Croeso i Gymru @jessieskinner. With your positive attitude I’m sure you’ll be an asset to the local community.
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I’ve not written here for far too long and something on Facebook just prompted me to say Diolch to someone that I’ve been meaning to for ages:
Martin Coleman
Martin, like me, was born in England. He has learnt Cymraeg to an incredibly high level. He’s used various sources, but the central theme has been a desire to use his Welsh (very inspirational). He has been interviewed on various media about his learning journey. One of the things that is incredibly impressive is that he started some years ago, was interviewed on Radio Cymru about 2 years in (sounded completely fluent) but only moved to Cymru about a month ago.
I only know Martin through Facebook, which feels really weird, because I feel like I’ve actually met him. I know him because he’s ALWAYS willing to help a learner on the “Dw i’n dysgu Cymraeg” Group.
He know works largely through the medium of Welsh, lives in a Welsh speaking area and has just got an interview to become a tutor. Fingers crossed because he’ll be a massive asset to teaching this wonderful language!
Felly, diolch yn fawr Martin. Ti wedi fy helpu i lawer i ddysgu’r iaith! Gobeithio byddi di’n lwyddiannus gyda dy gyfweliad di.
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Diolch i @iestyn eto, am wneud i fi chwerthin yn lefel tri; yn enwedig yn agos at ddiwedd. Gwneud e’n anoddach? Ie! Galla i wneud hwn! 
Many thanks to @iestyn and his amazing ability to make the even the hardest things fun and entertaining, especially in Level three. Make it harder? Yes please, I can do this!
O! Hefyd i @aran ac Ivan am fy helpu i gwpl o wythnos yn nôl! 
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Just a general big thanks for this forum and all who are on it and behind the scenes.
Also a light hearted “thanks” to any from the Llyn Peninsula for not correcting me on a different thread when I typed “Peninsular” 
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It’s been two months already since I’ve written something in here so it’s maybe the time to continue my little chronological Diolch journey. Well, let’s continue then.
One of those who inspired me to go on surely was the woman who - along with @Deborah-SSi - I considder more Welsh then Australian (where she lives). The fact that she’s a writer always inspired me even more. Yes, the thirteenth thank you goes to @elizabeth_jane.
I’ve read many of her posts in the past, but the most inspiring to me was when she posted on the forum that she’d enter the Dysgwr y flwyddyn competition. The fact that she was not even sure about her knowledge of Welsh language and if she really is ready to enter the competition inspired me even more because I knew from somewhere of my heart that she’s the one among those people I already a long time ago counted as fluent Welsh speakers at least what concerns me. Elizabeth was also one of those people who gladly stepped in when @aran wanted to gather some people around me to have a Skype chats with. I feel privileged to have that Skype chat going with Elizabeth one of those evenings in 2015 and the chat itself was real inspiration to me.
Your posts, Elizabeth, are inspiring too and packed with knowledge of all kinds not just language itself what just shows you’re one of those persons who carries Cymru and all Cymreig in your heart.
Thank you for the Skype chat, thank you for your posts on and off the forum (blog, FB posts etc) and thank you for inspiring me to go on with my learning path.
Diolch yn fawr iawn!
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@Deborah-SSi for tipping me off that Taro’r Post were about to discuss the very topic (Apprenticeships in Welsh) that I’d been ranting and raving about to anyone who would listen on the Maes all last week! Always simultaneously nerve wracking and exhilarating to use my Welsh in such a public arena as a radio phone in! Diolch, Dee!
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Pnawn da!
Popping in out of the blue and feeling a little guilty for not being a consistent contributor to this thread - I’m still trying to figure out how to ‘adult’ efficiently. Not quite managing to successfully juggle kids, dog, running a house/garden/chalet, writing a book and being a good ‘llais y gogledd’ all at the same time. 
Anyway, better late than never, right?
I would like to say thank you to you lovely lot for making our lives so constantly interesting. For filling our hearts with friendship. For keeping us on our toes. For being part of this HUGE SSiW family. For kindness and generosity.
We’ve had an epic few weeks, full of the stuff that makes life colourful and it’s all thanks to you.
It begun with a family holiday to London and the absolute pleasure of seeing @Charlottevaughan playing Carlotta in Pantom of the Opera, at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Haymarket. This was accompanied by an unforgettable back stage tour and the chance, following the show, to have a chat over coffee with the talented Charlotte and to get to know her better. Diolch Charl!!!
We came home from London to the arrival of Milla (@Novem ) from Finland, who came to stay with us for a few nights. Wow, how to describe this wonderful young woman? Milla is (only) 16, but has a very mature head on her shoulders. She is of half Finnish, half Italian descent and is fluent in both languages, as well as being unbelievably fluent in Welsh, after only a relatively short time learning. It was an absolute pleasure to have her here. A gentle and kind soul, always interesting to talk to and so easy to have around - we sure hope that your dream of coming to Bangor Uni to study in two years time comes true! Diolch Milla!!!
During Milla’s stay we popped down to Caernarfon to meet @Ben from Chicago and and @Karla from Melbourne for a cuppa at Caffi Maes, both fresh from Bootcamp! I’d had the pleasure of Skype chats with Ben, so was such fun to finally meet him face to face. His Welsh was just fabulous and it’s amazing to think that he quite randomly decided to learn the language. Karla’s Welsh is also impressively fluent and she is another gentle soul with an ambition to come to live and work in Wales - I so hope this works out Karla, you are obviously so talented! Karla came to stay with us for a night and we had a fun evening around the fire in the garden with much wine, the family, a friend from Brittany and a friend from California! Diolch Ben and Karla!
Friday the 4th of August was an EPIC day in the Jones household! We already had Karla staying. Then our friend Brieg from Brittany arrived with his tent (delivered by 3 other Bretons). Jesse from LA came in on the train to Bangor. Then in the afternoon we were visited by the ever charming @louis and his wife Wendy who came with love, cake and bubbly. Then the legendary @Deborah-SSi came with smiles and hugs to see our new home and to kindly pick Milla up for the Eisteddfod. Then on the Saturday we had ther pleasure of meeting John from Oxford, who very kindly came to pick Karla up to take her to the Eisteddfod. Diolch o waelod calon Louis, Wendy, Dee, Brieg and his 3 Bretons, John and Jesse for coming to our home, for bringing love and friendship and making our lives ever interesting.
We then had our two days at the Eisteddfod, where we met buckets full of SSiWers, all happy, friendly and enthusiastic, all with their own unique stories… @S_J , @gruntius, @Kinetic, @amandalaing, @samholland @jonathan_simcock_7 Phil Wyman @erisculpepper @netmouse @karengo @Y_Ddraig_Las @ali and Phil @mintonman and I’m sure many more which I’ve failed to remember because of my candyfloss brain.
Diolch to all of you for being there and for being awesome. 
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Diolch i chi for having me! It was a wonderful evening, and it was fantastic to see you all at the Eisteddfod also!
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I’ve just seen this after neglecting the forum a little over the last week or so. You know it was my absolute pleasure and one of my favourite days from all my time at Phantom!! I was just looking over the pictures yesterday, it was wonderful. I’m glad you’ve had such a fabulous few weeks! 
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You all know that the last week (from 11th to 16th September 2017) was magnificent for all of us - for me, my two best boys - husband and son - and for my guest visiting me here in Slovenia. You of course all know by now that my guest this time was @brigitte and you can read a lot about her visit and our adventures in the Speaking Cymraeg in Slovenia topic.
I thanked to Brigitte in person of course, but I’d still like to say a big public thank you to her. Thank you Brigitte for visiting me and going around Slovenia with me. We were delighted and proud to share the time with you visiting places and making all sorts fo things from walkings to drinking tea/coffee at the evenings, chating along with that. The opportunity to chat with you in Welsh live and not through Skype only was a real pleasure. Despite it rained most of the time we had magnificent time wherever we went. I am amazed and extreamly grateful that you took this visit as kind of “mini” bootcamp in which you not just tried to speak Slovene but you really did speak my mother tongue in deed. Not even one “task” I gave you - from buying tickets, bus tickets, ordering coffee and all the way to little chat with nice man in the tourist office (that one you took for your own by yourself) - was too hard for you. You just plunged into every task with an admirable confidence and the outcome was really excellent one. You showed me that my language is learnable in quite short time anyway no matter how I allerted people that it’s hard to be taught and gave me more confidence that one day I might see SSiSlovene Course aswell.
Giving me opportunity of speaking both - Cymraeg and English - person to person was also priceless so we discovered the beauties of my little country Slovenia in all 3 languages and just a word or two by a chance of your native language - German.
Thank you for all this, Brigitte. I believe it is my turn now to re-learn German again and at least try to have deecent conversation in your mother tongue.
Diolch yn fawr iawn am y popeth. And thank you for all those Skype chats we had in the past - even the day you came home from Slovenia we had one - and for all those which are yet about to come. And thank you for all those books you’ve given me among wihich two are in Cymraeg and one in German so here’s plenty of material to read, learn and re-learn both languages.
Hwyl!
Tatjana 
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Thank you Tatjana and Dioch yn fawr iawn for everything you gave to me.
As I said to you before I left, spending a week in a foreign country when the weather does not allow you to go outside your room would be very boring. But in your and your husband’s company, my holiday in Slovenia was just awesome. And the little of Slovene language that I used was what you had taught me. So the credit is due to you, the teacher.
I was so happy this week and I will surely come again and visite more of your beautiful country.
And I’m looking forward to show you a bit of my country, Bawaria, when you feel ready to visit me.
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Diolch @Bobi for a great lunch yn Gymraeg in Cardiff. It was great to meet you. Your Welsh is brilliant and I’m sure you’ll have a great time on bootcamp! Let me know if you do come back this way and we’ll take you to St Ffagan.
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All the thanks is to you, really… This is such a special group to be a part of. Looking forward to seeing you again and hearing all the news about the exciting year that is coming up for you guys!
PS. Never before in the field of human battle have Browns and Jags fans met to commiserate… and siarad Cymraeg in the Old Library…
Diolch eto!
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More of the weather issues I’ve sent to you on WhatsApp yesterday. It’s not snowy where I live but mountains are quite full of snow and it’s cold outside. We are enjoying sun for the first time after aproximately a week but the weather is not much warmer though.
I enjoyed spending the time with you going around. I’m happy with what amount of Slovene you’ve learnt and used so the learning might continue.
I hope we’ll be able one day to come to visit your part of the country - Bawaria.
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The bond of summer Bootcamp 2016 is unbreakable! Thanks to @AnthonyCusack and lovely Emma for coming to stay, and joining me for our latest catch-up on Skype. It was like the Eurovision Song Contest - first @brigitte joined us from Germany, then a full of cold @tatjana popped up from Slovenia. @Isata leaped in while packing for her holidays next day, and just as we were all falling asleep, @lynne_freudigmann woke up and showed us round her house in Australia!
Thanks to you all - I get a huge kick from seeing how you are all progressing with your Welsh, especially (say it quietly) at times when my own progress has stalled. I’m going to crack on now, so as to be ready for our next mini-Bootcamp. You’re welcome here, of course, but I’m happy to travel to Bavaria, Brisbane or Bled…
And a belated thanks to @Iestyn, Cat and the girls, who flung us all together, mixed us up (me especially) and threw us out speaking Welsh!
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Thank you for hosting us Bronwen! It was so lovely to see you and the others again!
Emma said “Bronwen’s Welsh is better than she thinks it is. Learners are too rough on themselves to become 'fluent” - so there you go! We’re looking forward to coming back to see you again and finish off Cader.
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Thanks to you, Bronwen, for bringing us together once again! I’m definitely up for a mini bootcamp somewhere, and happy to join the volunteer host roster. (Not sure I can compete with Bavaria, Brisbane or Slovenia, though!)
Great to see you all again! Xxx
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Thank you @BronwenLewis for gathering us all again. It was great to catch up with you all. The July 2016 bootcamp was something unique and I’m always delighted to catch up with you all.
I can’t promise me going anywhere but you never know. But welcome to Slovenia … my little green country.
Yes in deed! Thank you @Iestyn, @anon86454181 and your charming girls. It all was unforgetable and that’s why 2016 July bootcamp bonds just can’t be broken. [quote=“AnthonyCusack, post:318, topic:7601”]
Emma said "Bronwen’s Welsh is better than she thinks it is.
[/quote]
I said this to her already at the bootcamp but she just didn’t want to believe me. Yes, Bronwen, your Welsh is better than you think it is. Do you believe it now?
It was nice to see you both @AnthonyCusack - you and Emma and I’m happy to hear you’re still devoted to singing among all other things too.
And @Isata my husband heard/saw us talking and afterwards I’ve explained to him who is who. “Ooo, yes, Isata is the one who laughs a lot!” he said cheerfully. So, you know … you’re already enwog hefyd. Oh, and, happy holidays!
Despite I chat with you every Saturday @brigitte, I’m always glad to see you again so I was happy you’ve managed to be with us.
And you, @lynne_freudigmann: I’ve heard just great things about you - that your Welsh has drastically improved, that you were on Bootcamp in Tresaith after so many “I can go/I can’t go” problems and when you finally poped in the day just ended perrfectly for me despite my bad voice and quite strong cold.
So, once again. Thank you all. I hope to see you again soon.
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Late but (hopefully) not too late a big Thank you Bronwen for organising this Skype chat.
It was nice to see a part of the Bootcamp July 2016 crew again.
This year’s holiday in the Isle of Man and Caernarfon and Y Bala was great and interesting, but I really miss Tresaith, the ap Dafyd family and the “bootcamp feeling”.
So Bronwen, maybe we’ll see us next year. I might pop into your house on my way from Tresaith to Manchester.
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And now back to my chronologicaly aimed thank yous. This time I’d like to thank yet another of those people who were with me in the beginning of my Welsh journey so my fourteenth thank you in my chronology goes to @Seren - the woman who gave me so much inspiration. Not just that she’s the one who speaks quite some languages but what makes her special is her love toward Welsh language in particular and the passion of gatherring as many information about the culture, literature, music etc as she can, not only for herself but for other people around here too. She is the one who made all those interesting and useful stuff for Welsh learners in one handy list and made all resources even more reachable and easy to use. She was the one who inspired me not only to learn Welsh more passionately but also to try and revive some other languages I once was able to speak but forgot them afterwards, especially Italian. She was kind enough to chat a little in Italian with me although nowdays my knowledge of this language is almost totally lost and my speach is very rusty. We also spoke quite some time in Cymraeg too and I was always awed with with what ease she uses Welsh shortenings which I even now often think I’ll never be totally able to use.
Stella, although you don’t post on hre anymore, you have to know that you’ve helped me a lot and inspired me to go on more than you think and I’m always very happy when I see your posts on here. So I really want to express my gratitude for all this and more.
Diolch yn fawr iawn! I hope you come back at some point if only for saying helo and telling us how’re you doing and now your Welsh improved in this periode of time.
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