Phil F

Helo Bawb!

I don’t have any Welsh heritage myself (that I’m aware of) and live far away in the US. However, some of my favorite stories have featured Wales/Welsh, such as Dark is Rising, Prydain, Lord of the Rings, Winter King, etc. Our little town also has a history of immigrants from Wales and has a small St David’s Day celebration, but I don’t believe there is anyone left who still has the language.

I’ve enjoyed language learning for a while–I have some measure of Spanish (there’s a large Hispanic community near us) and Lallans Scots (one set of grandparents), and I’ve been pleasantly surprised how much they have both helped as I start on Welsh.

I’ve been using a little bit of Duo as well as SSIW for the last 6 months or so. I’ve really appreciated how much better my speaking is with the SSIW method! I’ve also had success using common books with other languages (Harry Potter/Hobbit/Bible, etc), but I’m being cautious with that approach for Welsh, with the formal/colloquial differences. Hopefully at some point I’ll be able to get a trip to have some more “real life” practice, as well as see all the things I’ve read about!

Diolch for the great resources and community here!