Bought a copy of Ffenestri by Lois Arnold today. Read the first few of short stories (aimed at those studying lefel mynediad) in about half an hour and only had to look up a couple of words in each to make sense of it (plenty of unfamiliar words I could make an educated guess of from context)! Also, one of the teachers I work with is the Cymraeg coordinator and she gave me some instructions in Welsh today that I understood!
That is a seriously impressive achievement - huge congratulations!
Sorry - the only honest reply I can give is that I canât actually remember - just picked up on some stray comments here and there - social media somewhere, or a conversation with Catrin - and happen to remember the twin details of âsecond language learners at Ty Newyddâ and âpretty serious talentâ. If Iâd known at that point there were any SSiWers there, Iâd have paid much more attention!..
i have a similar problem in focussing on an individual voice in a crowd. I struggle enough in English, so itâs immensely harder in Cymraeg. I went to the ladies rugby international on Saturday and found myself surrounded by Welsh speaking Gogs (The accent difference is so obvious to me now!). However there was too much noise for me to hear properly. Nonetheless a gentleman said âDiolchâ to me, when I moved out of his way so he could get to the ty bach. i did sing along with the bits of Calon Lan I knew though.
This is what I was going to say. I have just had a tweet read out live on Radio Cymru. I am so thrilled, my Welsh canât be that bad can it that it would be read out on the Radio as I wrote it?
Brilliant
I insist on bringing this to Teacherâs attention! @aran will feel a lovely warm glow of success!!!
I am part -time in Chingford. Used to be Essex before London ate it!
âKen Walshâ from K-Kabs used to do a very good folk music programme on Radio Cymru on Sundays, sadly axed last year. He has a lovely clear voice for radio, and was (relatively) easy to understand.
(âSesiwn Fachâ with Idris Morris Jones).
This wasnât me, this was said to @Richmountart this morning. He spoke welsh in the wild in Harriâs Portuguese Restaurant in Porthaethwy. Not only did he do that but he was congratulated by a first language speaker on how good his Welsh was after only six months.
A brilliant achievement.
Many thanks and yes, Harriâs was a good experience. I think that that was a genuine, unscripted/unplanned conversation and at the point when the member of staff in the cafe mis-counted the total for the bill and sorting through the huge pile of loose change that Iâd given him, the conversation was all still in Welsh except for the final half a sentence when my brain to mouth connection finally failed in Welsh!
I found this video online (of the old Sgorio theme as well!) that covers some football basics too
Slightly off-topic, a little anecdote from my last day in Wales â I had been briefly talking to another hotel guest (first-language Welsh speaker) at breakfast, a bit in Welsh and a bit in English, and she had mentioned that Welsh is difficult to understand, especially outside of situations where the number of reasonable responses is limited.
Then a bit later, she was talking to the person taking orders for warm breakfast items (toast and/or eggs?) in Welsh, and then decided on Jỳst tost, plĂźs (and on being asked, gwyn neu frown?, âwhite or brown?â), brown.
I think most English speakers would have understood that bit of Welsh
Well recently i had an interview for a job in wales. Not a welsh language post obviously but nevertheless in a semi welsh speaking areaâŠ
So class comes in at start of lessonâŠ
Pânawn da pawb, sut dach chi?
Da iawn diolch
Iawn. Dewch i ni ddechrau.
And back to english
Diolch @philipnewton, it gives me an excellent opportunity! @aran hearing what appears in Philipâs post, I would have thought. âOh, Wenglish again!â Does, Jỳst tost, plĂźs, gwyn neu frown? brown
Count as Welsh?
Of course it does.
Thatâs me told! But, honest, most English speakers would not realise that!
âEverybody round here speaks English!â they would say!!
Yes but many english speakers think words are theirs when in truth english borrows extensively. Pannini and a latte anyone? or pain au chocalat? ooops, deja vu! et cetera.
Well as a small success, Iâm understanding so much more on Radio Cymru now, not in detail but as in âgetting the gistâ or the overall feel for a piece, and some bits on the radio Iâm understanding much more of, a bit with Tommo this afternoon when he phoned someone up to talk about their upcoming wedding, I understood almost all of it. (In fact it could have been used as a listening exercise on SSiW!)
Yeah and those Frenchies stole âentrepreneurâ from us as wellâŠ