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I'm interested in learning Welsh...

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http://www.amazon.co.uk/Welsh-Learners-Dictionary-Geiriadur-Dysgwyr/dp/0862433630/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215302839&sr=8-2

This is very useful. They use it in a lot of Welsh school I believe.

Reply 21

xJessx

Reilly

If you want to work in wales, in most of the jobs especially government/public sector jobs all prefer to employ fluent welsh speakers, or at least those who have some experience.

Be careful though, northern welsh is quite a different dialect to southern welsh...its the same language but a lot of variation between the two. Welsh is similar to other older languages in the formation of paragraphs...i.e. seemingly backward to english. You will find that most people who speak welsh speak very butchered welsh on a day to day basis so practice in wales may be a little bad for you if you're beginning to use the language.

Hiya,
thanks for your info. If there is such a thing, which dialect of Welsh is more 'standard?' Which dialect are you taught in classes? X

Reply 22

jonnythemoose

Ah, the Welsh accent :love:

Reply 23

sugarlumps.

Welsh, as with any language, is pretty difficult to learn unless you're emersed in it. Some pronunciations can be reeeally tricky to grasp. Personally, I definitely think you'll need to try and find some classes to attend. I moved to Wales in Year 5 and had to be fluent(ish) before starting high school, and I couldn't have done it if I hadn't been in a welsh school where speaking English wasn't an option. Good luck with it though. :smile:

When I try to speak Welsh to people they tell me it sounds like I'm shouting at them. :smile:

I love it though. It's so nice being able to say things such a small minority of people understand. Muaha.

P.S. I've never really got the South-North Wales hatred thing, being a Londoner. So please don't hate me for being from Snowdonia. :frown:

Reply 24

Valkyrja

anna_spanner89

in dont care if i dont get a degree at swansea, if i come away with a welsh accent it'd be 4 years well spent

HAHA that made me giggle, you're so sweet :biggrin:

you probably will pick up a twang, my friend moved from germany two years ago and even she curls her R's now.

I'm from Swansea, Where the uni is and up along the coast to mumbles and gower (dahling)it's mainly a very upper-middle class homecounties accent you'll encounter....in the poorer parts of the city you'll find yourself faced with the nasal tones of the wonderous swansea jacks "aye mush yea like".

Most people with 'nice' welsh accents tend to be found around swansea as opposed to the city itself....although Llanelli accents are lovely in their own very very welshy way....I'm originally from neath and my accent is LUSH LIKE!

(nah its more RP with a welsh twinge which will be like most welsh people at the uni)

but yes no doubt you'll pick it up....wales has had a HUGE drive to get welsh students to go to welsh unis (half price tuition) so there'll be loads of welshy's around to make you pick it up.

Reply 25

User188463

Welsh is an ugly language and will be dead sooner or later. The last thing I would ever do is learn Welsh.

Reply 26

anna_spanner89

Reilly

HAHA that made me giggle, you're so sweet :biggrin:

My last name is welsh so im half way there, i think its such a unique and sexy accent..especially on men

i just want to grab myself a welsh speaking rugby player....

Reply 27

Valkyrja

xJessx

Hiya,
thanks for your info. If there is such a thing, which dialect of Welsh is more 'standard?' Which dialect are you taught in classes? X

It's not so much a dialect as a way of phrasing things....most people in South wales will def be able to understand you if you just learn from most books/classes/teachers...

They tend to be based on a standardised welsh most people can understand...in south wales though EVERYONE speaks english, so its unlikely you'll be conversing a lot with people in welsh regularly, it just helps job-wise to be able to for the odd person who prefers it.

In north wales though a lot of people are first-language welsh as are a lot of communities.

But you should be fine wherever...and once you're fluent you'll notice the subtle differences.

Reply 28

xJessx

Reilly

Ok,thanks

x Edit: and thanks Sunny Murdoch for the link :smile:

Reply 29

Valkyrja

anna_spanner89

My last name is welsh so im half way there, i think its such a unique and sexy accent..especially on men

i just want to grab myself a welsh speaking rugby player....

Have you not seen the state on their ears?

Haha!

Actually all the guys I know around me on the junior ospreys squad have foreign names from poland and croatia...

...You need to take a bus down to the Working mens club in neath on a saturday night....filled with welsh speaking valley lad rugby players....though they're unlikely to want to leave resolven or similar EVER. (I used to work there)
0_o

Reply 30

Valkyrja

xJessx

Ok,thanks

x Edit: and thanks Sunny Murdoch for the link :smile:

You should try and get a book and a CD so you can hear the pronounciations....they are very different from the way it looks to an english reader.

Reply 31

Happiness

I've always found there are very few *good* resources for learning Welsh online... The BBC have quite a nice set of stuff, including quite a good grammar section and sections where you can listen to pronunciations.

Otherwise, http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/fun/welsh/ is reasonably good but incomplete, and http://www.geiriadur.net/ is a good online dictionary. It's provided by the University of Lampeter, and if you click the "Study Options" link at the top you can find some online course options. I think you have to pay for them, but I have heard some good things about them and Lampeter has a good Welsh department.

I swear I will learn Welsh one day...

Reply 32

city_chic

I had to learn Welsh in school all the way from Year 1 to Year 11, and even got an A* in it at GCSE, yet I can't speak a word of it!! :p:

I think that shows how hard it is... the grammar's very complex, esp. with all the mutations and everything (Cymru/Nghymru/Gymru etc). I really wish I'd been sent to a Welsh-speaking school so I could be fluent in it. The language is treated as a bit of a joke even among Welsh people, but I'd love to say I could speak the 'language of my country.' Welsh isn't on my priority of languages to learn fluently (I'd rather learn French/Spanish/Italian etc up to native standard) but I'd still love to improve at it in my own time in order to be able to converse with Welsh speakers here.

Reply 33

made_of_fail

Unless you intend to live in a real welsh language area, I don't see the motivation for learning it. There's nothing to read in Welsh either.

I had to learn Welsh in school all the way from Year 1 to Year 11, and even got an A* in it at GCSE, yet I can't speak a word of it!!

me too. i resent the hour a week we had to spend it for five years, not so much because it was necessarily a bad idea but because we did it in such a half arsed way. i never learnt any grammar, or for that matter very much else.

Reply 34

Howells

Yep, I did it from Years 1-11 too and even though I love languages, I disliked being made to learn Welsh for 50 minutes a week. I was the only person who actually did a margin of work in the whole of high school though and I managed an A at GCSE just by writing 'Dw i'n hoffi pel-droed achose mae'n wych ond dw i ddim yn hoffi byw yn Pontypool achos mae'n ddwl o le' for almost every question :p:

A friend of mine just wrote 'LOL' at the top of her essay and still got a high D :biggrin:

You could try the WJEC website for some information on exams:
http://www.wjec.co.uk/index.php?subject=105&level=15&imageField2.x=46&imageField2.y=20

Reply 35

jonnythemoose

city_chic

I had to learn Welsh in school all the way from Year 1 to Year 11, and even got an A* in it at GCSE, yet I can't speak a word of it!! :p:

I didn't know you were Welsh! :eek:

Reply 36

city_chic

Howells

A friend of mine just wrote 'LOL' at the top of her essay and still got a high D :biggrin:

You could try the WJEC website for some information on exams:
http://www.wjec.co.uk/index.php?subject=105&level=15&imageField2.x=46&imageField2.y=20

TBH the GCSE was a joke. I didn't understand most of the grammar at all (mainly 'cause we were never taught it :rolleyes:

) yet I got almost full marks in the oral because we were allowed prompts and I just learnt it word-for-word like everyone else did (even though it was basically gobblydegook :p:

) and then for the writing I wrote down a lot of simple set phrases in each tense that I'd memorised (but still didn't understand grammatically :rolleyes:

).

All I can remember now is things like 'Rydw i'n hoffi ffrangeg achos mae'n ddiddorol, dydw i ddim yn hoffi mathameteg achos mae'n wastraff amser' and so on. They'd hardly help me converse properly in the language! :p:

jonnythemoose

I didn't know you were Welsh! :eek:

Haha, ydw, rydw i'n gymraeg. :cool:

(that's probably wrong :redface:

)

Reply 37

jonnythemoose

city_chic

Haha, ydw, rydw i'n gymraeg. :cool:

(that's probably wrong :redface:

)

;w00t; twf i'n ghwlld myr llan hynrg llmr :yep:

Reply 38

Howells

city_chic

TBH the GCSE was a joke. I didn't understand most of the grammar at all (mainly 'cause we were never taught it :rolleyes:

) yet I got almost full marks in the oral because we were allowed prompts and I just learnt it word-for-word like everyone else did (even though it was basically gobblydegook :p:

) and then for the writing I wrote down a lot of simple set phrases in each tense that I'd memorised (but still didn't understand grammatically :rolleyes:

My oral was exactly the same! My two friends and I sat with our full conversation in front of us and just read - in fact, our teacher only actually carried out about 3 or 4 orals, and then gave the class an average mark :rolleyes: