The Diolch! Thank you! thread

Slightly different one again this time:

Diolch i Jerry Hunter, for his programme on S4C - Evan Jones aā€™r Cherokee and for the inspiration that he is a dysgwr (fluent now) with a very native accent. I only realised he wasnā€™t Welsh when he spoke English with an American accent.

Originally from Ohio, heā€™s learnt Welsh, has worked for the pressure group Cymuned, and is a member of the Gorsedd oā€™r Beirdd. I do not know the man, I am merely saying thank you for a very interesting series and for inspiration as a learner.

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@AnthonyCusack - Iā€™m curious about that program (Evan Jones aā€™r Cherokee). Tried searching S4C for it but came up blank. What is it about?

Iā€™m particularly curious because I have a CD that Delwyn SiĆ“n gave me called ā€œChwilio am Americaā€ which, in a series of songs, follows a Welshman named William James who went to America in the late 1860ā€™s and ended up a soldier in the US Seventh Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, and was a sergeant at the Battle of Big Horn, where he was killed. (The album also has songs about Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull who led the Sioux Nation in that battle.)

It makes me curious about this other Welshman (Evan Jones) who had some interaction with the Cherokee?

Thatā€™s strange, I watched it on catch up.

Well, Evan Jones was a missionary to the Cherokee and he led a band of them on the Trail of Tears.

It has two episodes, Iā€™m not sure if there are more.

In UK it is listed as having about a week to go on Clic. I would have thought it was of special interest in the USA, so am surprised if itā€™s not on International. In fact, I had a notion we discussed it back when it was first on S4C; Thinksā€¦try searching Forumā€¦yes found a number of references. Mostly from April last year, but not an exchange with you yet, so maybe it was someone else? If it isnā€™t on International, try e-mailing them to ask why not!!! After all, it is set in US, made by an originally US citizen (if he isnā€™t still!), about a Welsh American!

Exactly what I kept telling them. But of course, they have ā€˜expertsā€™ who tell them differentā€¦ :confused:

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Well then, I would say - Colloquial Welsh for absolute beginners, with Basic Welsh coming in as a back-up. Dictionary, Intermediate Welsh and the Reader for the more confident. And Modern Welsh (the grammar) for headbangers and apprentice headbangers. :slight_smile:

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Thatā€™s perfect!! Diolch yn fawr! Wnaā€™ i edrych arnyn nes ymlaen!

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Iā€™ve gone for Intermediate Welsh as my leaving present from work (voucher). Diolch am eich cyngor!

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My next diolch goes to Louise Waughington.

When I came back from Tresaith I decided best way to use the language in work was to wear the Cymraeg lanyard. Not a dysgwr lanyard, just the full blown, ambiguous one. And Louise didnā€™t disappoint. Day 1 - Monday after a week off, ka-blammo! Louise (nurse) starts handing over to me in Welsh. Since that day, she has tirelessly stayed in Welsh. Itā€™s been brilliant! Sadly I havenā€™t worked with her all that often recently but when I am on her ward itā€™s always a pleasure! Especially at 11pm on Christmas Day!

Felly, diolch o galon Lou! Gobeithio byddwn niā€™n gweithio gydaā€™n gilydd eto.

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Where are you going Anthony? Well, Iā€™m not that nosy - I just meant erā€¦ retiring, changing hospitals, going on a world tour with all your savings from huge NHS salaryā€¦ :laughing: Being promoted to better job??
NB If you can be handed over to in Welsh, you are clearly totally fluent!!

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I am not retiring at the age of 30ā€¦no matter how tempting at times! Itā€™s a bit of a promotion. Iā€™m moving back into working with adults in the same trust. So literally moving 100m away.

Diolch! Although, itā€™s a very Wenglish world, so my strive towards my self-defined fluency continues.

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No, 30 is a tad young! (I did it at 50, but was Consultant for 3 more years!). I had this notion you were a bit young for retirement and am glad you are not lost to NHS or to Cymru!!

Itā€™s Wednesday and time for another Diolch.

But some other things first.

@garethrking I should say (one more time) sorry for the brief unwanted quarell with you at the very beginning Iā€™ve come on here.

Iā€™m a bit confused with how many of your dictionaries, grammars and those colloquial books there are. Is there any complete list of your books in which the same versions of them wouldnā€™t be repeated (as it happens on Amazon with all books, not just yours). And additionally - Are your books available only in paper format or is there digital version of them, too? Reading digital for me is easier so thatā€™s why I ask. And finally: Diolch for every single imput on this forum. I canā€™t say anything for the books yet as I didnā€™t buy any of them yet but I intend to in next weeks/months hopefully ā€¦

This is unfortunately one of the reasons I still didnā€™t biy any.

Then onā€¦

In my chronology of who all those people were who went (and some still going) with me breefly or for longer time along my Welsh learning path there were quite some people even before SSiW and each and everyone of them has put his own share into my learning experience, one way or another. Iā€™m actually a bit surprised when looking back how many people Iā€™ve met through social media and elswhere online who played their own role in making me eager to learn Cymraeg.

So today Iā€™d like ot give my sixth thank you to 4 men who played quite significent role on my learning path especially when I was at the very beginning of it when learning was still more like a wish then true thing. Those 4 men are Ioan Dyer, Bert (OLE) James, Ox Oxus (itā€™s his nickname on FB and I donā€™t know his real name though) and Francis Taylor.

Ioan is GTFM radio sport presenter who mostly reports live from rugby matches for this radio, but he also leads one Welsh show and The Film show on there. Bert lives in USA and is lifelong Pontypridd rugby club supporter as is Ox and Francis Taylor was presenter at Radio Cardiff who had his own Monday Night Sports Show but what they all have in common is love toward rugby and Welsh language (Francis a bit less maybe but anyway). I was always invited to follow rugby matches through Francisā€™ live blog (before I found live streams to watch them) and they all were always there for me to have little (two or three lines) chat in Cymraeg, especially Ioan and Ox. Besides the all previously mentioned who I thanked, these 4 were the one who always made me wish and determined to learn more and more Cymraeg. They were always helpful in my atempts to at least greet them in Cymraeg and say some more and with love toward rugby they had spread allover whenever I met them online, the love toward Cymraeg has grown more and more too. If SiĆ“n Iobbins and Dave Rogers were the ones who pointed me on here and supported me with real ā€œconversationsā€, if BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio Wales helped me to be more familiar with the language and nowdays to understand it more, if two teen brothers were the ones who kind of challenged me to start learning, those 4 were the ones who made me feel like I really can do that - I really can learn some Welsh - although not made me that confident as Aranā€™s conversations and challenges did (but this has yet to come though).

So, thank you Ioan, Bert, Ox and Francis for each and every time youā€™ve accepted me among you on live blogs and have little occassional chats with me (just few lines usually) in Cymraeg. You probably canā€™t quite imagine how big difference youā€™ve made.

Also special thank you to Ioan who is even today my FB friend and I met him last year in Caerdydd and had about almost 2 hours of ā€œchat in the wildā€ in Welsh with him. This was awesome and enourmous boost to my learning as heā€™s native Welsh speaker.

Special thanks to Bert too for his FB friendship also and occassional greeting in Cymraeg not to mention all that love toward Cymru, Welsh rugby, Pontypridd RFC and all Welsh!

Diolch o galon i bob pedwar!

To be continued next week ā€¦

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Well @tatjana - hereā€™s my page on Amazon to remind you, but yes, it still lists previous editions so you have to look at the dates. Modern Welsh is now the green one, Basic Welsh is now the pale blue one, and Colloquial Welsh is now the pinky one with a dragon. New (expanded) edition Intermediate Welsh is being written at the moment - hopefully out in time for Christmasā€¦donā€™t know what colour the cover will be for this one yet.


There are also non-Welsh titles there, and a couple of novels available through Kindle.

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Thank you very much! Following you on there now. :slight_smile:

Oh, and one question for you @aran - speaking of following authors on Amazon, why did you close your profile for following or Amazon did that? I remember I once could peer into your profile just I can in @garethrkingā€™s now but now this is not possible anymore. :slight_smile: (Just pondering my thoughts) ā€¦

No idea! Iā€™ll have to checkā€¦ :slight_smile:

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Do check ā€¦

And one more tip: on each Amazon - .com or .co.uk, and even on smile.amazon.com you have obviously to set separate Authorā€™s profile. So for all the rest of you whoā€™re interested in @garethrkingā€™s work, on smile.amazon.com youā€™ll find him under the name Gary King

And the books presented have the same author data (Gary King) However if you search him on amazon.com you wonā€™t find his profile and his name at book titles is not clickable.

Strange are ways of Amazon, really. ā€¦

Oh, and one more tip for all those who intend to review the books they have read (Aranā€™s or Garethā€™s books for example), if you intend to write a review, write it on that Amazon page on which you think itā€™ll be of more help and where you think itā€™ll be more noticable because on each Amazon you have to write separate review and if even for the same book. I wouldnā€™t be surprised if each format of the same book would ā€œdemandā€ separate review aswell ā€¦

Oh, but sorry. Iā€™ve gone offtopic!

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There are 3 episodes in all. They are up on S4C clic at the moment because I think they are repeating the run.
This is the link for programme 1 (online for another 20 days from today), and the other two programmes can be accessed on the same page.
http://www.s4c.cymru/clic/e_level2.shtml?programme_id=521520813
@Sionned - the content was certainly licensed for the online streaming rights being available on a worldwide basis from the S4C website, so I hope you do get to see it.

Have your tissues ready though - I have to admit to crying more than once whilst working on it.

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Did you work on it? well diolch yn fawr i chi hefyd!! Really brilliant series!

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Not that Internationally though. I get this for all 3 programs.

What writes at the bottom is not error on my PC/browser but I always get such message when thereā€™s something I am not allowed to watch on S4C. ā€¦