong connections with the north of Wales - thanks for sharing your story, and good luck with the course…
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My apologies for talking across threads but I’ve decided to put this here, as I continue to document the many and various reasons I’m learning Welsh.
As a teenager in Wales, I was very excited when we finally got Radio 1 in FM, finally music radio of sufficient quality to listen too, without holding an aerial and contorting the body in weird positions. so I quickly discovered the towering genius of the DJ John Peel. John Peel occasionally championed contemporary Welsh language music. One of the bands featured was ‘Datblygu’, I bought one of their LPs and loved it, I just loved the vocalists delivery. I moved away to England and annoyed flatmates with the disc from time to time. I always thought that one day will learn Welsh, if only to know the meaning of the lyrics, apart from the odd reference to such 1980s icons as Barbara Woodhouse and Maggie Thatcher. This day is coming!
I notice that on S4C today was the song contest ‘Can i Cymru’ billed as the Welsh Eurovision, or the show to select a Welsh entry for Eurovision if ever Wales gets it’s own entry, I love the Eurovision song contest. I have just found out that there is a track by Datblygu called ‘Can i Gymru’, oh Datblygu, you would have walked Eurovision if you had had the chance!
if anyone remembers the year the National Eisteddfod came to Llanelwedd (1993), it was me making tea and washing up for one of the banks, too scared to speak to the Welsh speakers. Anyway after finishing work, I heard Datblygu, rushed over to the tent and started dancing like a crazy fool, no-one else was dancing!
Even if music isn’t the most efficient way to learn Welsh, it’s motivational factor for me is massive:
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There was a brilliant documentary on S4C earlier this year called ‘Gadael yr 20ed Ganrif’ about Welsh music of the 80s/90s, with interviews with all sorts of people (the Datblygu people included) and presented by Gareth Potter. I’ve had a poke around on the S4C site and can’t seem to find it there any more, unfortunately 
But keep your eyes peeled in case they repeat it…
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I was so sorry to read of your Nain (Mam-gu?)'s experience. It was so common. It happened to a friend of mine. Few people now remember. My Dad was raised to see his Mam’s language as a huge down-pulling factor and then banned from visiting his grandparents!! We blamed his step-mother, but I suspect his father was more at fault, wanting to mix with better-off business men!!
Generations were banned from, punished for or at least actively discouraged from speaking our native language, just like the Kurds now!
I will now descend from my soap box!
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henddraig …I agree with you. I was always sad that my mamgu (not certain of the correct spelling but that is how my family spelt it) felt Welsh would not be of any use. My mother was rather in awe of her Mam so she would never had argued with her or asked her to teach her Welsh but I have always been somewhat fiesty so I used to ask all the time what things were called in Welsh. It used to annoy her no end but I was and still am a determined person so I was not put off. But it never became enough to speak Welsh hence my learning Welsh at this late stage.
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Brilliant! Dal ati! Lwc dda!
(I have edited my naughty incorrect spelling of the cwtshier De Cymru version of Nain! I have this awful habit of putting i for u and vise versa!!
My Nain actually would have been my Mam-gu if I’d met her, I’m sure of it, but I find it hard to call her that when she was long long dead before I was even imagined!!)
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I saw that it was available on Duolingo and couldn’t resist taking at least a peek into the course there!
It was interesting seeing how much I recognised from learning Cornish.
I don’t know yet how far I’m going to take Welsh as I don’t see myself having the opportunity to use it regularly at this point.
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