October 2008 Archives

I'm back from my travels in Cornwall (or Cernyw - I was reprimanded in my class last Tuesday for daring to say "mi es i i Gornwall wythnos diwetha", despite emphasisng the "Gornwall" with my very best Bangor-yeh accent) feeling nice and refreshed after some epic surfio. All that tranquility was somewhat diminished after being plunged into one of the most horrible stories we have covered this year: the tragic death of a young Llandudno family. Whilst carrying out the grim task of doing death-knocks - literally knocking on people's doors to gather information on the Statham family - I met a nice chap from BBC Cymru who had the even more difficult task of trying to find Welsh speakers in Llandudno to talk about the events. "Lwc da," I told him, managing to find a glimmer of humour in the darkest of situations.

I had another revision lesson last week, so I have no excuses now for not getting the basics right. We filled out forms for Coleg Menai, stating our long term aims for learning Cymraeg. I thought that writing that I wished to become fluent (yn rhugl) would be a little ambitious, but simply being able to have a conversation without resorting to a desperate, "Arafwch! Sori, dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg" would be nice!

There's no class this week due to half-term (holidays? I'm sure I've hardly been going for a month!) but I have been doing my best to keep up my efforts by talking to all the ripped, young Welsh men at the Beacon climbing centre. "Disgyn! Symudwch!" (Falling! Move!) came in handy before falling off a rather difficult black boulering problem. I even managed to make up my own Wenglish word, "faffio", when remonstrating some friends more interested in tea drinking than climbing!

After feeling somewhat overwhelmed in my first week of classes at Coleg Menai, I transferred last night to a class last night that I think is closer to my ability.

We had a revision lesson which was very useful as I discovered how meagre my grasp of the past tenses actually was. I have previously just used mi wnes i (I did) for everything:
Mi wnes i fynd (I did go)
Mi wnes i fod (I did come)
Mi wnes i gael (I did have) etc
- all the time thinking what an awkward, clumsy way this was of speaking. Only for my new athrawes (teacher), Non, to make me realise that it was actually I, and not the Welsh language, that was stupid.

I can now say these phrases in much fewer words to a much more natural effect:
Mi es i (I went)
Mi ddes i (I came)
Mi ges i (I had)
and, my old favourite, all by itself, mi wnes i (I did).
Of course, there is just one problem with learning all these new phrases: I'll have to try to remember them all!

I felt rather smug then that, as I arrived at my boyfriend's, I was able to say: mi es i i'r dosbarth Cymraeg heno a mi ges i lifft yn ol efo fy athrawes i (I went to Welsh class tonight and I had a lift back with my teacher) - in my head at any rate, because, bechod, he wouldn't have had the foggiest as to what I was on about.

I won't be able to do an update next week as I shall joyfully be miles away from my desk on a surf trip. I shall do my best to glance over my textbook in between fulfilling my duties as chief map reader and might
even run a few phrases past his nibs. He could certainly do with knowing how to say more than just paned? and wyt ti isio mynd i'r gwely? (I'll let you translate that one for yourself.)

Due to a mix-up, I ended up taking my first class at Coleg Menai with a group about six months ahead of me.

After such a long time away from structured classes, anything much more than wyt ti isio paned? or o le wyt ti'n dwad? was always going to be a challenge. Despite being somewhat thrown into the deep end, I think I just about managed to muddle through learning about talking about the future using a new term: fydda (I will). Fortunately, everyone else seemed pretty rusty too on the first day of term so I didn't feel too stupid.

Of course, with this new phrase comes yet another way of saying yes (bydda) and no (na fydda), as if one were needed! I never fail to be amazed by the seemingly endless ways one can say 'yes' in Welsh: oes, do, ydw, oedd, ydy, ia... and saying the wrong one always invokes a smile. In times of uncertainty, I just go with the wise guidance of Alys, aged 3, who I used to babysit and use the simplest ia and na!