Julia Treen
I like learning languages, considered Welsh as it was the geographically nearest one to me (important during lockdown) and chanced across the excellent SSiW. Without a good course to help me, I would have got nowhere. I was heavily pregnant with my second at the time and it kept my brain ticking over while on maternity leave. Now I play my lessons during my commute to work which makes me rail against enforced time in a car a bit less.
I went to North Wales last week but failed to speak any Welsh to anyone, largely due to shyness but also some reactions that made me wonder whether I’d been learning Urdu instead! I’m determined to go back and be braver.
Long term, I dream of persuading my husband to move our family to North Wales, maybe around Bangor. Knowing Welsh would mean I could transfer from firefighting here to the same job there, our children could go to a Welsh-medium school and I could spend any free time running around Snowdon. Heaven.