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

Croeso adref, @andy-15!

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Because…I have three years before my daughter goes to school and I want to be able to help and support her to learn Welsh ( although it’ll probably be the other way round in no time ; ) )

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This is very similar to my situation - snap. I wasn’t born in Wales but grew up there with a Welsh father and English mother. I have recently found out that my father could speak Welsh as could all his family apart from his sisters and younger brother, who grew up in England.

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I recently moved to Wales, I am partly Welsh and I will be able to communicate with confidence in my job. It is a lovely sounding language too!

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I’m Welsh and speaking the language feels like the perfect way to show that. I never had the chance to learn in school, so now’s the time :slight_smile:

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I’d rather be Welsh than English.
I’ll know I am a Welsh speaker when I am also a Welsh thinker.

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I want to be able to speak the mother tongue of my grandfather. It will change my life (is already changing my life!) by opening up a whole new culture and indeed landscape of the mind. Short-term target: speaking Welsh on my next trip to Wales, next Easter.

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I want to become a welsh speaker (again) because I used to speak Welsh in school but have since forgotten a lot and have now lost confidence to speak it. My daughter has just started dosbarth derbyn and I want to be able to help her with her school work and speak to her teachers and other parents in Welsh. My 11 week old son will also go to welsh medium school. I’m doing the course while I’m on maternity leave so he’s already hearing a lot of Welsh!

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I’m English, have moved to live in Wales and I would like to become as bi-lingual as possible.

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I want to become a welsh speaker (again) because I used to speak Welsh in school but have since forgotten a lot and have now lost confidence to speak it. My daughter has just started dosbarth derbyn and I want to be able to help her with her school work and speak to her teachers and other parents in Welsh. My 11 week old son will also go to welsh medium school. I’m doing the course while I’m on maternity leave so he’s already hearing a lot of Welsh!

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Great reasons and I agree, it is always important to remember why we grew up without our language. I’m so happy to be learning it again, thank you for the inspiration.

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Me too. I’ve seen them absorb the language and I’m now finding that whilst they are becoming fluent in school, I am learning Welsh at home and can now speak a little with them. I feel I’m helping them learn that learning is fun - hard work, but vital. I sat through their Christmas concerts and managed to understand a little. My problem is I’m too impatient! I forget things take so much time!

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Yes! I remember so well hearing on the news about the concerns over Welsh dying out when I was a child, 20 years or so ago. In those days I still lived in the London overspill town I was born in, Wales was for holidays and I never dreamed I’d end up living in Cardiff. Lovely to think of the language rising like a phoenix, and being a teeny tiny part of that. Incidentally, only recently discovered hubby’s grandfather (who I never met) was a first language Welsh speaker. Must get hubby on the band waggon as soon as he stops trying to learn Russian…

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Dw i eisiau siarad efo fy ffrindiau ar wyliau

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I’m learning Welsh so I can speak it at home with my partner, and (in the very distant future) so I can help raise a child truly bilingually. And to get ahead at work too!

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I heard it spoken when I visited Wales several years ago and fell in love with it - along with the beauty and history of the whole country. I’m hoping to visit again someday soon and when I do I want be able to understand the language.

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I want to be a Welsh speaker because:

I want to speak to my friends and family in another language

I want to improve my employment prospects for professional jobs in Wales e.g BBC Wales

I want to understand what the commentators are saying when i’m watching Wales play sport on S4C

I want to strengthen my Welsh identity

and i want to help the language to survive.

I hope my Welsh speaking friends will be very impressed with me and and my partner if we speak Welsh with them at my cousin’s wedding n Snowdonia next year

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I too started to learn Welsh because I wanted to visit Wales and understand more! :national_park:

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I want to be a Welsh speaker as without it half of life is sheut off to me when visiting family and friends in West Wales. We live abroad but go home several times each year and it is to my shame that I have not done this before.

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Hello, all! I have wanted to learn Welsh ever since I joined the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Although not Welsh myself, I feel a deep connection to the mythology and landscape of this beautiful place. Learning the language has been an incredible journey thus far, and I look forward to the remainder of the course ahead!

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