Why are you learning Welsh?

Welsh General / Questions
#241

I’m slightly embarrassed by why I started learning Welsh, but I continued because I fell in love with the language, and the country – even though I’ve never been! I’m dreaming of one day renting a car and just drive around seeing the country and impressing people with my Welsh along the way, but first I need to learn some more (and also get my driver’s license :pensive:).

People around me always find it strange when it comes up that I’m learning Welsh, as I have no connection to the country or the language at all, and it doesn’t get less strange when they ask why the heck I chose Welsh and my reply is “I just really like it…”. But I do! I should probably touch up on my French, or Russian so I can communicate with my step family, but it is really hard learning a language you don’t want to learn. Just keeping it real, you know! :sunny:

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#242

A post I can totally relate to:)

Especially this! I’ve been trying to start learning French again, but it’s just not what my heart wants, apparently:)

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#243

Hello - do you speak Russian. It’s great whenever we find out we have another Russian speaker or near-speaker to contact.

I am learning Russian - and anything that I say or write in Russian that is remotely sensible is due to Seren’s help @seren . We are all also looking forward to and excited at honing our skills with SSiRussian when it is launched,

Justin

#244

I honestly don’t speak much Russian at all. My Dad married a Russian woman when I was 10, and I really wish I’d started learning then. I know the cyrillic alphabet and a couple of words, but that’s it. I might go there next though, once I feel a bit more confident with my Welsh! :blush:

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#245

Not particularly exotic compared with some of the nice stories above, have lived in Cardiff for over 10 years and about time I had another go, for both the principle of making an effort and practical advantages – did an evening course for a few months when I first moved here, didn’t really work well but over the years have often regretted where I could have been with more persistence. While there’s plenty of opportunities locally, I’ve found doing this course at my own pace has worked very well so far (started just before Christmas), and for the first time with any language am feeling fairly confident I’ll get somewhere… will hopefully think of some dull questions to post elsewhere in due course!

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#246

Excellent! That sounds very promising… good luck with it!.. :sunny:

#247

Well this is my first post here so shwmae pawb!

Well I am from a place called Clydach, between Swansea and Neath, and was taught a little bit of Welsh in school but then at 10 we moved to a different part of Swansea, Sketty, where in school Welsh lessons were quite frankly ofnadwy! I found at my new school that I would teased for my ‘welshy’ accent - so over time I learned how to pronounce my vowels ‘properly’ and whilst still sounding Welsh, lost a large part of my accent (interestingly I never did lose it, I almost always had to make a slight conscious effort to conceal how I could naturally pronounce a word). After leaving home I lived in London for 5 years, after a year in Birmingham and became increasingly aware of the discrepancy between my passion for Wales and my to some extent turning my back on my country.

Something clicked - the hiraeth was awakened - whilst spending 6 months travelling around South America with my now fiancée, who is also from Swansea. I realised this longing to be Welsh again and to return home. Like I said while I’d always been passionately Welsh, I’d never fully embraced what that meant. It’s funny to think but this clicked with me after spending a week in the Amazon, talking to a local about what it meant to him to speak his local language - of which only several thousand speak - compared to speaking Spanish. That started a chain of events. And that was 12 months ago this week.

All this coincided with finding a passion for small-scale farming. We then found out that Pembrokeshire had lots of exciting people practicing sustainable and ecological approaches to farming. And well we are now shortly to move to a farm near Crymych, where I believe it’s very much Welsh speaking, and I want to be able to be involved with the local community and speak the local language. But more than that, I think it’s as I read Aran say, it’s about finally finding some sort of identity and belonging to a place. So along with now beginning to learn Welsh I am also reading about our history - a history that I was sadly never taught at school.

Anyway, having gained some confidence from learning enough Spanish to speak conversationally without English, I realise that learning other languages is possible! And if I can speak some Spanish then surely I can learn some Welsh!

Ultimately then why am I learning Welsh - the short answer compared to the long one above - is because I don’t think I’ll ever feel truly Welsh without being able to speak it. And I think the world is a far more interesting place for having different languages and cultures.

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#248

That sounds as though you’re on a beautiful journey - and here’s a very warm welcome to the forum… :sunny:

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#249

What a gorgeous story! Thank you so much for sharing that with us, and best of luck for the new farm - very exciting!

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#250

Croeso i’r Forum (er Fforwm?), croeso i SSiW!
Once upon a time I was an unlikely Local Preacher in the Swansea and Gower Methodist Circuit. (Unlikely because I’m not a very good example of Christianity) I have actually preached at Clydach Chapel quite often before it closed down. I used to park on the very steep hill alongside.and once had a horrible experience of finding the footbrake wouldn’t hold when I let off the handbrake!! (I survived!) The folk there were lovely, really nice people. I suppose Sketty has to be ‘posh’ because of all the Uni folk living there, but I know what it’s like to move house at exactly that age and have to fit in. It is a terrible shame if it strips one’s language from one and I am so glad you have found your true self again!
I found the other day some old posting which show there was one person on the Forum older than me, so I may not be oldest, but as at least one of the most ancient relics here, Croeso yn wyr!!.

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#251

Your story resonates with me, as I see many similarities for myself.

I also decided Welsh was what I needed to be learning next after learning Spanish (though not as far afield as yourself, just over in Spain)

While I was living in Spain I volunteered with Workaway, which is similar to WWOOF, are you familiar? People place adverts for their ecological project, and in exchange offer accommodation and food, a fantastic way to cheaply experience the real culture of a country, while working with people with similar ethos and interests in small scale ecological farming and sustainable living.

I have checked the site for opportunities in Wales, which there are many, but unfortunately have not found any Welsh speaking ones, as often they are placed by anglophones, who although are often sensitive to the local culture, have moved in from other areas of the UK, where land is more affordable in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthen shire where a lot of this ecological farming and sustainable living.

Are you moving to the farm as part of volunteering or as a project of your own? This is an area that really interests me, as I have a lot of personal experience in the area.

I am originally from Tipi valley, a small commune near Llandeilio in Carmarthen shire. The place was set up in the seventies by a group that included my grandmother. As the name suggests people lived in tipis, and is actually what my mother, and then I was born in. Nowadays people also live there in yurts or traditional roundhouses, made of daub with turf roofs.

The community originally consisted of a lot of people from the new age travellers community, but there are now several generations who have grown up in the region, attending the local Ysgol Gymraeg. Living off the Earth is difficult but rewarding, and something that is still very important to me. Have you heard much about the community before?

I also know a lot of people who live in a similar manner in pembrokeshire

I too however had poor education in Welsh, as I was home schooled in Wales, then went to a school in Hereford. Finally after becoming quite proficient in Spanish I suddenly realised how important the language was to me, and an important part of my Welsh identity

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#252

I used to envy all of you enormously, it seemed so romantic. I guess if it is all you know, it seems just normal and natural. I guess it was sometimes pretty uncomfortable in the wind and wet, even for kids!! But it still raises a frisson of envy in me!!

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#253

It is absolutely fantastic as a child. The whole valley to go and explore, and the whole of each day to do it in, without the modern day worry of letting your child out of your sight!

You are more aware of the elements, though a little wood burner in a yurt is sufficient to keep a yurt toasty economically, far more in fact that any house in fact. Houses I have lived in have in general been far colder, as the cost of heating means it is a resource to be far more carefully used.

However, there have also been some days where the weather is terrible, but there are tasks to be performed outside, so the elements are are a far greater part of your life. In contrast, if it rains I stay inside for the most part. Although much more comfortable, you do lose something in the way of understanding what the countryside is really like, not just the comfortable shelter we have made within it. I love to imagine all the people who have lived or walked through these areas, the countless stories, the languages used.

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#254

Diolch :slight_smile: yes twyn-y-bedw, where the church is, is where I used to live. Opposite the primary school - ysgol gyfun?

#255

funny isn’t it how we had to learn another language in order to find out Welsh is important.

Yes I know of tipi valley though have never been there, what a fantastic place to have grown up I imagine. We spent a week at Lammas last year don’t know if you know of it? It’ll actually be just a couple of miles from where our farm will be. We’re fortunate that it’ll be our own farm. We’ve spent the last 12 months learning and wwoofing and can’t wait to get started now! When we’re ready to take on some wwoofers ourselves you’d be welcome to come. Perhaps by the my partner and I will know enough Welsh that we can at the least make it a bi-lingual farm!

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#256

I have always thought that, when the Roman legions landed, they were very silly not to look at how locals lived and copy them! The only warm place in some villas in winter must have been the bath house!! While the neighbours in their toasty round house with indoor plumbing (see Scara Brae, Orkney) scratched their heads in bemusement!
My generation were lucky as kids, in that we had a lot of freedom. I walked for miles and the only time anyone worried and told me off for being late was when I took our neighbour’s little dog and she thought he must be tired! (He was, but he didn’t show any sign of wanting to go back!)

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#257

That would make for a brilliant bookcamp - a Welsh Wwoof! (Wwwoof?) I’d be up for it!

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#258

Was that a typo Sara? If not, sounds like an intriguing idea! (or variation on a theme).

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#259

Croeso @alexheffron and very interesting stories from you and @flynn

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#260

LOL! Freudian slip, more like!

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