Now LIVE: 'Some Sex and a Hill - or How To Learn Welsh in 3 Easy Pints' by Aran Jones

192… is it going to squeeeeeeze over the 200 marker?.. [gnaws fingernails]…

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Dream on …

You are a speaker, Siaradwr Cymreig!

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Dysgwr yn unig…siwr o fod! Does dim dwywaith amdani!

Oh, ja … then I’m that one in pre-school. :slight_smile:

No, siriously. Your video was amazing! You amazed me with the flow of what you said. I always put a lot of "a"s and what’s more to it in my speach or I just blurt a word out which I all of a sudden realize it’s not the right one at all … BRAVO!

On the topic: I’ll continue to read the book tomorrow. It’s long day of (probabile) waiting ahead of me so plenty of time for reading. :slight_smile:

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It’s labelled best seller!! :slight_smile:

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It took 50 goes…honest :wink:

But thank you

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We broke 200 - time for bed…:wink: :fire:

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Llongyfarchiadau. Gobeithio bo chi wedi mwynhau’r prosecco :slight_smile:

Ond byddwch yn ofalus…dwi’n gwybod sut i bostio fideo rwan!

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We skipped the prosecco in the end - Catrin not feeling very well tonight, unfortunately…

All the more for you :wink:

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Llongyfarchiadau mawr iawn! I haven’t gotten all that far into it yet, but I’m enjoying it very much. I hope Catrin is feeling better soon and you can have a proper celebration.

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Diolch yn fawr, Jason… :slight_smile: Yup, fingers crossed she’ll be better soon.

No @petermescall, you are not “Dysgwr yn unig…”

Yes @tatjana… He is a “Siaradwr”

The words we use about ourselves are Really Important.

@tatjana used to torment herself (and us :wink:) with how she was only 70% right on this lesson, or 30% on that one. She saw herself as NO GOOD at learning Welsh.

Then she changed her mind. She changed the words she used about herself. She went from “NO GOOD” to “GOOD ENOUGH”

A Learner learns the language. A Speaker uses the language. A Speaker arranges a whole mini bootcamp and keeps the event Welsh. A Speaker makes opportunities to speak Welsh, and sticks to it. A Speaker is disappointed when he doesn’t find Welsh in a place where he expects to both hear it and speak it. A Learner retreats back into English when things get difficult.

The ONLY difference between @petermescall and @aran is how long they have been using the language. Everything else is a technicality.

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Margaret, I will fall out with you!!! :wink:

Thank you so much for an impressive read Aran. You are an inspiration to us all! You managed to reach a stage as a learner in 2 years which took me about 20 years until I found SSIW and finally had the confidence to start speaking. Diolch yn fawr!

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I suppose the problem is that we think of Learner and Speaker as being mutually exclusive terms. When we start on our journey to learning anything, we learn more and aren’t very good at it, to start off with. But after a while we “do” the thing we are learning or have learned and the learning part of whatever we are doing takes less time and effort.

So @petermescall. Under which rainbow will you find the magic stone that turns you into a Speaker, that thing you are so convinced you aren’t already?

I had a similar conversation, in Welsh, with someone at Bootcamp a few years ago. He said, half jokingly, that he would be a Speaker when he had done the last lesson of level three. But I could imagine him doing up to the penultimate lesson, and then stopping, so that he could still stay in that safe place called learner.

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Hmmm … but “learner” actually isn’t that safe place we might think.

Oh, and thank you @margaretnock. You just made me realizing that I don’t hold myself neither for speaker neither for learner of Welsh. I’m just speaking Welsh doing my best to use the knowledge I have and which I stil gaining. I am a Welsh speaker not because I might be fluent (which I’m not of course) but simply because I use the language (even here in Slovenia) no matter how little and for how short periode of time and i imagine we’re all learners all the time for the whole life. Even native speakers are still learners … so yes … we are both - speakers and learners - because I think speaker should not be defined with how fluently and how long you’re speaking the language but rather do you use it or not and even more, do you use it gladly and are not afraid of risk you might get into awkwardies some times or do you resort back to the language you speak better (or let’s say with more ease) - in this case English.

I actually don’t ponder my thoughts about am I speaker or learner I’m jsut happy tuspeak the language I’m learning and I’m grabbing whatever opportunity I get (or I’ve got since I still didn’t find one in Slovenia who’d speak the language too). Maybe it’s time to stop giving yourself the etiquets about are you learners or speakers but focus on just using the knowledge. You might get into embarrassing situation even when you use/speak the language for the whole life, believe me … :slight_smile:

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Um um…no idea. Possibly when i feel i could live my life in welsh without english

A rainbow for all of you, including @aran. …

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While I don’t know how much of the available material you’ve done (I may have seen this and forgotten), if you speak well enough to go on a bootcamp, then you’re a Welsh speaker. It really is that simple. You might not speak the language as well as you’d like, and there might be some vocabulary missing, but don’t kid yourself - you’re no longer just a learner.

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