I've started making it part of my morning routine to listen to the BBC's Welsh language offering, Radio Cymru, on the way to work. I don't listen for very long, only the 20 minute drive to work, but the idea is that it gets me used to hearing the language and its rhythms and tempo.

And I don't really understand very much of it. I can pick out quite a few words, but not enough to understand whole sentences, although I do have one complete sentence under my belt from the breakfast show one morning: "Mae'r plant yn hoffi y ceffyl, a'r ceffyl yn hoffi'r plant" (the children like the horse, and the horse likes the children). I can just about follow the weather, and if I know some of the topics already, I can understand a little of the news.

Hopefully as time goes on, and in conjunction with my other practices, I'll start to understand more. What's important to remember, and what another learner pointed out, is that Radio Cymru is aimed at *native* speakers; not learners, so being able to understand any of it is a bonus.

Following my first tuning-in, I tweeted that I'd started listening and got a reply and some likes from Radio Cymru presenters, which was encouraging. The reply simply said "Dal ati!" (keep at it). I intend to.