SaySomethinginWelsh.com

Diolch yn fawr, Cer!

Cer wrote:Great story, Karen! I've been wondering where you were, too, but thought it might have to do with end of semester and summer schedule things. What a fantasmagorical experience for you! Sssss - mokin'!

Diolch yn fawr, Jan! I am indeed dancin'! And guess what! I've signed up for another week-long course, this time with Popeth Cymraeg in Denbigh.

jstetson wrote:Wow! Great, great story! I'm dancin' (as I'm sure you are too!)



Skype sometime? We might be one time zone out of phase, depending on where you are in TN.

Diolch yn fawr, Ianto! Guess what! I am doing another week-long course next week- with Popeth Cymraeg in Denbigh. I'm in Caernarfon this week - in between - and enjoying eavesdropping on people speaking Welsh. According to a sign here, Caernarfon is the most Welsh-speaking community in all of Wales, so I guess I'm in a good place!

ianto wrote:Wow a very good story here Karen. Sounds like very good anecdotal evidence to anybody who wishes to compare SSiW to more classroom-based courses! What's even better is that you haven't really had the opportunity to spend much time in Wales nor had access to Welsh being spoken around you whether on S4/C or until reading Tahl's comment, Radio Cymru! I have nothing but praise for your effort!

Despite me being quite pleased with your own progress it has disheartened me slightly to hear that the other traditional courses hasn't got their students at a stage past present tense verbs and possession after a whole year and there you were with the present, the future and the past (the three: did, was and have). Maybe the classes should look at other methods to help get people with a good grounding on grammar like by using SSiW and then teaching additional vocab in their own classes?

All in all, da iawn! What a great experience to help boost your confidence and eagerness in Welsh. Maybe next year you will return to do the next level of the course or have a holiday even in a Welsh speaking area!

karenwburdette wrote:Diolch yn fawr, Jan! I am indeed dancin'! And guess what! I've signed up for another week-long course, this time with Popeth Cymraeg in Denbigh.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say about that one. I've heard a lot about the Nant before, but I'm not as familiar with Popeth Cymraeg.

With Karen's permission, I've moved this thread to where everyone can enjoy it.

I'm looking forward to hearing about the Popeth Cymraeg course. That's the company run by Ioan Talfryn, Nia's co-tutor on cariad@iaith.

Tahl wrote:I'm looking forward to hearing about the Popeth Cymraeg course. That's the company run by Ioan Talfryn, Nia's co-tutor on cariad@iaith.

Oh, no kidding! Now I'm looking forward to hearing about it even more!

P'nawn da!

I'm getting pretty good at getting around on buses in Gogledd Cymru! Wnes i Fangor heddiw & got a copy of the birth record of my great-grandfather! (How's that for Wanglish? ) Found out my great-great-grandparents' names: Robert Williams and Mary Jones. (Now THAT narrows it down a bit, doesn't it? ) Wnes i fynd i Gonwy dwywaith hefyd. Dw i'n mynd i Ddimbich (?) dydd Sul i'r gwersi Gymraeg. I'm really interested in seeing this Desuggestopedia they use there...

Oh, and I have a fun story about Bangor! I'm far too modest to brag , but... I went into the cathedral in Bangor, & a lady saw me looking around & asked (in English) if I would like some information about the cathedral. I was really brave & said something to her in Welsh, & she replied: "O, dach chi angen gwybodaeth yn y Gymraeg," & then she reached for some leaflets in Welsh. (Well okay, I wasn't able to go much further than that, but it was fun while it lasted.)

Dw i eisiau edrych ar y teledu heno achos dw i'n mwynhau Bobol y Cwm. Dw i'n medru deall tameidiau!

Okay, that wasn't perfect, but dw i'n trio!

About my week in Nant Gwrtheyrn: To be fair, I should say that the others in the course had not taken a year of regular adult Welsh classes. Most had grown up in Wales and had taken Welsh as a second language in school quite a few years ago. (The youngest person in the class was 43.) So we shouldn't be too hard on them! But I have to admit it was cool that I knew more than they did about a lot of things after just 21 SSIW lessons!

Hwyl fawr,
Karen

One more brief comment about my week at Nant Gwrtheyrn: It was really fun, and the teacher - Pegi Talfryn - was great. She does not teach by the old tired methods most people on the forum seem to assume classroom learning is like. (Nor do I...) Pegi uses lots of movement, interaction, games, songs, and TPR (as do I), plus a good blend of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as I do in my Spanish classes.

I have to say, however, that most of what I know really well is what I have learned in my SSIW lessons. I think the main thing the week-long course did was give me exposure to Welsh and give me some self-confidence in trying to speak with real live people. I did learn a lot of new words, of course, but the only new grammar I learned was the synthetic past forms (as opposed to the "Wnes i" forms). I'm not very good at those yet, especially the irregular ones. Anyway, if "Wnes i..." etc works, why can't we just use those?

And of course, I met some really nice people last week at Nant Gwrtheyrn as well. I've already been invited to visit someone in Cardiff.

Huh - Pegi Talfryn, huh? Any relation to Ioan Talfryn, Nia's co-tutor on cariad@iaith? If so, you may have already been introduced (at least a bit) to the Desuggestopedia stuff!

Sionned wrote:Huh - Pegi Talfryn, huh? Any relation to Ioan Talfryn, Nia's co-tutor on cariad@iaith? If so, you may have already been introduced (at least a bit) to the Desuggestopedia stuff!

Being nosey - Mr. Fusnesa - I, Googled. Yes, it's his wife; what's more she's American - origanally from, Seattle.