To want to learn Welsh?

[CesareBorgiasSkeletonOnesie]

When I am not Welsh, do not live in Wales, an such have no connection other than really liking going on holiday there? I like learning languages (though have a habit of getting to a basic conversational standard then losing interest) but haven’t tried a Celtic language yet. DH thinks I’m being silly and should either spend the time getting better at something I already speak or ‘learn something actually useful,’ and says if we ever do go to Wales and I try to speak Welsh people will think I’m being odd.

Verdict?

Learning some basic phrases that would enable you to go to a restaurant or pub, museum perhaps and ask for things in Welsh seems sensible for your wish. Whether you need to learn much more is up to you.

Lots of Welsh people speak Welsh as an everyday language.
If you holiday in the Welsh-speaking parts of Wales, learn at least a few phrases. Please and Thank you in English are fine, but if you say Diolch, Bore da etc, your effort will be appreciated.

Pob lwc (roughly sounds like Pobe Look)

I’ve downloaded the ‘Say Something in Welsh’ app. It’s great!

"Pob lwc (roughly sounds like Pobe Look)"

Pawb look would get you closer to the pronunciation - paw as in an animal's paw.

A flat long o. Not rhyming with Bob.

Above all go for it but be prepared to be met by hostility. I did the Open University Welsh course a few years ago. I was taken aback by the dreadful reaction that you get from some people online. I was used to the awful reaction you get when from some people when you admit you can speak French. This was something else.

As a pp said this is the attitude that led to Brexit.

As part of my studies I attended a Welsh summer course at Cardiff University. It was attended by 8 Americans who had a Welsh heritage. There were also 3 Argentinian primary school teachers (Spanish speaking) who teach in Welsh medium schools in Patagonia, an Australian who was attending her second summer school and was learning Welsh in Sydney. A Turkish lady who had married into a Welsh speaking family in Cardiff as well as a Finnish student. There were 2 plumbing lecturers from Barry, an English agricultural machinery saleslady as well as an English nursery teacher in Cardiff who knew how to say 'Put your wellies on' in Welsh. There was a lovely young Welshman from Newport who was ashamed that he did not speak Welsh properly. He was a university student and had asked to be in a Welsh speaking hall of residence. Then there was me and another lady who were supplementing our OU course.

I was used to the awful reaction you get when from some people when you admit you can speak French

Er, what??

Er, my sil has had that reaction in a shop when she spoke English. She is of Welsh descent and lives in Wales now (can't speak Welsh herself), so I don't think she'd be lying.

Fortunately, she had her youngest son with her who speaks fluent Welsh.

I think I know where you live, nosws, or could at least narrow it down to two or three villages (in the vicinity of a place beginning with Ll?)

" " Er, my sil has had that reaction in a shop when she spoke English."
i am not saying she is lying, I am saying she is mistaken.
The amount of times i have heard this apocryphal strory!

What it is, is that Welsh people dont speak 'pure' Welsh, there will be a few words of English thrown in. so an English person comes along, picks out the few words they recognise, convince themselves the people are talking English. then when they finally tune in, they realise that it is in fact Welsh, and they cannot understand it, and so become convinced that the speakers have spitefully switched language. it did not happen.
Thus this is a false story that has been doing the rounds and which English people parrot unthinkingly. So egotistical.
they were speaking Welsh before your SIL went in, and they were speaking it after she left.

What awful reaction to you get from people when you say you speak French?

Learn it! Just seen that you downloaded the SSIW app. If you go on to the forum on their website you can find details of local meet ups with fellow learners to get some practice. I've been doing this for a while - I'm Welsh but currently living in England. There is a steady effort to get people speaking the language in Wales so it's on the increase. Culturally it's a great time to learn it because so much of mainstream Welsh culture is geared towards helping learners, e.g. BBC Radio Cymru do a podcast of the most 'learner friendly' parts of their broadcasts.

Pob lwc!

Bit of scenery porn for the OP, with the tiniest smattering of Welsh pronunciation ...

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09c5q8z

and here is Elis James OH singing a song you might find useful ...

Go for it! It is bloody hard though. I am the child of a first language Welsh speaker but I grew up in England and like several of my cousins who also did, don't speak more than a few words. I went for weekly lessons 20 odd years ago but had to stop as my mother was very ill and i was spending a lot of time travelling.

I went to university in a very Welsh town, and despite sounding totally English, never once had any issues, not have I when staying in very Welsh speaking parts of the country.

What’s that got to do with learning welsh?!

This post made me remember this story:
www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/woman-speaking-welsh-in-wales-told-to-stop-speaking-foreign-muck-a3632181.html

My humble apologies to CesareBorgiasSkeletonOnesie and everyone else for posting on this thread by mistake (absolutely fuming now!!)
I have reported myself and asked for it to be removed.

Chrys I remember hearing a similar story after Brexit - a woman being approached (in Merthyr) at a supermarket and told to stop speaking Polish to her child... it was Welsh wrth gwrs.

Go ahead a joia OP - I've had so much fun learning Welsh, and still do It is part of British culture don't forget that. It is no harder than other languages.

I'd honestly say most welsh people (particularly in the cities/towns) barely speak any welsh and that's only because you're forced to take it until GCSE level.

I hate hate hate when people say this! It makes it seem like a dead language. IT IS NOT. It is alive and well and is the first language in my area and I hear and speak it constantly, every day. I hear it when I go to Cardiff too. I was recently in Center Parcs on the Welsh half term and heard it a lot. It is a beautiful language (although North and South are very different they are equally amazing) and if you get the chance to learn it, please do.

@DullandOld - if that was aimed at me, I can assure you that it happened. My sil was born in Wales and has since returned with her family. The youngest child was young enough to go on an intensive Welsh course through his school. He speaks perfect Welsh and was with her at the time. My sil knows the difference between Welsh and English! She has Welsh relatives also who do speak Welsh.
Maybe you don't believe that some Welsh people can occasionally be less than perfect?

Personally I'm surprised there isn't more dislike of the English in Wales because of historical actions. I'm glad there isn't. It's a beautiful country with a lovely language. I tried to learn it as a child when we went on holiday there. Couldn't, by the way! 😂

Teaandtoast - I'm a teacher and I barely speak Welsh although I am Welsh born and bred! When I used to do supply, in a couple of schools, other teachers would switch from English to Welsh in the staffroom when I came in. They did it to students and other supply teachers too. Incredibly rude and it does happen.

Personally I'm surprised there isn't more dislike of the English in Wales because of historical actions

Amazing what money does ....

I've also experienced massive hatred for English people in certain areas. Not just English people but anyone not local. It's rife in the area I live in and some are horribly racist. DH is a dentist and has British Muslim colleagues. Some patients refuse to see them.

After the Brexit vote there was a story doing the rounds about a woman on a bus in wales speaking something non-English. She got shouted at for talking forrin, the assumption being cos she was Asian appearance. She was talking Welsh. Like Urdu is the primary language of most people coming to Blighty from EU countries. No idea if it’s true but it’s an interesting story about prejudice and assumptions.