‘Nighttime—not that it made any difference down there. ‘Duw, this is doing absolutely nothing to enhance my career!’ His Valleys accent said it all—I knew what he meant. Shovelling coal, sweat glistening in the dim light at the bottom of the breaker station as we dug out the tail pulley yet again, his singsong humour relieved the frustration and struck me as strangely comforting deep beneath B.C.’s snow-clad mountains. As a proud Welsh woman and engineer who had emigrated to Canada in the 1970s, I had done my share of pioneering and welcomed the adventure, but this had to be the low-point in my upwardly-mobile ambitions—my partner’s too, apparently. His wry, almost incongruous comment spoke volumes, summing up our situation precisely.’
Fast forward many years, many mines later and here I am—in retirement, learning to speak Welsh not just enjoy the memories, accent and humour, but camaraderie of fellow SSiWers. And you? How did you wind up here? Where are you going?
Shwmae Marylin, dw wedi bod yn dysgu am buti tair mlyddyn (on and off!) I had lots going on in Family Life but have 2 Welsh speaking grandchildren in Caerphilly. I decided to “get serious” last September & enrolled on Mynediad 1 ar lein. I too have mild hearing loss & am not very technically minded either, so I can’t always remember how to access vocab lists on SSIW! Dal ati. Cofion, Rosemary
Good for you Rosemary—you will have so much to share with your grandchildren by making such an effort to join them in being able to speak Welsh.
Good luck with your course and with enjoying more speaking practice here. I know what you mean about not being a techie when it comes to computers, but I have found the magic vocab button just beneath the sound on/off button—at least on my iPad view. Better still, I keep a little notebook with a page for each lesson vocab—the writing helps me.
SSiW is one of the first methods I tried to learn this beautiful language. Dwi’n dechrau dysgu Cymraeg yn Mis Medi 2020. I started learning Welsh in Sept 2020. Since then, I have competed in Eisteddfod, wrote a song all in Welsh and was intereviewed by a few medias including BBC Radio Cymru (3 Aug 2021).
I love every minute of speaking this beautiful language and encourage everyone to try and keep going.
Why did I start learning and how does it help me? I invite you to read this post here on the SSiW forum. Why Did I Write a Song in Welsh?
Hello fellow US/Canada Learners! I was wondering if any of you have found good resources for listening to Welsh in addition to the SSIW material. It’s obviously a little more difficult to watch S4C or listen to Welsh radio here due to our location, and so was interested if anyone had any other good resources that can be accessed online?
Diolch in advance for any tips!
Brilliant story - I particularly liked the use of ‘Duw’ in the dialogue - reminds me of my uncles’ conversations and recollections!
I am also based in Canada, and my Father who also lives here still speaks fluent Welsh (Northern). On a recent visit back to Wales I was humbled by how supportive my family were of my very basic sentences, and to see the shock, yet joy on my Dad’s face when he heard me say something new in Welsh, has really given me the encouragement to keep going with this. I’m hoping to continue so as we keep that aspect of our heritage alive and well, even being so far away from his home!
Hello fellow learner across the pond!
I find the “Now You’re Talking Welsh” series on Youtube very helpful.
The LearnWelsh.Cymru scheme offers distance learning for all levels.
Also, if you like, I invite you to learn with me on Youtube all for free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV2vhkmgoqA
