I've spoken fluent Welsh (as an adult learner) for over half my life and one way I've grown into the culture is by attending the Welsh National Eisteddfod or Eisteddfod Genedlaeathol Cymru. It's held for the first week of August each summer. The location changes from year to year. The Eisteddfod is a huge cultural and social celebration (with a dash of politics and … [Read more...]
Welsh to B2: certified! A successful candidate shares her story
Karen is a linguist and translator from the south of England. She's already shared her tips on how to become a successful translator with us here at Howtogetfluent and I'm delighted that she's agreed to be interviewed again to tell us how she passed the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC)'s Upper Intermediate (B2) exam in Welsh. Below, she shares not only her tips but tells … [Read more...]
Britain’s “other” languages: three creators speak (report)
"Indigenous: Welsh, Gaelic, Scots, Cornish and More" was an evening event recently held at the British Library here in London. Three creators who work in some of Britain's "other" languages took part. Is it realistic to redefine "Britishness" to include some of the oldest, true Brits? What does it mean to create in these languages? What are the challenges and rewards if you … [Read more...]
Learning all six Celtic languages (with Simon Ager)
If you've ever googled just about any question about languages, the chances are you'll have hit on Omniglot.com, the "Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems & Lanugages". Like me, though, you might not have immediately known who the self-effacing, yet immensely talented, language expert behind the site actually is. I finally met Simon Ager at the first Polyglot Gathering … [Read more...]
“Dr Popkins Method?” Getting fluent in Welsh
This is the story of how I got fluent in Welsh. It's the third post in my new “Dr Popkins Method?” series of articles. There posts are very much my personal history. General conclusions are for a later stage....but I'm sure you'll already see instructive parallels - or contrasts - with your own experience. If you prefer video, you can scroll straight to the bottom for the … [Read more...]
How to remember the gender of Welsh nouns and when it matters
This is the first in a new series: "Gender Mender" in which I'll be helping you master using gender in different languages and showing you tricks to remember the gender of nouns. We're starting with a look at how Welsh noun gender works and how to remember the genders of Welsh nouns. Learning the system can be a real headache for two reasons. First, you just have to clamp the … [Read more...]
Icelandic’s success as an inspiration for Welsh and Europe’s other “lesser used” languages.
There a host of reasons why I was looking forward to going to Iceland and learning some Icelandic for the first time. One of them was to compare the Icelandic and Welsh linguistic situations. The two languages are not closely related. Icelandic is a Germanic language and Welsh a Celtic one. They do both share the characteristic of having a relatively small number of … [Read more...]
Ten ways to support Welsh, even if you don’t speak the language
If you go about learning a language in the right way, you may be surprised that you can get off the ground and make more progress than you probably think. If you're interested in Welsh, I'll do everything I can to encourage you to learn the language yourself. That said, learning a language well is a real commitment. For many good reasons, you may not be up for it. There are … [Read more...]
Ten reasons to learn Welsh
This is for you if you're thinking of learning Cymraeg - the Welsh language - yourself or just interested in finding out more about it. Even if the language you're eying up isn't Welsh, this post my well help you get clear on your underlying "whys". It's an important step when you're thinking of taking on a new lingo. Clarity of purpose will help keep you going along the … [Read more...]