learning welsh?

Question

i am a 22 year old welshman born in england and i have been wanting to learn my native language for a while now as i will hopefully be moving back there in a couple of years
do any of the self teaching courses(software,audio and books) actually work as i work quite long hours i do not have much time to do any courses

Answer 1

Start off here and see how you get on:

http://www.menai.ac.uk/clicclic/default.htm

Then maybe you can try the lessons here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/

After that you should be ready to journey into the Welsh speaking valleys with the help of a phrase-book or a course-book and be comfortable enough.

Cymraeg a Cymru am byth!!

Answer 2

I learnt the Welsh language as a second language whilst i was at school but i went to Llangefni to do a intensive course. Most colleges in North wales offer evening classes in learning Welsh and so do most of the secondary schools. I wouldnt advise teaching yourself using tapes etc as they teach mostly the spoken language rather than the written language which can be very different.

Answer 3

Google learning the welsh language and loads of sites come up
My niece is currently going to evening classes to learn Welsh her exams are coming up next week she`s really enjoying it Good luck

Answer 4

I was about to be clever and post in Welsh, but that's not the deal here.

Make time to go to Wales. Listen. Learn. Try to join in.

You may also be able to get S4C via either sattelite or digital TV. Right now one of the Eisteiddfods is on, which means a lot of the programmes are in the "purest", densest, hardest-to-understand, version of the Welsh language. This is **not** the everyday spoken Welsh you will hear in North Wales, if you get away from the coast and travel inland - you even hear Welsh as an everyday tongue in Flintshire, near the English border, once you're south of the industrial strip on the coast.

(Which leads me on to regional accents and variations. You would be surprised, or maybe not, how different Caernarfon Welsh is to Flintshire ears, and vice versa)

A good start might be the S4C soap opera "Pobol Y Cym", where the spoken Welsh is fairly basic and peppered with a lot of English words almost to the point where it becomes pidgin. This makes North Wales people cringe, as the actors often throw in an English word where we KNOW there's a perfectly good Welsh word or idiom: it sounds lazy to us. But this simplified Welsh is good to learn from, and nobody's going to blame a learner for using an English word if they genuinely don't know the Welsh. PYC is also in a South-West Welsh dialect, which makes it more interesting!

So immerse yourself in Welsh TV if you can get S4C.

Also, try Y Lolfa publishing of Aberystwyth: they do a series of anarchically funny and useful cartoon guides to learning Welsh, which deal with important concepts like getting the beers in, chatting up the "cwtch", swearing, and doing it all in understandable everyday spoken Welsh. These are good. ("Welsh is fun!" "Welsh is Funtastic!")

http://www.ylolfa.com/chwilio.php?lang=cy&func=pori_adran&adran=dysgwyr&PHPSESSID=757d0962269c957498e8709119518d3f

http://www.gwales.com/goto/biblio/en/0950017841/

Avoid the oldest language primers as they are worse than useless: they try to shoe-horn Welsh into concepts of Latin grammar and case and so on, which work for Latin but emphatically do NOT work for Welsh and only confuse the issue. (Herself, who is one step removed from being from Galway, assures me many Irish language courses do the same, but that's besides the point)

Herself also suggests Gwasg Y Dref Wen of Cardiff, who have the licence to publish Asterix the Gaul in Welsh: you can learn a lot from having an Asterix book in English alongside its other-language equivalent, and comparing the speech-bubbles to deconstruct what's being said. (She teaches French this way)

Enjoy!

Answer 5

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerych wyrndrobwllantysiliogogogoch If you learn that you can be proud of being welsh! I moved away and still know a bit of welsh, but your ability to reel this off makes anyone else know you are Welsh!

Answer 6

You can learn quite a bit on your own through listening and practice, especially at your age. It's a matter of motivation. Here are a few sites for you.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/
http://www.siopacen.co.uk/
http://www.43things.com/things/view/1032617
http://www.caerdydd.ac.uk/cymraeg/canolfan/english/index/index.shtml

Good luck with the language and with your move!

Answer 7

good luck, the sign posts in Wales are enough to confuse me!

sorry that isnt very helpful, but i admire you for trying to learn a new language
ooh could find yourself a welsh speaking friend!