I’m John, one of the Oxford group of SSiWers. My Welsh-speaking grandfather died when I was baby and my father knew only a few words of Welsh, but I’d wanted to speak Welsh since childhood. Tried unsuccessfully in evening classes in London in my 20’s. After a rather frustrating Open University sylfaen course a few years ago I had another go at a sylfaen course in Nant Gwrtheyrn where I first heard about SSiW - since then I’ve completed Level 3 of both the old and new North courses
Apart from that my one small claim to fame is having a word I’d invented for ‘comfort eating’ at the behest of Bethan Gwanas during a course, i.e. ymsiocledi, tweeted by her, and Aled Hughes and Aneirin Karadog, as well - doesn’t seem to have caught on though!
I’m Mark - I grew up in Warwickshire and I live in Coventry. I’ve completed the course up to the end of Level 3 (Northern), and am actively forgetting it in preparation for the party, following Mackie’s excellent example.
I’ve only ever learned Cymraeg through SSIW (over the last 7 years or so). I’ve done two proper bootcamps and the same ‘unofficial’ week as Rob Scully - all on the Llŷn peninsula - and a long weekend mini-bootcamp in Tresaith. I get to meet and chat with other dysgwyr a couple of times a month locally, sing yn y Gymraeg most weeks with a few other Welsh-speaking/learning guys (and one Hungarian woman), and have had an hour’s weekly Skype-chat completely in Welsh for four or five years with someone with rather better Welsh than me.
If only I read books, watched the telly, or had managed to get past Beca’s introductory sgwrs, I might speak and understand Welsh pretty well by now…
Having said that, I’m a community worker and teacher, who fairly often gets to work in quite multicultural situations, and every so often I’m involved in trying to make English a little less dominant in those situations, usually by getting people to voluntarily do short bursts of upfront interpretation into a family language of theirs (this slows down the native English speakers, who have to wait for interpretation; makes other languages visible; and gives non-native English speakers a chance to catch up and/or catch their breath). As with much in life, this goes better if the person encouraging it to happen is willing to do it themself, and so one thing I have become quite confident at is interpreting on-the-spot from English into Welsh, in front of sometimes quite large groups of people, as long as no one who actually understands Welsh can hear me …
Hi I am Steve, still at work in Milton Keynes at the moment but heading to the parti by lunchtime. I’m looking forward to meeting people as I’m not so good at the technology
Where and when are people meeting this evening?
See you later
Steve
Hi I’m Amanda, I started learning Welsh with SSIW when I was about to move to Wales in 2014 having had a bit of a mid life crisis about not fulfilling my childhood dream of having a small holding and trying to be at least partially self sufficient. I went to boot camp in 2017 which I describe as a life changing experience and very scary as well as making some really good friends. I look like this
Hi pawb, Stine dw i. I’m originally from Herts, but moved up to Gwynedd 7 years ago with my husband Ben so that he could work on the local steam railways. I did the ‘old’ Northern course and through that met Aran & Catrin when they were looking for a learner prepared to chat to Hywel G of Radio Cymru. [I’ll talk to anyone, me ]
Look forward to seeing everyone over the weekend. Here is a pic of me & Ben:
Bob ydw i. I did the old courses 1,2 and 3 back in 2015, together with the new (current) Level 1. I have also done Level 2 when it became available and quite a bit of Level 3 more recently. I have also been a regular at the Saith Seren in Wrecsam since Spring 2015 and have found that the flying start from SSiW and the ongoing development from regular conversation sessions were a winning combination. And all this was done whilst living in Greater Manchester (and buying a lot of petrol for cross border travel!)
Since before Christmas I have been fortunate to live in Arfon, in a community with 88% Welsh speakers according to the last Census. So basically I live my live almost entirely in Welsh now
I’m Rhodri, I’m from Abergavenny originally but living in Sheffield at the minute. I’ve been learning Welsh since school but only felt able to speak it since joining SSIW! can’t wait to meet you all!
Okay - I think I’ve now said hello to everyone whose pic is up in this thread - apart from @PhilgJones@MarilynHames@Richard636363@aliC@gkfbux@glynsig@Macky (ohmigod that’s lots) - and only fleeting conversations with too many of you, but that’s the nature of the beast…
Phil Mari Richard Ali Gareth Glynis Macky please come and say hello at some point tonight! And if you’re feeling particularly kind for a fairly baffled old bear, say ‘Hello my name is’ (and then your actual name, yes, I know SSiWers can be mischievous)…
And everyone else who I haven’t had a chance to say hello to yet - whether you’ve got a picture in here or not - do please come and do the same thing - I would dearly love to have met every single one of you, but I do start to get tired and bit shy about hurling myself at people and saying ‘WHO ARE YOU THEN?? COME ON TELL ME!!’…
So please, please come and say hello and tell me who you are… and tell other people (who aren’t checking the forum!) to do the same thing… I’ll try and catch a lot of you when you’re sitting down at tables tonight… but hey, help me out here! COME AND SAY HELLO
- I knew I forgot something …
. For some reason everyone is parking diagonally then reversing into the traffic 
