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[Aran]

Well I'm now on Lesson 24 of the first course

Llongyfarchiadau mawr! a) for keeping on going, and b) for getting so far - worth at least two or three years of evening classes, and you've got the vocab lessons to go as well...

[Lostontheoggin]

Thanks Aran

I find I'm thinking in welsh more aswell.

Much more welsh being used at home and I can understand more of Pobol y Cwm.

[Aran]

Much more welsh being used at home and I can understand more of Pobol y Cwm.

That's definitely the sound of a new Welsh speaker easing their way into the world...

[Lostontheoggin]

Yesterday I was talking in welsh to one of the mums when dropping my daughter off at Meithrin, then yesterday evening I managed a conversation whilst walking round Hailey Park on a Bat Walk. Yes that's a guided walk looking for bats. There are a lot more Welsh speakers in Cardiff than people realise. Shame people don't have a little red dot on their head saying Welsh speaker lol

[SJ]

Yesterday I was talking in welsh to one of the mums when dropping my daughter off at Meithrin, then yesterday evening I managed a conversation whilst walking round Hailey Park on a Bat Walk. Yes that's a guided walk looking for bats. There are a lot more Welsh speakers in Cardiff than people realise. Shame people don't have a little red dot on their head saying Welsh speaker lol

Well done on two conversations in one day! It can be difficult to find Welsh speakers in Cardiff, but once you meet one or two, it becomes easier to spot them and they seem to come along like buses! It is difficult to build up a Welsh speaking circle in Cardiff, but it is definitely do-able.

[Lostontheoggin]

My daughter goes to welsh language nursery so I have a ready made circle of Welsh Speakers, its outside of that that it gets interesting. Once you make an effort its really easy to find welsh speakers. According to the census 1 in 10 people in Cardiff speak welsh thats about 40000 people.

[SJ]

There's always the SSIW Monthly Cardiff meet and the weekly monday meetings in the Mochyn Du if you're free.

[Lostontheoggin]

It's been a bit slow on the learning front recently here on the ship, as I've been really really busy. However not being one to miss an opportunity, the bridge black box has been recording Iestyn Cat and myself for the last few nights as the ship plowed across the sea from Fishguard to Rosslare. I'm sure the sound of welsh has been attracting the Dolphins as we've seen a few on the last few mornings and a couple of Minke Whales.

Tonight however I had to help out an engineer trying to fix a problem with an indicator light in the bow door space, after an hour of being stood at the controls to the bow door doing nothing, whilst the engineer fiddled away with magnets and bits of wire, I pulled out my Iphone and whiled away half an hour on lesson 5, picked at random because I wanted to practice speaking, not learning if that makes sense.The bow door space is a cavern of a place and really echos around the place amplifying the welsh lesson and giving it almost a subterranean feel. So if you can learn welsh in the bow door space of a ship you really can learn welsh anywhere.

[Aran]

I'm sure the sound of welsh has been attracting the Dolphins as we've seen a few on the last few mornings and a couple of Minke Whales.

Speak Welsh and see more dolphins - I rather like the idea of that as a marketing line...

[Lostontheoggin]

We keep a log onboard for the Seatrust Survey, often have dolphin spotters onboard. They usually try to come on days when there is a forecast for light winds so the smaller waves make spotting easier, this usually means they get fog....