Still here....

I haven't posted to either this blog or the welsh one for a little while - but this doesn't mean I have been doing no Welsh. I went to the Welsh summer school in Abergavenny at the end of July and had a really good week. And part of the benefit is in being able to buy more Welsh books, so I came away with a small pile, once again.

Gareth has lent me two books, one a novel and one of short stories. The novel is by Dafydd Llewelyn, entitled Tocyn I'r Nefoedd (ticket to heaven) and is both very funny and rather sad - an odd story about a minister in a very small conservative minded village who is pilloried for inadvertently having helped a family win the lottery - which enables them to take their daughter who has leukemia for treatment to the States. Sadly, the treatment does not work - and neither does his relationship (or job) work out - but for once the suggestion on the back cover that the reader will be crying and laughing in turn is not far from the truth.

I also finished Mared Lewis's Y Maison du Soleil - about relationships between a group of friends on their annual French holiday. And I have just finished Y Stryd (The Street) - a detective novel which was really good. And also Chris Cope's book about learning Welsh (Cwrw am Ddim) Perhaps more on that in another post.

I intend to really learn the new words as I go along - but often get caught up in the book itself though I often do go back and make a list of the translations I pencil in on the pages for the unknown words. I hope that by reading the new words in context I will remember them - but acquiring new vocabulary seems to take a long time.

It's often interesting though as I have noted before to see what the Welsh word for something is - take Barrister. It's literally "Bar - solicitor" - nice and easy to remember (assuming you know solicitor - bar is the same as in English as it happens).

So now I need to be disciplined to keep going not only on the reading but also on the vocabular and grammar as there will be a gap before the next course. There is a day school in Caernarfon I hope to get to in November and likewise in London - but that is a long way away.....

Not sure this blog is quite dead

My intention for my Welsh was to move this year to only blog in Welsh. http://aildysgu.blogspot.com/
I have indeed tried to do this and will keep going. The main problem I think is that the main thing I do in Welsh (apart from watching TV and sometimes listening to the radio) is to read books. I'm finding it very hard to effectively post up mini book reviews in Welsh - and I'm also finding it much harder to write in Welsh than I do to speak.

I haven't given up yet - I will try to see if I can keep going all year. But I may need to broaden what I post about - and just not worry about the level of the Welsh. The practice can only help...........

Last post in this blog? Or is it? What is fluency? and challenges of a new blog for 2009

The long long gap between this and my last blog is mainly because I broke my wrist badly in the summer, and ended up needing lots of hand therapy on it, though it is much better now and I can type reasonably comfortably again, though a bit slower than I used to. So, I got out of the blogging habit, but am now back (though maybe just for a while - read on!)

So, what has this meant for my Welsh? Well I have still been doing as much as possible – went to a weekend in Abergavenny in September when my arm was still in plaster, and to a day school in London in October, but unfortunately had an infection and missed the last weekend I was planning to go to.

So, this is probably a good time to reflect on where I have got to over the last few months, and I think on the whole, it's gone well. It's really hard to assess progress. I am doing different activities from those I did near the start: I listened to the Welsh soap downloaded from the website whilst cycling (this has been out, as I am not yet back to cycling..........); I listened to the lunchtime and after lunchtime news programme. I didn't have the welsh TV channel nor was Clic available on the web (the welsh channel 4's equivalent of watch again), so, I do much more tv watching, both live and catching up on the internet. I have kept up the reading, tackling a new novel and autobiography recently. And when I go to my Welsh courses, I sign up for the highest group, which for the course at the Hill, certainly requires you to be fluent. This has got me thinking about what fluency is – not straightforward. It can be different for different categories, as below:

fluency in understanding speech For me, this is pretty good, certainly fine in everyday conversation where there isn't too much unknown vocabulary - i.e. colloquial Welsh, I guess. Much spoken Welsh, like (I guess)many minority langauges living alongside majority languages has lots of borrowings from English – it is only in certain contexts that the correct Welsh term is used or in formal settings. (Indeed some of the Welsh words have only come into existence a little while ago). I am gradually building up my more formal vocabulary but it us slower so much slower than I would like.

Fluency in reading – well this is a bit like the category above, depending again on the vocabulary. But I am really enjoying my forays into Welsh literature.
The grammar doesn't usually get in the way in these categories – except in old literature – then forms are used differently

Fluency in speakiong = unfortunately this doesn't get tried out often enough – but it is not bad – I often can't think of the words I want but in speaking there is always the option of using a different one instead (if you can find one!)

fluency in writing – OK, this is where I don't do as well. I get no practice in writing - and hence, from now on, am going to practice through my blog. I am going to see whether I can set up a Welsh blog which facilitates the accents etc needed - if not, will simply set up a new one which will be mainly in Welsh, but my aim is to also provide an English summary - though this may not always happen - so do check it out

Here is the address for the new blog: http://aildysgu.blogspot.com/ Aildysgu - menas "re-learning"
I am also exploring writing a nature blog: http://newportnature.blogspot.com/

mobile Welsh back again and some history

For a number of reasons I have been less active on the Welsh front in the last month or so. Visiting Conwy gave me a bit of a boost and, perhaps more importantly, some Welsh books. It is always much better browsing in a shop rather than buying a bit blind through the internet. But what would be best would be a Welsh lending library by post - so if anyone reads this and knows of one, please please let me know. Meanwhile digital media play a large part in my attempts to build up my vocabulary in this rather un-Welsh spot of the UK. I am starting to catch up on Welsh music - there is a wealth of great riches out there. Not surprisingly it has moved on a lot since I left, but I am only just starting to find out about some of the singers and bands. I'm very much looking forward to having time (some time maybe........) to get to some live events but of course these are also thin on the ground in Milton Keynes.

I also try to watch the regular evening magazie programme "Wedi Saith". This is a really creative and excellent programme. Imagine you have a TV channel in a language that has a relatively small number of speakers and who are distributed over Wales - what would you put on as a regular half hour slot in the evening? Wedi Saith is a really interesting magazine programme featuring mainly Arts and cultural events in Wales, but quite a diverse range of features. Through the programme I have discovered that there is a Welsh 'lost garden' (think Heligan but with an amazing series of underground passages/grottos which I am now itchingn to visit). I have also learnt about the history of the ferry to Anglesey from my home town of Caernarfon and of the time when all but one of the passengers were drowned after many were drinking heavily at the Christmas fair. The "Arvon" (note the English spelling) was quite a large steamer licensed to carry 300 persons : bought in 1896 and sold in 1923. In addition to passengers the steamer carried animals and goods destined for Caernarfon Market. And excitingly there are plans to perhaps re-introduce a ferry/boat crossing - wh ich would mean crossing in possibly 15 minutes instead of having to go the 9 miles or so to the Menai Bridge.

Conwy and the London Welsh Centre

Am amazed to find that it is a month since the last blog - and indeed in the absence of new books, courses or anyone to talk - and the need to get my French back in gear a bit for a holiday in France, the lack of motivation continued. And any time on languages was spent on French (not that it seemed to make much difference...........)However, I went to Conwy last week to do a bit of walking with a friend Conwy and Llandudno and to buy a couple of new books -not that I could get many given that they were all being carried in the rucksack. The weather came good and we had a lovely walk on the Great Orme and another on Conwy mountain.

And then the day after returning I did a day's course at the London Welsh Centre. I have done one of these before and it was excellent - as was this one. It really makes me realise the need for practice talking. Reading is great (once I can get the books) as is listening to the radio and watching Welsh television but it is only in spontaneous conversation that I realise I am still struggling to think of the words that I need - though writing might also help.

I am now going to the highest level classes when I book the courses. This means that some of it is quite hard - especially the grammar - for me at least, but it also means that there tends to be quite an emphasis on conversation. On this course, on Saturday, we had a North Wales tutor which was great for me as I have struggled with the South Wales dialect. However, of course the Abergavenny courses have been in South Wales Welsh so I have also learnt some of this and am probably now using some weird mixture of the two and not always sure which is which. Determined to try to keep it going a bit more now - so need to think of some tasks to set myself I think. I will also try to find out about future events at the Welsh Centre and try to get to some.

Motivation and reading

Motivation for my Welsh is a bit low at the moment, which may be why I haven't managed an entry for a bit (though that might be me making an excuse), though I am always amazed to find it is a week or a couple of weeks between entries as it never feels like that - I am probably not meant to be a frequent blogger, or something

Anyway, in the absence of a device on which to listen to Welsh on the move, I have returned to reading. I have been reading two quite different books: the first a Science fiction about a future Big Brother world apparently run by the US (so perhaps not so fictitous then) in which Welsh is disappearing and has been driven underground (Annwyl Smotyn Bach) and the second is a romantic novel set in Patagonia. Very different books, but both quite challenging to read, because of vocabulary I just don't know. So I find myself wondering what proportion of new (i.e. unknown) words is optimal. With both these, there were passages I had trouble with without a dictionary, though the second Patagonian one was worse as that also has what I presume is South Wales dialect which isnn't even in the dictionary. Hence it gets a bit depressing and demotivating as it seems that however many new words I learn, there are so many I haven't encountered waiting for me in the next book.

I do cheer up though (and regain a bit of motivation) in listening to the audio book I have of Kate Roberts's Te yn y Grug - which I think I have mentioned before. She was born and raised in Rhosgadfan, Caernarfon (which as I commented on excitedly before is where my father was brought up) I love this description of her work from one of the websites: She quarried her own idiom from the local Welsh dialect and from her reading of Welsh literature at the University of Wales, Bangor. Her writing really is wonderful - social history mixed with such a perceptive take on childhood - and writing that is warm and humorous to boot - and, pretty accessible - though I think because it is such good writing and so interesting and of course personally relevant because of where she is writing about maybe I am up for more of an effort in looking up/findning out the words I don't know. So maybe the message is I should read more of her work .

Musings about words in Welsh and English

I've been musing about how words translate (or not) between Welsh and English - and how different the literal meanings are. One of my interests is wildlife and so I have found myself looking up the Welsh names of animals and birds especially. Sometimes they are close to the English, (Like blackbird) but at other times they are interestingly different. So, like in Ennglish, some of the names are descriptive -but focus on a different kind of description - hence Oystercatcher becomes Pioden y mor; (sea magpie) and thrush is Bronfraith (which I think is speckled breast) and the chough (where does that word come from??) becomes Bran coed goch - nicely straightforward as this means crow with red legs! (which can be seen in the picture and are much more common in Wales than in England).
Then there are words or phrases that are much more concise than in English in two senses. A) in the sense that there is one Welsh word for several in English. Examples here are – betws (grove of birch trees, so one dictionary says); echddoe – day before yesterday; echnos (night before last) . Quite helpful to have one word for this I think. And b) a kind of conciseness where one word is used where there are two in Englishb – e.g. dysgu (teach and learn) or menthyg (lend and borrow) and the precise meaning is worked out from the sentence . (and the marks of these can be seen in Welsh speakers who often use lend or borrow for either – not surprisingly)

Then there are also just interesting and fascinating words or phrases. I was watching a countryside programme and wondered what the reference to ceffyl wedd meant literally - it was clearly what we would call a heavy or work horse, and it turnns out that wedd means yoke - so it means yoke horse. Annd there are so many words for toad that I don't know which if any is the most commonly used. I don't remember the word from our childhood - we probably used llyffant (frog) for both - but apparantely toad can be "llyfant dafad" which initially looks like it is a sheep frog - but further enquiries reveal that dafad also means warty - so that makes sense