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

it would make me feel totally Welsh, and I’d be helping to keep our culture alive.

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I want to chat with people! I live in Mid Wales (moved here from England) and want to have conversations in Welsh with friends, acquaintances and strangers.

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Dw i’n moyn siarad Cymraeg achos fy ngwr a teulu i gyd yn siaradwyr Cymraeg

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Right, this is a complicated question for me.

Welsh is something that I always wanted to learn, I grew up in a village called Rhos in the Swansea Valleys and only the elderly people could speak Welsh. It has been on my to-do list forever.

But now I have three children and giving them the language was a no-brainer, they go to Welsh medium school and love it. With that though comes a daily self-flagellation with every letter sent home and every text, every school concert, reading book and piece of homework set, it’s my language and I can’t understand it and it hurts in a place I don’t have a name for.

Part two, I feel like we have a different sort of fight on, Wales still exists despite our troubled history, but our culture and language is under threat and is ours to keep safe. I feel like learning it is being a soldier in that fight. Our past has not cost us our language but our own indifference could.

(Reading that back I just want to make it clear that this isn’t xenophobia, I want everyone living anywhere to be able to be proud of who they are and where they come from!)

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…I think it’s such a cool thing to be able to do and I can go to Patagonia

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I want to dumbfound my best mate!

If I can make it then I really hope I can go on to use the language in everyday life.

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I have decided to live and work here for awhile, and I want to connect deeper to the Welsh nature, history, culture and people! - by speaking their native language.

I hope to engage the work I do with the local Welsh natives too, and therefore building bridges between those who have come here to live from other countries, and those who have been born of here, raised here, and also returned. Diversity is wonderful, but also to keep in our mind and hearts the culture and history of that which we are connected to whilst on these lands :slight_smile:

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It will help me get the type of career I want in gwynedd. Also I’ve lived here for 13 years and it’s embarrassing that I can’t speak Welsh fluently by now

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I want to be a welsh speaker because I’m welsh and want to speak my own language, I always have, but never tried hard enough before. Kids change things. I also think it will help me to make more friends with parents from my kids welsh school. I want to learn with my children to help them achieve what they want to in life.

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I started out just curious about Welsh, and learning a few words and phrases from DuoLingo. A kind soul (@sasha-lathrop) encouraged me to check out this site, where I realized I might ACTUALLY be able to speak welsh!!

So, I’m realizing the reason I want to learn Welsh is simply because I believe I can, and I want to see if that is true!

The thought of doing something that seemed impossible just over a month ago, is thrilling!! To be honest, I have some fear that I will hit some plateau where I can only speak the specific phrases taught in the lessons and never get any further. Then again, if I learn “only” what is in the lessons, that will still be quite an achievement. :slight_smile:

My other reasons for learning are:

-To learn something new
-To connect with my Welsh ancestry
-To prepare for future visits to Wales
-To open new doors and make new connections in the Welsh-speaking community
-To feel the pride and excitement of learning Welsh

Dwi wedi bod n dusgy Cymraeg am bitti mish, nowr… I don’t quite know how to spell it yet, but I can say it! I’ve been learning Welsh for about a month, now. =) Thank you so much. :heart:

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Wales is my home and I want to speak the language of Wales and make my Welsh speaking children proud!

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Hi, I enjoyed reading your reasons for learning Welsh and I agree that it seems at the moment that I will only be able to repeat the phrases in the challenges. I think the secret is to trust the process and then try (when ready) to step outside of this and extend the learning. So I am going to try listening to Welsh radio, music and even watch ‘Pobol Y Cym’. Okay maybe I won’t go that far…

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Last year I told my Cymro Cymraeg neighbour that blackbirds speak in Welsh. The ones round us say “Chwarae teg”.

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My reasons for learning are to communicate with my Welsh-speaking neighbours, friends, customers, etc and to fully appreciate poetry I read.

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Hi @katie-13,

I loved your reasons - great! :smile:

I would say don’t worry about only being able to say the sentences you are taught…

These phrases are more carefully chosen than they might first appear …they allow your brain to pick out the underlying patterns as you progress…as you are learning to say things ‘this way and that’.

So, what you end up coming away with is not just the sentence, with its specific words, but an understanding of how any sentence can be built.

So, firstly you will be able to make your own sentences (without even thinking about it).

Secondly, throwing in extra words at that point to say different things is really easy / natural.

Rich :slight_smile:

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I want to learn to speak Welsh because it is “my mother tongue”, whilst I know a fair amount of the vocabulary I would like to have the ability and confidence to speak the language

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I think this is a superb reason to learn @jackie-butler! Let us know when he replies lol.

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because … it’s been a long-term goal of mine, and now’s the time to do it! I’d like to be one of those people who are helping to make the language grow, I’d like to be able to understand Radio Cymru, S4C, Eisteddfodau ar y teledu, and speak with my Welsh-speaking friends (especially when it enables a more private conversation in public places!). My partner is a Welsh speaker, but growing up in North Wales and not being ‘mam iaith’ he experienced a lot of negativity around the language. As a child attending Eisteddofodau I also heard a very disappointing amount of mocking when I tried to speak Welsh, and on a recent trip to North Wales, acquaintances of my partner also mocked me for attempting to speak it (we’re ‘hwntws’ to them …). There’s a lot of negativity to counteract, but the best way to do that is to learn the language! Galla i neud e!

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What a lovely idea, @katherine-king. Is the novel available to all?

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@neil-confrey Hope you all have a wonderful day. I’m sure the happy couple will be delighted and impressed :grinning:

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