'I want to be a Welsh speaker because...'

I want to be a Welsh speaker because I wanted to learn another language and to challenge myself. I chose Welsh because I believe the language is lovely, and I want to be a part of keeping it alive.

One thing I hope will happen when I am a Welsh speaker is to visit Wales and put to use in person the language that I am learning.

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The Welsh Language is part of the culture of the whole island and should be preserved.
By learning to speak Welsh I hope to enjoy even more my visits to Wales

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I enjoy learning languages, Welsh is a traditional language of the UK and I would like to contribute to the preservation of Welsh. It saddened me to hear some schools in Wales do not teach Welsh and I have some Welsh in my family tree. Finally, I would like to explore Wales and do the honour of conversing with the locals in their own language.

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I want to be part of the community since moving to Wales

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because itā€™s a beautiful (and fun!) language worth preserving, and Iā€™d love to be able to converse with native speakers, with confidence and little to no struggle, either in-person or via the Internet. Because why not?

(A smaller, more instantly achievable life-changing goal would be to sing along to a Welsh song and understand all of the lyrics, without the use of subtitles.)

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I love Welsh! Iā€™m just in love with the language!

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I want to learn Welsh because I love languages. I have always wanted to learn a Celtic language, and Welsh (one of the only two non-Latin/Germanic languages of the seven I hope to eventually become fluent in) seemed a natural choice given my ancestry.

My great-grandparents came from Wales, but none of the surviving members of my family seem to know where exactly from. If anyone has any tips on how to figure out our family origin, Iā€™d love to hear them! I know the family last name was Mainwaring (not exactly unusualā€¦) and they landed in Wilkes-Barre, PA. When I was young I was told that they were different from the other Welsh in that town because most were coal miners from the South, but my family was from the Northā€¦I thought also miners, though. But honestly, Iā€™m not sure of anything at this point other than the last name and where they landed in the US.

Another reason is that Iā€™ve been working on a fantasy novel set in an alternative history that features, more or less, a group of Celtic Britons vs a Germanic group of people. I thought learning a Celtic language would help me understand the Britonic characters better and differentiate their voices more.

I live in the Netherlands now, where I know ZERO Welsh speakers/people, though Iā€™d love to change that. But itā€™s also conveniently close to Wales (short direct flight to Cardiff), and I hope to take my new language skills on some post-COVID adventures. I love hiking, caving, history, and music, so Wales beckonsā€¦ #AngelseyOrBust :wink:

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Welcome Elysia!
Itā€™s still quite a long shot, but if you think they were miners - or that area of work at least - itā€™s possible that some of the places to look further might be Anglesey (copper mining), Bethesda or Blaenau Ffestiniog (slate quarrying) or Flintshire/Denbighshire (the North Wales coal field). I know it doesnā€™t narrow it down that much, but it could be a start!

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I care about the language and its history and it will be fun to speak Welsh on visits to Wales - somewhere I go regularly for work.

I imagine having a good conversation with a nice person in a shop who is pleased and surprised that I have bothered to learn Welsh. A small thing, but would be so rewarding!!

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I want to learn Welsh becauseā€¦

ā€¦itā€™s there.

Itā€™s not only mountains that that applies to!

And I like to think that my learning it is one extra bit of help to make sure it keeps being there.

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because :- I want to speak my native language, and also, to speak to my grandchildren in their first language. I also want to feel proud of myself. So I have 3 reasons! I canā€™t wait to see the look on their faces when I start joining in their conversations with each other, they will be so surprised!

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I want to speak Welsh. Itā€™s that simple. Itā€™s a living language and many of my friends speak it.

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I want to be able to speak the language with my children (who we have enrolled in Welsh language school) and friends as I feel it is important.

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it reminds me of my grandmothers who both spoke Welsh and it makes me feel closer to them!

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because Iā€™m Welsh, and think itā€™s great weā€™ve got our own language.

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I want to speak the language of the country that I live in!

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I was born and raised in the United States; like so many native-born Americans, I have a mixed heritage, but so much of my heritage is Celtic ā€”maybe 3/4 of it; the rest is English. I want to learn Welsh, become a Welsh speaker, because part of my heritage is Welsh ā€” my surname is Welsh; Iā€™ve had an interest in languages since my teens; among croups of languages that interest me, the Celtic group figures high; and of all the Celtic languages Iā€™ve explored, the orthography of Welsh is the closest to being ā€œphoneticā€. Welsh grammar is very interesting, as well.

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I was born in Leicester but grew up in Cardiff (we moved there when I was very young, so i feel more at home in Cardiff). I now live in Germany and when I retired 12 years ago, I wanted to do something new and I decided to (try to) learn Welsh as it reminds me of my young days in Wales and also because learning a language is excellent for the ā€œlittle grey cellsā€.

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I am Welsh, but born and brought up in the Vale of Glamorgan, in deep south English speaking country, of English speaking parents, it was never on the cards. Iā€™ve always found the language beguiling but have been increasingly ashamed that I can speak more French and Italian - and even German at a push - than I can the language of my home country, which was the birth language of both my grandmothers!
My cousin Huw from near Llanfair Caereinion said to me before I went to his motherā€™s funeral a few years ago ā€˜youā€™ll need to practise your Welsh, Sueā€™ and I was too ashamed to tell him that I didnā€™t really have any to practise!

Iā€™m hoping for a chance in due course, preferably at a happier occasion than another family funeral, to speak in Welsh with him and maybe more of the many Welsh speaking cousins I met that day, who welcomed me warmly even though I was representing the only English monoglot branch of the family!
Oh, and there are of course lots more Welsh speakers within a day trip of where I now live in Shropshire and not necessarily over the border!

Sorry got a bit carried away here!

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Go for it Sue.
I bet you have more of a Welsh accent than you credit yourself with.
Oh!, crackin :smiley:

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