Have you ever been interested in Welsh? | Ask Benny | Forum
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02:13
September 18, 2011
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Hey Benny, have you ever considered learning this amazing language spoken less than 1.000 kilometers away from your home? What do you know about it? Despite the fact that you do not speak it, do you think it is interesting? By the way, mae dy flog ti'n ryfeddol!
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04:40
Experienced Language Hacker
July 28, 2011
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I love the idea of Benny going to all these exotic places, speaking exotic languages
…and then "for this month's challange – Welsh!"
Cut to Benny standing in the rain on a hillside surrounded by sheep, looking rather glum.
It's a stereotypical image, I know, but it's hilarious.
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04:59
September 18, 2011
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Well, there are more sheep than people in Wales, so it is not 100% stereotypical hahaha
But I would really like to see Benny speaking y Gymraeg, it's not that hard… It takes some little time to catch the spirit of mutations, very similar phonemes, inflected prepositions and vigesimal numbers, but those features appear in Irish, so it would be like… Uhm… Learning Latin then Portuguese (a clumsy comparison, but it's like this).
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01:47
moderator
June 1, 2009
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I don't travel for particular languages, but for particular cultures. Welsh could be interesting, but at the moment I'm not pushed on living in Wales, mostly because it would be too familiar and I'm aiming for exotic as Alasdair said.
Explanations like "inflected prepositions" and such don't interest me at all in making choices. Neither does whether it's related to languages I've learned already or not. My January choice for example is a place I'd genuinely like to live in for 3 months, which also happens to have an interesting language.
Perhaps in a few years, but probably not so soon!
But you never know, I could change my mind. A friend of mine reminded me that I told him once that I'd never learn Klingon, and we all know how that turned out!
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02:05
Experienced Language Hacker
August 2, 2011
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I think there might be a snag, because Welsh are bilingual, so it would be hard to find a place for the language immersion. The first what comes to my mind is a summer school, but this is not Benny's way:) And there are of course places where Cymraeg is predominant, like Ynys Môn (Anglesey) or Aberystwyth, or Tyddewi (St Davids). Then, Eisteddfod would be also interesting if it was in the rural area. Anyway, Benny, I am going to nudge you from time to time and lobby for Welsh
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15:14
July 6, 2011
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To be honest I'm not sure Aberystwyth is very predominantly Welsh? I lived (and studied) there for three years and never got that impression. The surrounding area (and indeed mid and north Wales in general) is better for Welsh, I'll grant you. There are a couple of pubs you can go to in Aber which Welsh is the language of choice (and not getting glassed) however. Good practice for immersion would be England v Wales during the 6 nations…
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18:02
September 18, 2011
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Yes, it's really hard to practice Welsh, this is why I'm focusing on the North dialect, because despite being less spoken, it's much easier to practice it.
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12:34
December 18, 2011
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Sorry to necro an old thread, just wanted to input on two points:
1. There are actually more Welsh speakers as a percentage of the population in the North.
2. In my first-hand experience, rural Welsh speakers will jump at the chance to converse in Welsh. Moreover, the notion of choosing English when one is a competent Welsh speaker is borderline offensive to some very patriotic/nationalist Welsh speakers (I've had more than my fair share of criticism on this count!)
If you want a Welsh immersion, go to any small farming village in the northwest and you could be English-free for weeks if you wanted!
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