I have just been away at a weekend school (Cwrs Penwythnos) in Abergavenny (Y Fenny) and once again (I have been once nearly two years ago) found it great to have some intensive periods of concentrating on my Welsh though given that I am re-learning it is difficult to know what level to go to (there are classes of various different levels). I went to the 4th class and that seemed about right and helpful for my grammar though I think (unsurprisingly) my speaking is more fluent and confident than some of the others in the class. They pack a lot in in a weekend (13 hours tuition) and everyone is encouraged to speak Welsh at coffee breaks and lunchtimes too. So I was very encouraged by others who suggested I might go to class 6 next time (the highest) though I think I would struggle with some of that, so I am resolved to try to learn some grammar and will have a go at class 5 next time which I hope will be March.
Speaking of (or writing about) grammar, I notived that some other learners are really fascinated by the structure and how the grammar works - and also concerned to get it right. Leaving aside for now that this is completely over simplicstic, I wonder whether there are two kinds of langauge learners: those who want to master the structure and grammar and get it right - and get frustrated by classes encouraging them to speak when they are unsure - and those more like myself who find the grammar a pain to tell the truth and just want to be able to talk and to read. Of course I would like to be reasonably grammatically correct - and especially for writing - but find learning the grammar tedious. I got thinking about this talking to a couple of learners from class 6: who were very engaged in thinking about some of the structures formal Welsh - which apparently has to be used in instructions and guidance in exam papers etc etc, and, I suppose in the legal system and so on - but is rarely used every day. Though (I think) we (i.e. the Welsh) do still use the subjunctive.
I was really amazed at my last weekend school and at this one at the variety of learners and the reasons for learning. Last time I met a woman in her nineties who had lived in the valleys all her life and had been a teacher but had never learnt or spoken Welsh which I think was frowned on as an everyday language at the time. But having contributed to various local history projects about life in the past in her village was determined to write a final book in Welsh. She was pretty good too. Another student came from the Welsh speaking area of Patagonia and spoke with a delightful Spanish accent - she was in Cardiff doing Welsh and English and her Welsh was much better than her English. Many learners are from Welsh families who are not Welsh speaking - but can often trace the last Welsh speaking members to their grandparents, and so are somehow recapturing and reclaiming the language. I'm also struck by how many people are learning Welsh - 120 on this course: mainly a mixture of people now living in Wales; Welsh people or people from Welsh families (like those described above).
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3 comments:
I was interested by your comment about different styles of language learners. I think I may share your preference for the spoken form, as I was labelled something of a languges dunce at school but then went on to specialise in languages after learning French and Spanish by living in the country with the people. However, having learned to speak them fluently, I really longed to acquire the grammatical details (which was why I so enjoyed studying languages at under-grad level). Maybe it isn't so much a question of approach, (spoken versus structure) but one of order (spoken first versus grammatical structure first). I guess we need to find somebody who started with the grammar but who then went on to speak the language fluently to see if this could be the case.
Yes that would be interesting. I had lunch with a friend on Friday who is learning German and loves the structure of the language which he says is so logical (he is a mathematician) but is very unconfident about speaking it and was explaining how he finds writing much easier (whereas for me it is the writing that gets me). So I will wait with interest to see how his spoken fluencey develops (yes, I know - case study of one!)
As someone who lives in Wales (Cardiff) and hasn't attempted to learn Welsh motivation is a key factor. The motivation is often the absolute need to communicate - if I moved to France I would _have_ to learn French in order to fulfill a basic human need to communicate. But in Cardiff I don't need to learn Welsh - it would be a nice to have, so there is always other stuff getting in the way. If I lived in North Wales the motivation would be stronger.
And next time let's have some photos of Abergavenny!
Martin
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