February 17, 2016

Helo, dych chi'n siarad Cymraeg? My quest to learn Welsh.



Okay, I know...

I should write more. I keep telling myself to write at least once a week. I have a head full of ideas, but I feel limited by my weak writing skills and laziness. What to do? What to do?

Well, I might try to update you once a week about my new language project. It is not really a project, but I have started learning Welsh at the beginning of February, so I will start writing a journal where I tell you about my struggles with the language and even give you tips if I come up with something revolutionary.

I started learning Welsh recently after the Duolingo course came out. I was already interested in Celtic languages for some time so when the course got released I decided to take a look at it. After doing the first lesson and playing around with the language I still wasn't sure if I want to study it seriously, but then I watched a great documentary called "Make Me Welsh" on YouTube that follows a group of school kids on their journey to learn Welsh, and decided to learn this language.

So far, I have learned quite a lot. I am familiar with the general structure of the language, I am able to create sentences in three tenses, I am not bothered by mutations at all because they come quite naturally and learning vocabulary isn't problematic to me even though Welsh doesn't share a lot of cognates with other languages that I speak.

My main goal for now is to acquire a basic vocabulary of 500 words or more and get used to the verb "to be" which is complicated in all tenses. I would like to learn more grammar too, especially how to make longer sentences using subordinate clauses, and also start writing a little bit of Welsh in the form of a diary or even a blog.

I am mostly using Duolingo and Memrise. I have also found other resources to learn Welsh which I will share right here:

Websites:
https://www.duolingo.com/ (The most amazing invention ever, if you don't know it yet then don't wait and check it out!)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/bigwelshchallenge/ (Interactive course, very nice, possibility of choosing a desired dialect)
https://www.saysomethingin.com/welsh/course1 (Really recommended!)
https://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/fun/welsh/TOC.html (I like the grammar explanations)
http://www.learn-welsh.net/ (Seems cool!)
https://speakwelsh.wordpress.com/ (A lot of useful stuff for different levels)

Memrise courses:
http://www.memrise.com/course/700159/no-typing-welsh-conjugation/
http://www.memrise.com/course/425639/cymraeg-2/

Make Me Welsh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke10rMOX-u8

Are you learning Welsh? Do you speak it? Tell me in the comments!


3 comments:

  1. No experience with Welsh whatsoever, myself, but I'll still be following your blog posts with interest. Best of luck!

    PS- I can't speak to your self-proclaimed laziness, but I think your writing skills are fine :)

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  2. 1) Leszek, jak ocenisz swój poziom niemieckiego w skali CEFR ?
    2) Czy dla osoby znającej język szwedzki, niemiecki jest trudny ?
    3) Czy norweski i szwedzki są bardzo podobne ?
    4) Czy planujesz w przyszłości studiować języki na uniwersytecie ? ;-)

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    Replies
    1. Mój niemiecki zdawał mi się zawsze być dobry ale ostatnio zacząłem powątpiewać. Powiedziałbym, że B2. Na pewno nie wyżej.

      Moja znajomość języka szwedzkiego nigdy nie przydała mi się podczas nauki niemieckiego. Jeden powód to że mój szwedzki był wtedy jeszcze bardzo słaby i uczyłem się poprzez język angielski.

      Norweski i szwedzki są strasznie podobne. Dla mnie jest bardzo trudno nauczyć się porządnie norweskiego ponieważ języki które mają podobną fonetykę częściej mi się mylą i nie potrafię nauczyć się wymawiać norweskiego poprawnie. Jeżeli chodzi o zrozumienie to szwedzi i norwedzy się rozumieją bez większych problemów, ale myślę że język czasami musi być upraszczany.

      Chciałbym studiować lingwistykę albo "Modern Languages" na uniwersytecie. Jeszcze nie wiem, które dokładnie :)

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