Hello,
My name is Colin Watkins, Welsh born but in Hertfordshire raised. Welsh was not spoken very much in my familly, just a few words here and there.Now I feel that I should really speak the language associated with my birth. I’m finding the process very difficult; I am having to solve a number of problems but I suppose the most significant is the fact that I live in Germany and there are not a lot of Welshspeakers here.
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Hello Colin,
nice to meet you 
May I ask where in Germany you live? I’m from Baden-Württemberg, near Stuttgart. So if you’d happen to live around here as well, we could try to meet sometimes.
Do you know about the Welsh Speaking Practice on Slack? There are lots of great people who welcome anyone with open arms and are happy about every opportunity to practice their Welsh with other learners 
If you want to join, you simply have to write an e-mail to admin@saysomethingin.com with WSP in the heading.
Otherwise, we’ll try to help you as much as we can here in the forum.
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Welcome Colin 
We actually have quite a lot of learners in Germany, but I realise it’s a big area to cover!
Camille is spot on - WSP on Slack is a great way to connect for real speaking practice, not just with people in Germany, but from all over the world and at all levels, and of course we’ll help you out here on the forum too - wherever people are with SSiW, they are not alone!
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Thank you for the fast responses to my post; I am grateful for your help and support.
Camiila I live in Würzburg which isn’t very far from Stuttgart. So if you would like to suggest how we can meet, I’m certinly in favour. I have taken up
your advice and sent an email to admin and now await information.
I suppose I ought to tell of the difficulties I am working on; not offering them as excuses.
1 I am rather old to be learning a new language.
2 I have hearing difficulties; not deaf but wear hearing aids which increase sound but do not improve clarity.
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You’re welcome, Colin.
I looked up the train connection from my place to Würzburg and was happy to discover that I would only have to change trains twice
Depending on how you feel about travelling, we could either meet in Stuttgart or in Würzburg, go into a café or for a walk and speak as much Welsh as we can.
It’s great that you’re learning Welsh despite your difficulties!
I remember my grandmother had difficulties with her hearing aids because they increased the sound of everything in the vicinity, which made it hard for her to follow conversations. Is it the same with yours?
Now, this is simply a theory of mine, but perhaps it would help if you wore on-ear headphones which block out most of the surrounding noise?
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As I said before, you’re never alone with SSiW - I’m tagging a lovely lady called @MarilynHames (Hi Marilyn! 
) who also has hearing problems, as she may have some more tips for you
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Helo @colin-watkins.
Here was (almost) all said so I’d just say Welcome here. It’s great you’ve emailed the SSiW staff to join the WSP. Although I’m (almost) never there I know this is the key point to practice your speaking abilities and it’s really great one. If you and @Camilla_Walker will manage to arange the meeting, this will be even greater and as @siaronjames said, @MarilynHames will be really one who’d offer you a lot of tips and tricks how to learn being hearing impared. In the mean time, you might find her topic What am I hearing--or missing? Ongoing help for the hard-of-hearing very inspirational and I bet you’d find some tips and help there too.
All the best!
Hwyl!
Tatjana
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Helo Colin,
Welcome to a beautiful community where you will find incredible help, support and all the encouragement needed to overcome obstacles—even hearing difficulties. You are not alone, believe me—a few of us have ‘been there, done it’.
I have Phonak aids that include a device that streams SSiW directly into my hearing aids—magic. I am completely deaf one side and profoundly hard of hearing the other.
Please read my posts, then let’s connect here. I live in Vancouver.
All the best,
Mari
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A very warm welcome to this wonderful community, Colin - don’t ever hesitate to ask for help… 
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