Croeso! Welcome to 1 sentence in Welsh - how is it going for you?

I look forward to the opportunity. I’m ploughing my way through the level one challenges. I’ve made it to number 10, but my brain is pouring out of my ears! Another 7 months before I get to Wales, so hopefully, there’s still time to make some more progress. Thanks for asking.

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Helo, I’m from Serbia and preparing to enroll in college and while going through the internet one day I somehow stumbled upon a song in Welsh and decided to do more research. After a few months of thinking it through I decided that I wanted to learn it, and It’s been very fun and refreshing since I’ve never heard a language like it.

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Helo Anja, sounds like a very good reason to learn Welsh - actually pretty much the same as mine. :wink:
By the way since I’m nowhere near Wales either, I can also confirm it can be done even if you’re far from it!

Now I’m curious, if you don’t mind. Which song was it?

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I already know how to say in Welsh, Dw i eisiau dysgu siarad Cymraeg achos dw i’n caru Cymru meaning, I want to learn to speak Welsh because i love Wales. I hav also been learning Welsh on Duolingo, and i came across what i consider a tongue-twister, Dw i’n hoffi’r llyfrgell ger yr archfarchnad. meaning I like the library near the supermarket.

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Ooh, I don’t know if we’ve had a learner from Serbia before! A very warm welcome to the forum, @anja :slight_smile:

And @justus-robin-hall and @trevor-hoggard and @claire-9 as well :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Hello, I’ve only just joined and I’m not sure where to write so I’m trying here. I moved to Carmarthenshire in 1986 with a promise to myself that I would learn to speak the language - so, here I am at last, living in Rhayader and really hoping to learn with this method. Memory is the problem and I’ve already forgotten the first lesson, yet it seemed to stick :frowning:

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I’ve just done the second lesson and, at the time, I thought I was doing well but I’m forgetting already

Hello Anja.

Well, I’m not doing 1 sentence in Welsh so I am not sure if I’m welcome to post in here at all but the fact that you’re from Serbia triggerd my wish to say Croeso to you. I’m from Slovenia so not so far away from you and so I’m really happy to see you on here learning Welsh.

Very warm welcome and keep learning.

Dobro nam došla! :slight_smile:

Hwyl!
Tatjana :slight_smile:

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Hi everyone, I’ve been interested in learning Welsh since I was a teenager (a very long time ago :wink:), but somehow never got round to it. I love the sound of the Welsh language. I’m also a member of an English speaking theatre group. One lady there is also Welsh. And as some of my favorite actors/musicians are Welsh, it would be nice to understand a little bit, when the interviews are in Welsh :slight_smile:

I just did my second sentence and I’m quite enjoying it :slight_smile: Looking forward to the next sentence !

Bye for now !

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Don’t worry too much about that Polly - the connections in the brain are being built even if you can’t consciously access them when you want to. The course doesn’t work by expecting you to remember things immediately - in fact that would be very unusual! - and the method can seem counter-intuitive at times, but stick with it and you’ll find things you thought you’d forgotten suddenly pop up again. :slight_smile:

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It was Cymru, Lloegr, a Llanrwst by Y Cyrff

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Ha, so it seems Welsh music from the 80s is a magnet for foreign learners! :smiley:

Got to promote it more, guys! :wink:

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Hi, I retired a couple of years ago from university teaching (criminology) and a year ago started learning Italian using Duolingo to keep my brain
working. It was so much fun I recently added Welsh (the challenge.) However, I’m finding I can read simple Italian and the extremely simple Welsh I’ve learned, but can’t formulate a sentence to speak! I just completed Lesson Two Sentence 2 and I am actually speaking Welsh without reading it. So much fun!

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Before I moved to Swansea 2years ago, I thought to learn Welsh. I have no connection to the Welsh except for my husband, but he doesn’t speak the language. I have great difficulty with the Welsh sounds and find it very difficult to pronounce the words let alone trying to remember what I needed to translate. I hope that at the tender age of 70 and poor memory will not be a barrier to learning Welsh.

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@alice-taylor Don’t be discouraged! We all have our challenges, and the great thing about learning a language is that it helps builds new neural networks in your brain and boosts your memory, creating an upward spiral! Pob lwc! Good luck!

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@alice-taylor I was also into retirement before I started learning, but am now able to have regular conversations in Welsh both on Skype and using the Welsh Speaking Practice site hosted on Slack. I also thought age might be a barrier but it’s not. There are learners using this method in their eighties, and the record I’ve seen so far is someone aged 92. Which makes us mere youngsters!

Also, don’t worry unduly about pronunciation - just do your best. Those with a strong Welsh background will always be at something of an advantage when it comes to pronunciation, but I can assure you that the vast majority of Welsh speakers are just grateful that the rest of us are at least attempting to speak some Welsh. And at least you live in Wales now - some of us no longer do!

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That’s fantastic you’re picking up a new language at 70! I’m 48 and I hope I’m as ambitious as you. :pray:t4: In one of the Welsh speaking groups I run, there was a 70+ aged fellow who was struggling greatly and eventually dropped the group. I think his issue was NOT that he couldn’t learn the language, but his learning style was not suited to the group and the group does not have resources to help him learn. My point in bringing this up, is if you are struggling, come to the forum and ask. There are loads of people who help in the best way they can.

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A very warm welcome to the forum, Alice - with luck, some of our older learners will be along to call you a whipper-snapper before too long… :wink:

You’re right!! It’s getting so exciting, just finished lesson 4 and some of it is just coming right without me thinking:)

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I have always wanted to learn Welsh. I feel the strong pull of Wales from my father’s side of the family. His mother’s family lived and farmed in Penmachno, North Wales and his father’s family came from near Clynnog Fawr, Caernarfon. I have left it rather late, being over three score and ten years - however! I am enjoying the course so far, only just done day 2. I do find it difficult to learn by ear without being able to visualise the words and wonder if each day’s lesson could appear in writing at the end? Just a thought.

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