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

[lynwen-tregembo]

I want to be a Welsh speaker because learning Welsh is very important to me. My Dad was trying to learn Welsh before he passed away. I have taken up the challenge in his name.

[jane-62]

there are so many Welsh speakers here in Kent

But really because I love Wales and I hope to retire there.

[Davids]

I want to be a Welsh speaker because… well, actually it’s not so much I want to be a Welsh speaker as that I want to be a Welsh listener and a Welsh reader, but I appreciate that you can only get so far in learning a language without engaging the more active part of your brain. And I desire the Welsh language because a) I have had many holidays in Wales and love the place, b) I find it endlessly fascinating that there should exist in these islands, almost as if in a parallel universe, a whole incredible culture of poetry, story, song and legend almost unknown to most English people and c) I am a poet who enjoys translating verse as well as writing my own and if I want to achieve one thing by learning Welsh it’s to make Welsh poetry deservedly better known.

[tony-23]

I want to be a Welsh speaker because being Welsh I feel I should be able to speak it.

[Anna-Scharf]

I want to be a Welsh speaker because my maternal grandfather was Welsh and because I have met a number of very warm and friendly Welsh people over the years.

[Kirsten]

I’ve always wanted to be able to speak Welsh (being a Welsh person) but learning it has has not been the exciting experience I’d hoped for. I’ve tried the traditional sitting in a class, using a book and it’s dire! I teach English as a second language and see the value in being fully immersed in the language being learnt. I also see how courageous that people who have moved to the UK are, sometimes with little or no knowledge of English, living and making mistakes, but carrying on none-the-less. If they can do that, then so can I!

[judy-5]

I want to speak Welsh because I’m enjoying learning to speak it so much I want to keep learning more.

I love when something I sweated bullets over a few weeks ago starts showing up like I knew it since forever. It’s a weird and lovely feeling, like watching my brain do something it’s better at than I am.

[katharine-crew]

I want to speak Welsh because the Welsh side of my family stopped teaching their children Welsh a few generations ago to keep the children safe in school and I want to reclaim this beautiful language and help it continue

[stephen-wilding-hewi]

I wanted to speak welsh as i had recently moved to Nefyn to live with my wife. Since being here we have nurtured relationships with many of the locals. I feel speaking Welsh is my way of showing them, that i am prepared to put the effort in aswell.

[lesley-green]

My best friend moved to North Wales about 5 years ago and I am hoping to retire there one day. To be able to converse fluently with my fellow Welsh speakers would literally blow my best friend’s socks off!

[richard-harris-3]

‘I want to be a Welsh speaker because well why not? I visit South Wales frequently and want to be able to converse in the local language.

[KP1]

I want to be a welsh speaker because I want to able to speak to my girlfriend in her first language.

[anne-pilsbury]

I want to be a Welsh speaker to be able to make sense of the Welsh around me in this village on the Welsh side of the border. I’m loving learning.

[jill-ramsay]

I want to be a Welsh speaker because I want to understand the rugby commentary on S4C, and I want to help the language of my country come back.

I hope that I’ll be able to speak with my sister in Welsh. She taught herself from an early age and has been a Welsh teacher all of her life. I was always ashamed that I hadn’t learned it too. My mother taught herself too, I am so sad that she passed away last year and she will never know that I am learning Welsh now. I live in Canada currently but I’m going to retire back in Wales, and I can’t wait.

[lesley-6]

I want to be a Welsh speaker because it’s an important part of my life history. Nearly 60 years ago, my family moved to North Wales and I spent three years in primary school there absorbing a great deal of vocabulary, but not grammatical knowledge, which I hope to develop now. Being immersed in the language and culture (singing and recitation in the Urdd) had a profound effect on me, and helped me with language learning later.

[fiona-9]

Dw I ddim yn cofio beth I said, but I want to learn Welsh to help preserve a beautiful language.

[emmajones_2]

I want to be a welsh speaker because I’m fed up after years of on off learning still sitting listening to my family (in-laws and now my young children) chatting away and although I know what they are saying most the time I can only answer them in English, by the time I’ve sorted a Welsh sentence out in my head the conversation has moved on to another subject!

[tanya-harrod]

I want to make friends

[caspar-1]

my family and cousins speak welsh

[mrs-lois-burgess]

It is my heritage and I would to be able to meet ‘my people’ and be able to speak ‘our’ language. Language is important and it is a step of respect to all those that came before me - plus I love the sound of the language…