I thought it was only fair that I posted some comments about my progress having silently worked on this course over the last 8 months or so…

I have been learning Welsh for 5 years in evening classes before discovering this course and was starting to feel demoralised by my lack of progress. I stumbled upon this site by accident just before Christmas and whilst I haven’t posted much on here I have been slowly working through the lessons to the point that I have today completed lesson 14 of the intermediate course. I have to say that I have enjoyed every minute but more importantly my Welsh has improved beyond recognition. I now geniuinely feel that I can speak Welsh and I have no doubt that the work on this couse in recent months has taken me there.

I still attend my evening classes but my tutor now says I don’t need to- he says ‘ti ar y bont, mae rhaid I ti siarad Cymraeg bod dydd nawr’ so I try! My girlfriend is from Blaenau Ffestiniog originally and until recently she would only speak to me in English but now she always uses Welsh with me first – such an amazing shift for her as she really used to say how hard it was to speak Welsh to me. We’ve done so much in Welsh in recent months – we’ve been to Welsh language plays, we’ve been dancing at gwyl ifanc and had Welsh speaking evenings with her friends.

For me the biggest moment came at the Glastonbury festival last month (random I know!). I have been for years and I always meet up with a group of friends from Camarthenshire. Over the years I have tried to practice my Welsh with them but they always answered in English. In the past I would be relieved as I really didn’t have much confidence in things beyond initial greetings. Well this time I kept on and kept on using Welsh, even when they kept answering in English. Well low and behold on the second day they all responded in Welsh. I couldn’t beleive it! I could even understand the majority of what they were saying and could continue the conversation. By the end of the weekend we only used Welsh and I just felt so pleased. On the last day my friend said to me that my Welsh has improved so much since last year that I was now more fluent than them! He said he now started to feel a bit intimidated because I spoke ‘proper Welsh’!

I do feel like I have come on so far. I don’t understand everything all the time (especially when we go up to Ffestiniog) but I keep at it and recognise that language is something you never stop learning and I’m comfortable not understanding everything.

I’m looking forward to the eisteddfod next month to use my Welsh closer to home (fi’n dod o Gasnewydd) and I’ll be looking to say hi to all those on the SSIW stall in Y Maes D.

Thanks

Antony Evans, Newport