Susanne T.
Why Welsh? Why not!?
Years ago I was fascinated by the big fat sign HEDDLU on the building we saw whenever I had to drive into Newport, as well as the bilingual road signs etc. So, when I first detected signs of a mushy brain, I looked for a mental challenge. What better way to find one than on SSiW – the site a lovely linguist recommended!
I started at the beginning of September and so far I haven’t missed a day!
Apart from my mother tongue, I’ve never learnt anything phonetically requiring immediate production. This is so alien! I get embarrassed by making a mistake when I’m alone, and here I’m being asked to produce sentences and speak aloud very nearly from the very beginning. Help! I feel that I can’t possibly do that, my anxiety is rocketing, and despondency is lurking (I do know it sounds a tad over the top.)
But then there comes Aran with his tips and wonderfully calming voice, offering a restful island in the choppy waves of brain soup!
All my foreign languages were learnt strictly through textbooks and focused on grammar, although this didn’t work well for me at school. I never built up a connection to English, French or Latin. This changed after school when I was in charge of my own learning.
My goal has always been to be able to read novels in the original.
The ingrained expectation of perfectionism coupled with an abject fear of failure made speaking a challenge I wasn’t prepared to take. When I married a Brit, I had to change, most reluctantly, because his German was outstanding.
I have no idea whether the following is correct and I don’t care: Dwi mwynhau siarad yn Gymraeg rwan. Dwi Susanne, hen dynas, 78 blwydd oed, sydd dod o’r Almaen a sydd isio dysgu Cymraeg!