Anne Flake
I fell in love with Wales while visiting from Southern California as a teenager. I stayed with a lovely host family in a small village near Cardiff while my parents were off doing something on their own.
Over tea in the afternoons the Grandad would tell me about Welsh History, mining, colonization, and everything he thought necessary to connect me to my heritage in some way.
When I went back home, it was the 90s and learning Welsh wasn’t an easy thing to do in the States.
Only in the last year did I discover an online program, which I threw myself into. Then I found a local Welsh Society in Minneapolis, where I live now, and they have a group that meets for classes and conversations. I started buying Children’s books to translate and listening to music in Welsh.
At a convention over the weekend I met a Welsh author, and after exhausting my pitiful well of conversational Welsh, he told me I’m not a new learner, but a new speaker, and encouraged me to download SSiW (which has been challenging and delightful!).
My joy in learning this language will be the same no matter how many words I do or do not have. Each one feels like a little gift. I don’t know how often I’ll get to use it. But it’s like having a piece of Wales with me all the time.
Thank you for this valuable tool!