I attended the first lesson of my first year of Welsh classes this week. It feels like quite a momentous milestone so I wanted to capture it in a blog post! đ´ó §ó ˘ó ˇó Źó łó ż
It’s been a long time coming. I’ve lived in Wales on and off (mostly on) since I came to the UK in January 2000. I’ve been in and around Cardiff consistently since 2005 – coming up to 20 years now. I’ve pretty much spent as much time here as I have growing up in France, my country of birth.
I’ve wanted to learn Welsh for a long time. I arrived the year after the creation of the National Assembly for Wales (now the Senedd), so bilingual signage, public services communications in English and Welsh, and the Welsh Government’s commitment to the Welsh language and culture, have always been part of my experience of living in Wales.
Also, it seems only right and fair to learn the language of the country I’ve decided to make my home. While English is the lingua franca in my work across public services, I am acutely aware in some meetings that everyone else could converse in Welsh and that they are speaking English for my benefit – something I don’t take for granted.
Like everyone else (surely?), I have dabbled with Duolingo, and it’s been a useful basis for learning pronunciations and some vocabulary. I came unstuck eventually as I need more structure and understanding of the grammar. For the past 6 years at least, I’ve been eyeing the Welsh courses but haven’t had the time or headspace to commit… except, as of this year, I finally have! I was very excited to book on Dysgu Cymraeg (Learn Welsh) Menediad (Entry) 1, and to order the coursebook from the National Library for Wales (which came with a lovely encouraging handwritten note in Welsh from the person who packed and dispatched it đ).
I read somewhere a long time ago that it takes 6 years of learning a language to become proficient. I don’t know if that’s accurate (I’m sure there are a ton of variables), but that stuck in my head. In any case, in 6 years I will study Entry levels 1 and 2, Foundation 1 and 2, and Intermediate 1 and 2, so I should be able to hold a decent conversation by then. (Further study levels are available after that, which I intend to carry on with.) My goal is to be able to facilitate and run workshops in Welsh.
In 6 years, it will be 2030. I was talking about this with a friend and we both (mis)remembered the Welsh language strategy aiming for a million Welsh speakers by… 2030 and I thought, oh neat, I’ll be one of that million Welsh speakers by 2030! In fact, the strategy is for a million Welsh speakers by 2050, so I will definitely be one of those by then.
Photo by Dave Clubb on Unsplash