Can anyone suggest an app or a website to help me learn more vocab?
SUSAN
You could try Memrise or Duolingo for some vocabulary building, but far more rewarding in the long run is to expose yourself to Welsh content, like books or tv/radio (with the help of a dictionary of choice). And most importantly: just throw yourself into as many conversations as possible. Dal ati!
I found reading (with the help of a dictionary) is the best way to build vocabulary. Have a look at the book club thread for some suggestions.
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In the States that’s not as easy as it sounds, but I’ll try, Diolch!
I’m not in the States, but not in the UK either (Germany here), so I know what you mean, we don’t have the same access to media that people from the UK have. So here are some pointers of material that should be available in the U.S.:
- The webpage of the TV station S4C has a section with programs available to view on-demand internationally, usually up to 35 days after their initial airing. (s4c.cymru)
- The iPlayer Radio app should also be available in the U.S., also with the feature to listen to programs after they aired. There are also podcasts available. I have become quite fond of “Stori Tic-Toc”, a collection of short children’s stories, usually around 5 minutes. If you’re aiming for more grown-up stuff check out Beti a’i Phobl, where presenter Beti George talks with different people.
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I’ve had good luck getting Welsh books from bookdepository.com. You can search by language. And shipping is free!
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Lots of great sites
Intro Word/phrases and pronunciation - https://www.learn-welsh.net/welshvocabulary
Intermediate Words/phrases and pronunciation - https://www.learn-welsh.net/welshvocabulary?level=secondary
Lots of words here - https://americymru.net/americymru/documentation/contents
BBC has lists for both North and South - http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/welshathome/textversion/
SSiW Gair y Diwrnod - Gair y Diwrnod - Word of the Day
That should keep you going for awhile, Susan.
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Wow Diolch yn fawr iawn
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I have finally decided to watch Lukas Vyse’s videos the Polyglot Life, heavily promoted on Facebook. It is making me look at my vocab building, my library of books bought for vocab acquisition, whose content is not in my head…
He emphasises not learning individual words (ever, I imagine) but for every word you are imprinting on your brain through spaced repetition, and he suggests using a program like Anki for that spacing, find a/the chunk that a native user learns it in.
GK’s dictionary (and others) provide nice chunks of course, but I suppose LV is encouraging you to see chunks everywhere, even in the wild. In a specific - I mean, lots of specific - contexts…
To identify chunks (i.e. deliberately seeking out your own selection of useful meaningful chunks) he suggests having transcriptions of what you’re hearing from native speakers, and even a parallel text in your home language (…or whatever you’re using as medium through which to learn).
You choose chunks which, as non-native, you might probably or most definitely not have thought of, in which to learn the exactly appropriately combined/embedded vocab item as a phrase.
Thus, you are always learning a phrase or “word-and/or-concept-combo” that works, as “Merry Birthday” does not… [“Merry birthdays” are I suppose unbecoming if - as a sign of maturity - a person is supposed to be able to hold his/her - (i.e. one’s own) - drink… ]
Forgive me if I am not being helpful sharing this.
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I personally want to build connections between the languages I’ve got - and that means strategies for mastering noun gender, that m/f or m/f/n thing,
[in Welsh that g/b thing?]
I agree with the idea of learning words to just learn words without additional context makes it more difficult to learn the word. From my experience, it takes 3-4 times reviewing a word by itself for me to remember it. However, if I learn words with context and use them in the context, such as cooking, then I learn them much faster.
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Here are the covers of my latest (first!) parallel text… found by accident, and now I know why they’ll be useful.
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Have you finished Level 3, Susan? 
Hi Susan,
You know about Radio Cymru of course, and you may know about the regular Pigeon podcast series. This is a kind of compilation of excerpts of their regular programmes, selected with learners (I would say advanced learners, or advanced-ish at least) in mind.
But as well as the podcasts, they also have some vocab lists … selected vocab from each programme. Not every word, of course, and it’s not a transcript, but it is an aid to more understanding of the podcast. They are slightly hidden away, I always think, but this is the home page for the podcast series:
And if you clip on the tab / link that’s labelled “Geirfa’r Podlediad” those are the vocab lists, with the podcasts under the “Podlediad” tab.
Pob hwyl,
Mike
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Hi @SusanDavies,
Quizlet is extremely good at helping you learn vocabulary, word chunks or anything (my daughter’s school post quizlet content to go with her A level lessons - radical!).
You can enter your own snippets or choose ones that are already there. It can test you, keeping going on the ones you don’t know until you’ve ‘got it’.
Personally I use all of the things people have mentioned above, quizlet is just a component - but it’s the one I use for really nailing something versus getting exposure via listening or reading.
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Diolch!
Wow, that is a great website. Diolch.
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