I am also in Australia however my dad and his family are from Hereford (and yes I know this is in England I have been there) Grandad always used to say a few thing in welsh to me as he worked in Crosshands in Wales as a coal miner for around five years, so I have always had a strong interest in this ancient and fascinating language. I also have cousins in Pembrokeshire so when I come back I will try some welsh out with the locals (as my cousins don’t speak it). I know I have said this before but I am astounded at how much I can already say in welsh using this course and I am only up to lesson 5. The words just come out and in any combination too!
7 Likes
Hello everyone!
I’m learning because I’ve always been fascinated by Celtic languages and cultures. I already speak Russian (it’s my native language), English, Italian and some French and Belarusian. So I have some experience in learning languages but Celtic languages just intimidated me – they seemed too difficult (though very beautiful and unique). But recently I decided it was time to give it a try and Welsh just seemed to be the most beautiful and the most widespread among them. And there are quite a lot of books and other materials available for learners, which is very good because unfortunately I don’t have any native speakers to talk to here.
It’s also very pleasant to be learning such a rare and ancient language – here in my country there aren’t many people familiar with it, so when I say I’m learning Welsh almost everyone becomes curious and asks about it.
4 Likes
You’re not alone. I’m the only one actually learning Cymraeg in my country - Slovenia so here we both don’t have much different circumstances. 
2 Likes
Hello:) I live in Belarus, and we don’t even have celtic studies as a university course… I suppose there are some people who can understand Middle Welsh, because they’re historians or linguists, but not the language that is spoken today. So it’s a big problem to find someone to practise Welsh with. Have you found any native speaker who can to talk to you online? Or some other learners maybe?
Here are many learners who seam like native speakers to me being much ahead (with the knowledge and ability to speak) of me despite the amount of material I’ve already gone through.
In my country there are NONE of even learners what native speakers despite our country is quite “occupied” with people from UK.
I had 3 or 4 skype sessions with two MUCH advanced learners on here and it was useful although I tend to “escape” into English quite fast but I just have to say that English is much like 2nd native language to me as I can write and read (a bit less speak) in it with no translations at all. I actually can write as I speak in English (that fast) and I sometimes even dream in that language. When I get to this stage in Cymraeg then I’ll know I’m fluent enough but will still not stop learning of course.
When I get me a new computer then I tend to continue with skype practice with both of learners I had sessions before (if they’ll still want to do that with me of course) hopefully. And further on … who knows what time brings. Let’s wait and see.
Oh, how lovely - whereabouts in Belarus are you? @Sionned would be happy to add you to the map… 
We used to have a learner in Yekaterinburg, but she hasn’t been on the forum for quite a while…
Thank you :) I hope after I’ve learnt enough to manage a simple conversation I’ll find someone who would be willing to talk to me on Skype, too. I teach Italian and Russian myself and I always tell my students how important it is to find someone to communicate with, from the very beginning. Just to be sure you have the correct pronunciation, at least
2 Likes
Hello! I’m from Vitebsk, it’s in the north of Belarus.
2 Likes
Keep us posted how you do - and if you get stuck, don’t hesitate to ask for help on here
2 Likes
Hmmm … you have awaken interest for conversation in me … I used to learn Italian once upon a time but forgot (let’s say) everything. At one point we might chat in Italian a bit. I’m very curious how much of it I really can get out of myself.
2 Likes
Diolch!
I’d be glad to have a chat in Italian, if you want to, one day:)
2 Likes
Ooh, when our Russian course is ready, maybe we could do an intercambio Russian/Welsh… 
2 Likes
Oh, are you preparing a Russian course? If you ever need any help with anything I’d love to help) And it’s my secret hope to find a Welsh speaker who would needs Russian, unfortunately slavic languages are not so very popular!
In the 60’s it was actually compulsory to study either scientific Russian or German if you were doing a science degree in London! I chose Russian, but nobody attempted to teach us to speak it, just to translate papers!! I remember virtually none…“govorichi Anglicheski?” maybe, rendered into this alphabet!!! 
3 Likes
Yah, but Russian surely is more popular then Slovene. Even Serbian, Croatian, Czech and Slovak for that matter are more popular then Slovene. I believe that’s our “duality” thingy which tear people apart from learning Slovene and the fact that Slovene really is the “sharpest” (understand taughest in speach) of Slavic languages. Those "R"s sharp "V"s and what’s more to it is quite hard to pronounce (say), especially for (only) English speaking people. …
But I still hope one day Slovene will be on here to learn too.
Oh, and @aran since you said you can show me some tricks about how much Slovene you don’t remember (in one another topic)… come on, you surely remember at least “Dober dan.” (the greeting we use during the whole day). Don’t you?
1 Like
Son am Rwsieg, I just noticed this:
http://www.cymraeg.ru/geiriadur
A Welsh-Russian, Russian-Welsh online dictionary.
It’s listed among others here:
1 Like
Oh, I didn’t know that) But it makes sense - the USSR used to have lots of important discoveries in the scientific field and it was probably important for scientists to be able to read the language.
the question would look more like “govorish po-anglijski?” and is actually very useful for English-speakers to survive here:)
I always thought that southern and western slavic languages might be a bit more popular than the eastern ones such as Russian, just because you share the writing system. And our cyrillic writing makes people cry.
I’ve just found some examples of Slovene on youtube, it sounds lovely:) I’m afraid I’ve never heard it before. There aren’t many Slovene people here.
@mikeellwood
Thank you! There’s even a textbook on Welsh grammar in Russian, but the examples there are mostly taken from books, not from everyday speech.
Hmmm … now we really got off topic. Would it be (maybe) better @wondersheep or someone of his position moves some of those last posts to Other languages category? It’s less populated, I know so let’s populate it. And besieds, I’ve noticed that if you mark category as “Watching” you’ll get all updates even if you come on Welsh forum so there’s no fear you’d miss anything. (I did this with “Spanish” and “News” category so I know for sure it’s like this.
Just a suggestion though.
In the mean time:
We’ve learnt cyrillic when learning Serbo-croatian but as much as I could establish, it’s not totally the same as Russian one. And it’s not such a “cry” anyway … Brailles script is more cry for that matter though (and I know it aswell as I had to learn it when I was a kid due to my bad sight).
Thank you for this compliment. Well, even Google Translate is clumsy with translations from or into Slovene and many sites don’t include it into their translations. You can get “Slovenčina” (what is Slovak language) but no “Slovenščina” (what is Slovene) …
And the interest for learning Russian is increasing in our country and there are even some primary schools which offer learning courses through the whole school year as extra subject to learn from which students/pupils even get marks which are included into final certificate.
1 Like