The musings, struggles and observations of an Englishman learning Welsh.
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Mae'n amser eisteddfod ar lein eto!
It's online eisteddfod time again!
Every year, alternating between locations in the North and South of Wales, is the National Eisteddfod (Eisteddfod Gynedlaethol), a celebration of Welsh language, music and culture with bands, singers, poets authors and more besides.
And every year, SaySomethingInWelsh.com runs an "Online Eisteddfod" for members and non-members to practice their Welsh by speaking, writing or singing reviews, poems, songs and prose that they've written. The entries are judged and a winner chosen for each category.
I really enjoy the online Eisteddfod. It gives me a chance to practice my Welsh and enjoy what others have created with theirs.
Last year I was the only entrant for the Beginner Prose category, so of course I won by default. This year I have entered the Englyn Milwr (a short, three line poem on a given theme) and the Post-Beginner Prose. I'm not sure my Welsh is really good enough for post beginner, but I didn't want to run the risk of being the only entrant for the beginner category again!
Entries close on 2019-11-14 and voting takes place the following week. Let's see how I do. Fingers crossed...!
It's online eisteddfod time again!
Every year, alternating between locations in the North and South of Wales, is the National Eisteddfod (Eisteddfod Gynedlaethol), a celebration of Welsh language, music and culture with bands, singers, poets authors and more besides.
And every year, SaySomethingInWelsh.com runs an "Online Eisteddfod" for members and non-members to practice their Welsh by speaking, writing or singing reviews, poems, songs and prose that they've written. The entries are judged and a winner chosen for each category.
I really enjoy the online Eisteddfod. It gives me a chance to practice my Welsh and enjoy what others have created with theirs.
Last year I was the only entrant for the Beginner Prose category, so of course I won by default. This year I have entered the Englyn Milwr (a short, three line poem on a given theme) and the Post-Beginner Prose. I'm not sure my Welsh is really good enough for post beginner, but I didn't want to run the risk of being the only entrant for the beginner category again!
Entries close on 2019-11-14 and voting takes place the following week. Let's see how I do. Fingers crossed...!
I originally signed up to the SaySomethingInWelsh forums a few weeks ago when I found it quite by accident while searching for information on the use of "sydd" vs "pwy", and my use of the site didn't go beyond reading some of the forum posts.
Today I decided to start their lessons. Learning with SaySomethingInWelsh is quite unlike DuoLingo. The latter presents you with very short lessons based around short sentences you translate into English, write out in Welsh, or match to pictures. Because of its visual nature, learning the written forms of words is essential to the learning process.
SaySomethingInWelsh is quite different. They actively discourage note taking and base their lessons entirely on listening and repeating the material in a fashion a little similar to a Teach Yourself CD. The idea is that you learn by doing.
Despite having worked up to Level 16 on DuoLingo, I decided to start right at the beginning with the SaySomething course, just in case it offered vocabulary I had not come across on DuoLingo, and so that I got the most out of the course.
So far I'm liking it. It's ideal for having in the car while driving, as one might an audio CD. The only disconcerting thing at the moment is the pronunciation of the speaker, who is a native speaker from the South East. I'm familiar with pronouncing words with "ae" to sound as "eye", whereas he pronounces them more like "ah". Thus "cymraeg" to me sounds like "cum-rye-g" but to him is more "cum-raag". I'm not going to argue with him; he's a native speaker, after all, but it takes some getting used to. I can only assume my pronunciation is either more "standard" or more northern.
Even lesson one brought about some new-ish vocabulary for me, so it's looking like a promising new route for learning, with the added bonus of some forums in which to speak to some like-minded learners.
Today I decided to start their lessons. Learning with SaySomethingInWelsh is quite unlike DuoLingo. The latter presents you with very short lessons based around short sentences you translate into English, write out in Welsh, or match to pictures. Because of its visual nature, learning the written forms of words is essential to the learning process.
SaySomethingInWelsh is quite different. They actively discourage note taking and base their lessons entirely on listening and repeating the material in a fashion a little similar to a Teach Yourself CD. The idea is that you learn by doing.
Despite having worked up to Level 16 on DuoLingo, I decided to start right at the beginning with the SaySomething course, just in case it offered vocabulary I had not come across on DuoLingo, and so that I got the most out of the course.
So far I'm liking it. It's ideal for having in the car while driving, as one might an audio CD. The only disconcerting thing at the moment is the pronunciation of the speaker, who is a native speaker from the South East. I'm familiar with pronouncing words with "ae" to sound as "eye", whereas he pronounces them more like "ah". Thus "cymraeg" to me sounds like "cum-rye-g" but to him is more "cum-raag". I'm not going to argue with him; he's a native speaker, after all, but it takes some getting used to. I can only assume my pronunciation is either more "standard" or more northern.
Even lesson one brought about some new-ish vocabulary for me, so it's looking like a promising new route for learning, with the added bonus of some forums in which to speak to some like-minded learners.