- Yes, I am a Welsh Speaker!
- No, I’m not a Welsh Speaker yet!
0 voters
I was speaking to someone at one of our weekly chat sessions this week and I offered her one of the orange “Cymraeg” badges for her to show others that she can speak Welsh…
“But I can’t speak Welsh, I’m not good enough yet!” She shrieked.
You have to bear in mind, the previous 45 minutes of this discussion had been all in Welsh (with a bit of French. The lady in question is first language French, so when she asks me “How do you say this in Welsh” or “What does that mean?” it’s easier to reply back to her in French rather than piggy-backing off English.
Which got me thinking. Do you consider yourself a Welsh speaker? I’ve considered myself a Welsh speaker - with a growing ability since about two weeks into the learning experience, but then again - I’ve always been very confident. Whereas when I asked my wife (who has been learning the same length of time), she felt like she didn’t “become” one until months and months later.
For those who feel they aren’t a Welsh speaker yet what is it that you feel you still need to do before you feel you’ll be in a place where you can say “Yep, I’m now a Welsh speaker”? Is there some kind of target you need to hit? Get served in a shop? Have a face to face discussion? Speak to a stranger?
I’m interested in knowing what people who don’t feel as if they can speak Welsh yet, have as their “target”.
Are these people worried that even when they hit it, they’ll still want to know more? Or that their targets will move?
We always hear of people saying “S4C wanted me to do an interview, but I’m not good enough yet”
If we think of the infamous census question for example, I know of lots of people who have said they answered “No” to being a Welsh speaker, perhaps because they felt they weren’t skilled enough to be called one. Are the figures being under-massaged due to people like this?
If you do consider yourself a Welsh speaker when was the “click moment” for you? Was it like me, clumsily buying a copy of Lingo Newydd in a Welsh shop? Was it finishing a certain lesson or a certain level of SSIW? Was it going to bootcamp?
Feel free to vote above, and we’ll see whether the SSIW forum is confident or not!