Mind you, with Ammanford, Betws was a comparatively important place there long, long before. I sometimes wonder why Betws wasn’t just used for the name of the whole place. But something as simple as the boundary of a an easily forded river running through the settlement seemed to cut it into two, requiring a new name for the newer bit.
Mind you, suggesting to someone in Betws nowadays that over the river in Ammanford could possibly be regarded as the same place would not be advisable!
I have a couple of questions:
I have faithfully kept away from books until the end of course 3 (finished today!) and am about to start level 1. Is it okay to start reading a bit now?
My second question is about speaking Welsh in Wales as a tourist. I live far away and am coming to visit this weekend for the first time. I was wondering about the different ways I might be able to get some Welsh practice in. I’ll be close to Bangor and Bethesda. Currently my best hope is that our Airbnb hosts can speak Welsh, but if they don’t, I have no idea who to speak to. I imagine it wouldn’t be a great idea to ask for directions in Welsh, since only about 50% of the people in Bangor speak Welsh… Does anyone have any ideas or experiences? Maybe some shops?
Oh, and about the bootcamps in Wales. Are they just for adults, or could I (15 years old at the moment) join? Not soon, I’m too busy with school, but maybe some summer? I need to start speaking it, but there aren’t many people in Helsinki who speak or are learning Welsh… Most language exchange sites I’ve found require you to be over 18, so I would feel weird joining.
Thanks for any help
You can also look for a Skype partner to practice speaking with. There are a lot of people here who are happy to do that every so often.
You are a brilliant example to all of the fact that learning online with an agile young mind and a lot of enthusiasm works brilliantly! I may do this myself out of curiosity, but how about looking under FAQ above, finding the Map, zooming on Bangor and Bethesda and seeing if anyone is marked, If so, use Personal Message to ask if they will be around when you are. Lwc dda! Have a wonderful time!
Thanks 
I will check the map, thank you for the suggestion!
Edit: @Sionned Sorry, I missed your post. I will look into that, thanks!
Hi @Novem,
I’ve moved your question about this weekend to a topic on its own as there is more chance of it being seen there. Trying to send PMs to people registered on the map may give you some luck, but when I lived in Cardiff and tried that to find people interested in a meetup, I didn’t get a lot of replies. You would have more chance appealing to people who use the forum frequently as they are definitely active learners and would love to help you.
I’ve made the topic here Any SSiWers around in Bangor/Bethesda this weekend? so hopefully you’ll get some responses. It’s a shame I didn’t see this yesterday or I could have mentioned it in the weekly email, but perhaps next time 
Wow, diolch yn fawr! I wasn’t sure if it needed its own topic
How many people from Finland do you think we get on here visiting Wales? It is definitely newsworthy!
Quick question - what is the music at the beginning/end of level 2 southern - it’s really got into my head! 
That would be ‘Coffi Du’ by Gwibdaith Hen Frân…
ah ha - I’ve been meaning to ask what the words were - I couldn’t make out the bits that I now see are “cos” and “Cryf”.
Diolch! I love that the lyrics are on that clip in both English and Cymraeg - very helpful!
I think “dwisho” is a contraction of “dw’i isho” - I want (in Northern usage)
What Sionned said
Mae’n ddrwg gen i! I realised that, “dw(i) isio” had been spelled with ‘sh’ for some reason! Unfortunately, by the time this hit my brain, I was upstairs doing other things! Sorry to have bothered you all!
edit: next morning
@aran or @Iestyn or??? Will tomorrow be, as I vaguely recall, Hydref y cyntaf? Or would y cyntaf o Hydref be as normal? And when we get to hugain, is it un ar hugain, dai ar hugain etc?? I mostly used the modern un deg un, dai ddeg dai type numbers back when, but I know dates tend to be in the older ones!
This is someting about the English wish that I found in one of those on-line etymology things:
Old English wyscan “to wish, cherish a desire,” from Proto-Germanic *wunsk- (source also of Old Norse œskja, Danish ønske, Swedish önska, Middle Dutch wonscen
I can’t help looking at the old Norse œskja and seeing a familiarity to ishe
In modern Dutch, there is eisen, pronounced very similar to eisiau, meaning “to demand”
Both fine
Re: ugain - are you still talking about dates? If so, unfed ar hugain, ail ar hugain, trydydd ar hugain and so on…
Well, just because it is from the Latin does not mean it isn’t related to other Indo-European languages meaning the same thing. (That would take a whole swathe of Welsh words out from connections with other languages!) But yes, eisiau does seem to be thought of as from the Latin (eg exiguus - small, inadequate, ie ‘wanting’!) which seems to be from a different Indo-European root to the eg Germanic words given above. (Which Indo-European root “wen” or something 
for desire seems to give the Latin “Venus”.)
Of course, there is a lot of guesswork in this, whether educated or not.
And none of it matters, of course, apart from to a few of us harmless drudges!