Breakthroughs: Does anybody have small successes/breakthroughs speaking Cymraeg they want to share?

Amser maith yn ol, ron i’n gwylio rhaglen teledu yn Saesneg pan rhywun yn siarad Cymraeg a ddaeth isteitlau ar y sgin. Dw i’n cofio meddwl pam? cyn i mi ddeall na fod i’n sylweddoli bod yr iaith wedi newid!
A long time ago I was watching an English language TV programme when someone spoke in Welsh and subtitles appeared on the screen. I wondered why, and then realised I hadn’t noticed the change in language.

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I’m just on Level 2 Challenge 13 and 14, in the 6 month course, and I’ve been enjoying it all, but I’ve suddenly realised that from Challenge 11 onwards it seems slightly different. It now feels that I am expanding a language that I am familiar with, rather than just learning and practicing words in a language I’m trying to learn. I’m still making mistakes, forgetting some words and struggling with others, but it certainly feels good. I’ve also had my car radio permanently tuned to Radio Cymru for weeks now, and am finding that I occasionally recognise phrases and not just single words.

It reallyt feels as if it’s coming together. I know I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m sure I’ll get there, and I am happy to try out my Welsh with anyone who will listen now, which is something I never thought I would do either. Listening to previous learners’ videos and posts has been so inspirational too, especially Nicky and Dee, who are just brilliant. . Thanks for your excellent courses.

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That sounds like a very important gear change - huge congratulations! :star: :star2:

Merry Christmas, All!
My wife and I have just spent the afternoon, drinking tea & coffee in the Bethlehem Village Hall :slight_smile: The Carmarthenshire one.
Anyway, the lady who served us explained that she wasn’t in her element speaking English as she was a first language Welsh speaker, so my Wife said that’s ok because John speaks Welsh :grimacing:

In spite of being nervous, I just seemed to change languages - Thank you, SSiW. Needless to say that you had a mention.

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:star: :star2:

@MarilynHames @stephenbranley @EstherHughes

This is absolutely crazy! I must have been dreaming in Cymraeg because I don’t remember the dream, but I awoke reciting in my head, 'Mae gen i…Mae gen ti…Mae gynno fo…Mae gynni hi…etc. I wonder if I was in an imaginary Welsh class?

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I thought you were about to say “I must have been dreaming in Cymraeg because I didn’t understand what I said”. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
Maybe you’ve been attending night classes for a while, and your sleeping self is now way more advanced than your conscious mind! :grin:

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It is an exciting milestone to start dreaming in another language! I’ve had dreams in other languages, and I was so excited when I woke up. Maybe you’ll remember the next one. I had one where I spoke Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese (southern China) and French in the same dream… begging for my life and pretending to be from different countries during a (totally imaginary) Chinese military invasion of Hong Kong… absolutely not real, thank goodness, but in the dream it saved my life to convince the Chinese soldiers I was French and not American! (In case you’re wondering, “Why China…?” I spent years living there… and I was still there when I had the dream).

My French teacher in high school told us to watch for dreams in French (or any target language) as a sign we were on the right track and making real progress! Good job!

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:rofl: That would explain it, except I live in the United States. Just awoke reciting my “gots.” HA!

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I’m pretty sure in the dream world there are Cymraeg night classes also in the USA! :smiley:

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Ah right. As in gen? I thought for a minute you meant get got gotten :grinning:

Although you’re safe with me, as Im possibly the only person in Wales that feels that "had got’ just sounds totally incomplete.

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Mutations (what an ugly word) are coming without thought now, not that I thought much about them in the first place to be honest. Also, I’m spotting on the radio when the native speakers miss some which makes me think even more that it’s not a problem to miss them occasionally :wink:

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It has an unfortunate connotation (especially for readers/watchers of science fiction) with radiation damage to cells. Were it not for that, it wouldn’t be such bad word.

Sounds like one of those dance crazes of the 1960s celebrated by Motown bands with a wall of sound background by Phil Spector:

"So come on, come on,
DO…
the soft mutation with me,
Come on, come on,

You’ve got to lose those “g”'s now

Come on baby

“c” to “g”
and write back
I think you’ve got the knack

Do the soft mutation with me…"


(for the youngsters who have no idea what I’m talking about … :slight_smile:

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Two things I learnt about mutations this year:

  1. The Welsh for a Dr Who type mutation is different to a grammatical one.
  2. The possible mutations (or not) of the word Pawb seems to be a free-for-all, depending on where you are and who you are speaking to.

Anyway, Nadolig Llawen/lawen i Pawb/Bawb/Phawb whatever :smiley:

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I have had a Firesticck for some months now, given and set up for us by my daughter, and I use it a lot, but I have just discovered it also works as an ,‘Alexa-type’ device. Even better than that, i realised I could just ask it to translate into Welsh for me. I know you have to be careful with translation services, but using it with some care is great for odd words and phrases, because you get the pronounciation too. It’s probably something that everyone else knew about anyway, but it has added another fun dimension to my learning.

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I’m going to a Plygain service tonight in Nantgaredig. I was there a couple of years ago and somebody asked me if I was a Gog. I spoke Welsh, but was plainly not from around here. (It’s Welsh Jim, but not as we know it :wink:) This morning I was listening to one of the (33, and one of those is English!) Welsh language books available on line via the Carmarthenshire Library service. It’s very Gog, and I’m finding it quite hard to understand, but actually, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not the end of the world.

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I’ve posted these two stories in other threads, but they seem to fit here too :grinning: These both happened a few days ago.

I talk to my cat in Welsh a lot, sometimes when I don’t even know it! When I’m grooming him with his little brush, I always say “Brusha, brusha…” and then I watched a kid’s tv program on S4C the other day and the cartoon animals were brushing their teeth and singing “ Brwsia i fyny, a brwsia i lawr… brwsia, brwsia !” Hahahahahaha they sound PRET-TY much the same! Freaking cool.

and then… :bird::fallen_leaf::paw_prints::smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I went for my first walk today where I spent around 5 minutes talking to my cat in Welsh and looking at the world around me naming everything I could yn Gymraeg . I praised my cat because he was being so sweet and good-tempered on his leash: “ Da iawn Buddy! Dw i’n meddyl bod ti’n gwneud yn dda iawn! Diolch yn fawr Bubba!

When taking a cat on a leash, I have found it best to set boundaries then go pretty much wherever they want to go so I would say to him “ Ble wyt ti’n moyn mynd? Dw i’n moyn mynd gyda ti!

I gave a leaf in the grass a little nudge with the toe of my sneaker and said “ dail .” I watched the bird singing in the trees and said “ Bore da, aderyn !”

The whole experience made my right eye leak for real this time, and my left one too a little bit because It made me feel so happy. Thanks to everyone who has helped me reach this point so quickly and with such a joyful heart!

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:rofl::rofl: :rofl:
I love these kind of things. And the moment you go “wait a minute, the tv in Welsh is saying the same thing I was saying to the cat?” :open_mouth: isn’t it awesome? (right before starting to laugh, which is great too)

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Absolutely awesome! I love those moments too, and this particular experience made me laugh and laugh! I’ll never be forgetting that word! Hahahaha :rofl::joy::rofl::joy:

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The toothbrushing song is from Cyw, isn’t it? The children’s segment on S4C. I got that tune stuck in my head for DAYS and it was starting to get on my colleagues’ nerves because I kept singing it. None of them speak Welsh.

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