I missed a blogpost from last week. Naughty. We moved onto cael - to have and gyda - with. Largely talking about family. I know it doesn't matter what my answers are to the questions so long as they are in Welsh but I dislike lying and find it difficult, whatever language I'm using. So when I'm asked "Oes Mam gyda ti?" I run into problems. Oes/Nac Oes is a little too black and white on that one. It does make me reflect on the fact that sometimes personal questions are asked when learning languages that you maybe otherwise wouldn't broach with people unless you already knew them reasonably well.
At 32 I can't remember the last time anyone asked me directly about my parents, siblings sometimes, but parents are largely irrelevant to who you are and what you do once you emerge into independent living after school/college/uni. So it jars to have to think about how I'd answer a question about my mother given that "it's complicated" isn't in my vocabulary yet. Maybe it should be. Maybe dw i'n gwrthod (I refuse) could help me out there.
Anyway, life goes on.
Yesterday we moved onto past tense. With a twist.
We've missed out Es i (I went) and jumped to gwnes i (I did/I made) - the reason being that when it comes to past tense it can get quite complex trying to remember where to cut the verbs off to move to the past tense eg Golchi - to wash turns to golchais i - I washed. Although not 100% grammatically correct, it is still acceptable to to phrase as "I did wash".
Instead of es i - I went, Gwnes i mynd (with mutations to Wnes i fynd) - I did go.
If the aim is to get me speaking Welsh, and to speak Welsh like Welsh people speak Welsh, and to be able to hold a coherent conversation in Welsh, then sod the grammar. For now. Get comfortable with the basics, with the vocab and then backtrack to get the grammar and rules right. Seems good to me. So there we have Ali's take on teaching me Welsh. I'm fine with that.
And even better, I find out that real Welsh speakers drop the w and use nes i. Because it is easier. I like it.
Mutations got a mention. I like the fact that we've largely avoided them so far because they are slightly scary and complex. Gwneud (to do/make) and mynd (to go), also cael (to have) and a fourth that I forget are something verbs(?!) that mutate in the past tense. See what happens when I don't take notes as I go along? I remember the gist of it. But don't take my word for any of this.
I'm told I can get away with not remembering the soft mutations after nes i, but I try to.
The really difficult thing comes to switching between the tenses - like changing a really cranky gear in my head. I can almost feel the processing going on. And again, I have an expressive face. Obviously my first thought (probably WTF) is immediately reflected on my face. I'm slowly beginning to understand why I was told I had 'attitude problems' at school. Hmmm.
So, I need to revise and practise and then perhaps I'll come back and see if I understand anything more. Maybe the gears won't feel so rusty then.
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Monday, 28 March 2011
British Sign Language
Not directly about Welsh, this post, but it is connected to learning languages.
I was at a meeting yesterday in Mid-Wales with Deaf Access Cymru, and it was largely conducted in BSL, with a couple of people using English too. I grew up in mainstream and didn't have access to BSL or the Deaf community so I never learned how to sign. When I came to Uni, as then Student's with Disabilities Officer I organised a BSL course at Cardiff Union and did Stage 1. I've been peripherally involved with Deaf led organisations on and off but lack of time (and availability of courses) has kept me from furthering my BSL. I actually understand a reasonable amount but I'm fairly rubbish at signing.
It is a wonderful language and I always enjoy being around it, so spending a few hours immersed in it again did me good. I was trying to remember and pick up signs to improve my vocabulary. I get some basic signs mixed up, and also lack more evolved technical vocabulary. The other thing to watch out for is the same sign but in different contexts, therefore having a different meaning.
I was trying to figure out how to actively reinforce new vocabulary and absorb everything I was learning in the meeting without being able to copy the signs there and then. It would be the equivalent of echoing words people say in a meeting. In a conversation you can do that though - "what's the sign for/what's that sign?"
People were very welcoming, and patient and helpful and I was able to at least have some chats in BSL even if I am a bit slow at it.
Interestingly, as I learn more Welsh, more French seems to drop out of my head. No similar problem with BSL fortunately. Hopefully I'll have more opportunities to improve my BSL, it will be interesting to see if learning Welsh does something to help open up my brain to using other languages too.
I was at a meeting yesterday in Mid-Wales with Deaf Access Cymru, and it was largely conducted in BSL, with a couple of people using English too. I grew up in mainstream and didn't have access to BSL or the Deaf community so I never learned how to sign. When I came to Uni, as then Student's with Disabilities Officer I organised a BSL course at Cardiff Union and did Stage 1. I've been peripherally involved with Deaf led organisations on and off but lack of time (and availability of courses) has kept me from furthering my BSL. I actually understand a reasonable amount but I'm fairly rubbish at signing.
It is a wonderful language and I always enjoy being around it, so spending a few hours immersed in it again did me good. I was trying to remember and pick up signs to improve my vocabulary. I get some basic signs mixed up, and also lack more evolved technical vocabulary. The other thing to watch out for is the same sign but in different contexts, therefore having a different meaning.
I was trying to figure out how to actively reinforce new vocabulary and absorb everything I was learning in the meeting without being able to copy the signs there and then. It would be the equivalent of echoing words people say in a meeting. In a conversation you can do that though - "what's the sign for/what's that sign?"
People were very welcoming, and patient and helpful and I was able to at least have some chats in BSL even if I am a bit slow at it.
Interestingly, as I learn more Welsh, more French seems to drop out of my head. No similar problem with BSL fortunately. Hopefully I'll have more opportunities to improve my BSL, it will be interesting to see if learning Welsh does something to help open up my brain to using other languages too.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Dw i ddim yn gwobod (5 ac 6)
I had two Welsh lessons last week. I didn't blog or revise after the first one so it leaked out of my head - especially all of the new vocabulary. My next lesson is this afternoon, so revision time!
Lesson 5 mostly consisted of answering lots of questions and translating 'he is', 'she is not', 'I am'...
We covered some useful new vocab (which I promptly forgot between lessons)
yn y gwaith - in work (ie in the workplace)
yn tynnu llun(iau) - take pictures/taking pictures
yn astudio - to study
gwyddoniaeth cymdeithasol - social science
The trick with long Welsh words, so I'm told is to work backwards bit by bit to get the pronunciation in your head.
If I need to ask what a word is I have to ask in Welsh now,
beth ydy ____ yn y Gymraeg?
If I don't know an answer to a question - Dw i ddim yn gwobod.
Remembering the joining words,
yn = in
ar = on (like edrych ar y teledu - I am watching on the telly)
y = the
ac, a = and
o = from
i = to
i'r = to the
am = for
yw/ydy = is
mae = is
Beth arall? (what else?)
More vocabulary
bwrdd - table
drws - door
cadair - chair
cloch - clock
golau - light
goleuadau - lights
ffenest - window
llên(i) - curtains(s)
lolfa - living room
gwely - bed
stafell - room
llyfr(au) - book(s)
and the ever useful mwnci
llawr - floor
not to be mixed up with
llawer - lots, or llawn - full
Which given that I can't roll my r's and feel like I'm speaking with a mouthful of marbles when I try to do 'll', is going to take some practise to get right.
Post-its won't stick to all of those things and I doubt my landlord will approve of me scribbling on the walls. Nonetheless, post-its are up around the flat and we'll see how long they last.
More vocab! No wonder I forgot it all.
chwaith = either
hefyd = as well/also
mynd â = to take
cael = to have
mae'n dibynnu = it depends
hyfforddi = to train
cymryd = to take (eg to take sugar)
And then, we moved onto the familiar of you, and they and we. Plus a bit more vocab...
Dw i'n - I am
Dych chi'n - you are (formal)
Rwyt ti'n - you are (familiar)
Mae e'n - he is
Mae hi'n - she is
Dyn n'in = we are
Mae'n nhw'n = they are
Dyn ni ddim = we are not
Dyn nhw ddim yn = they are not
More vocab!
ymlacio = to relax
neidio = to jump
rhegu = to swear
symud = to move
garddio = to garden
rhedeg = to run
cerdded = to walk
eistedd = to sit
sefyll= to stand
gwrthod = to refuse
I like the puzzles of piecing together the vocab and the phrases, but I do miss out the joining words too easily. Don't ask me for anything technical about grammar, or nouns or verbs because it doesn't exist in my head. I don't know if that will make things harder to learn or not, especially where there are rules like yn goes before a verb. I'm not likely to automatically know whether I'm using a verb or not and if I start thinking too much about it, I'll never get a bloody sentence out.
Lesson 5 mostly consisted of answering lots of questions and translating 'he is', 'she is not', 'I am'...
We covered some useful new vocab (which I promptly forgot between lessons)
yn y gwaith - in work (ie in the workplace)
yn tynnu llun(iau) - take pictures/taking pictures
yn astudio - to study
gwyddoniaeth cymdeithasol - social science
The trick with long Welsh words, so I'm told is to work backwards bit by bit to get the pronunciation in your head.
If I need to ask what a word is I have to ask in Welsh now,
beth ydy ____ yn y Gymraeg?
If I don't know an answer to a question - Dw i ddim yn gwobod.
Remembering the joining words,
yn = in
ar = on (like edrych ar y teledu - I am watching on the telly)
y = the
ac, a = and
o = from
i = to
i'r = to the
am = for
yw/ydy = is
mae = is
Beth arall? (what else?)
More vocabulary
bwrdd - table
drws - door
cadair - chair
cloch - clock
golau - light
goleuadau - lights
ffenest - window
llên(i) - curtains(s)
lolfa - living room
gwely - bed
stafell - room
llyfr(au) - book(s)
and the ever useful mwnci
llawr - floor
not to be mixed up with
llawer - lots, or llawn - full
Which given that I can't roll my r's and feel like I'm speaking with a mouthful of marbles when I try to do 'll', is going to take some practise to get right.
Post-its won't stick to all of those things and I doubt my landlord will approve of me scribbling on the walls. Nonetheless, post-its are up around the flat and we'll see how long they last.
More vocab! No wonder I forgot it all.
chwaith = either
hefyd = as well/also
mynd â = to take
cael = to have
mae'n dibynnu = it depends
hyfforddi = to train
cymryd = to take (eg to take sugar)
And then, we moved onto the familiar of you, and they and we. Plus a bit more vocab...
Dw i'n - I am
Dych chi'n - you are (formal)
Rwyt ti'n - you are (familiar)
Mae e'n - he is
Mae hi'n - she is
Dyn n'in = we are
Mae'n nhw'n = they are
Dyn ni ddim = we are not
Dyn nhw ddim yn = they are not
More vocab!
ymlacio = to relax
neidio = to jump
rhegu = to swear
symud = to move
garddio = to garden
rhedeg = to run
cerdded = to walk
eistedd = to sit
sefyll= to stand
gwrthod = to refuse
I like the puzzles of piecing together the vocab and the phrases, but I do miss out the joining words too easily. Don't ask me for anything technical about grammar, or nouns or verbs because it doesn't exist in my head. I don't know if that will make things harder to learn or not, especially where there are rules like yn goes before a verb. I'm not likely to automatically know whether I'm using a verb or not and if I start thinking too much about it, I'll never get a bloody sentence out.
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Lesson 4
I have been very remiss in getting around to blogging lesson 4. Even worse than that, I didn't get to arrange a lesson for this week just gone so I have some catching up to do.
I have however, made the effort to say "shwmae, sut dych chi?" to people I know speak Welsh and I have chatted to a few people about how the lessons and learning is going so far. I promise I haven't forgotten about it.
In the last lesson we went over the previous stuff, asking and answering more questions, trying to construct longer sentences, pick up more vocabulary.
Using the activity book for mynediad 1, I read out a passage in Welsh and then we set about translating it.
Trying to retain the joining words is the trickiest bit just now:
yn = in
ar = on
y = the
ac, a = and
o = from
i = to
i'r = to the
I'm not hugely keen on reading out loud in English even, especially if it is something not written by me. Much less keen on trying to get my tongue around a stream of Welsh, sounding like a 4 year old learning to read for the first time. At high school in English Lit I refused to read anything out in front of the class. It partly stemmed from not knowing how to pronounce a lot of vocabulary, even though I knew the words, comprehended them, could use them fluently in writing. If I hadn't heard a word before, I had no confidence to say it or give it a go.
As a kid I was ripped into frequently for mispronouncing words. Teased by people who just wouldn't fucking well let it go. Mispronouncing Bulgaria at aged 12 was still the bane of my life at 18, used as an example of just how stupid I was. Life is humiliating at times. It damaged my confidence to even have a simple conversation with anyone just in case I mispronounced a word. My brain would get tied up in knots trying to find the easiest way of saying something, ensuring that I wasn't using any vocabulary I didn't know how to say out loud. When my confidence was at its lowest I stuttered. I once went for 3 days without saying a word to anyone at all. Not at school, not at home. I was so quiet anyway, nobody noticed.
I'm deaf. I don't overhear things, I don't quite get the detail or the nuance, or the emphasis when other people use unfamiliar words, or when this silly language of ours doesn't stick to the damn rules. Some things you just have to learn. Or get it wrong, be corrected, laugh it off, move on. For the record, if I get something wrong, tell me. Laugh if it is funny and I'll laugh with you, I can deal with it now. It took years of making myself deal with it to be able to speak to a group of people in a meeting, let alone speaking publicly. But I did it.
So that in itself is a challenge to meet head on, although admittedly, one I was hoping to avoid. My aim really was to learn to read and write Welsh well, but Ali is all about the speaking. It's the hardest bit but I won't be a coward.
We also did days of the week and numbers to 10. When I did the 10 week taster course at my previous work, everybody else already knew the numbers because they'd grown up here with enough of the language around them to pick up stuff like that. I've never been taught it, and we didn't explicitly cover it on the taster course (because everyone knew it) so this is the first time learning these for me.
Dim = 0
Un = 1
Dau = 2
Tri = 3
Pedwar = 4
Pump = 5
Chwech = 6
Saith = 7
Wyth = 8
Naw = 9
Deg = 10
Wyth forms wythnos which is 'week', literally meaning 8 nights, which I find amusing. We did breifly cover numbers above 10 but I want to stick with learning those before I confuse myself with the stuff that comes after.
Dydd Llun = Monday
Dydd Mawrth = Tuesday
Dydd Mercher = Wednesday
Dydd Iau = Thursday
Dydd Gwener = Friday
Dydd Sadwrn = Saturday
Dydd Sul = Sunday
Ali made me repeat these a few times and then covered up the list and made me repeat them again. Now I hate this because I want to take it away and look at it and write them out again and again until they stick, but no. I had to repeat them. Some of them fell out of my head straight away. Tuesday especially, sometimes Thursday, and then Wednesday and Friday got a little muddled.
But the process of actively thinking about it, trying to remember, peeking, being reminded of what it sounds like (Tuesday is a bit like 'mouth'), getting it in order and then jumbling the days up to remember them out of order - it makes it stick much faster than if I'd gone away and tried to repeat and learn by rote.
All in all a successful lesson, even if challenging. I feel like I am making progress.
I have however, made the effort to say "shwmae, sut dych chi?" to people I know speak Welsh and I have chatted to a few people about how the lessons and learning is going so far. I promise I haven't forgotten about it.
In the last lesson we went over the previous stuff, asking and answering more questions, trying to construct longer sentences, pick up more vocabulary.
Using the activity book for mynediad 1, I read out a passage in Welsh and then we set about translating it.
Trying to retain the joining words is the trickiest bit just now:
yn = in
ar = on
y = the
ac, a = and
o = from
i = to
i'r = to the
I'm not hugely keen on reading out loud in English even, especially if it is something not written by me. Much less keen on trying to get my tongue around a stream of Welsh, sounding like a 4 year old learning to read for the first time. At high school in English Lit I refused to read anything out in front of the class. It partly stemmed from not knowing how to pronounce a lot of vocabulary, even though I knew the words, comprehended them, could use them fluently in writing. If I hadn't heard a word before, I had no confidence to say it or give it a go.
As a kid I was ripped into frequently for mispronouncing words. Teased by people who just wouldn't fucking well let it go. Mispronouncing Bulgaria at aged 12 was still the bane of my life at 18, used as an example of just how stupid I was. Life is humiliating at times. It damaged my confidence to even have a simple conversation with anyone just in case I mispronounced a word. My brain would get tied up in knots trying to find the easiest way of saying something, ensuring that I wasn't using any vocabulary I didn't know how to say out loud. When my confidence was at its lowest I stuttered. I once went for 3 days without saying a word to anyone at all. Not at school, not at home. I was so quiet anyway, nobody noticed.
I'm deaf. I don't overhear things, I don't quite get the detail or the nuance, or the emphasis when other people use unfamiliar words, or when this silly language of ours doesn't stick to the damn rules. Some things you just have to learn. Or get it wrong, be corrected, laugh it off, move on. For the record, if I get something wrong, tell me. Laugh if it is funny and I'll laugh with you, I can deal with it now. It took years of making myself deal with it to be able to speak to a group of people in a meeting, let alone speaking publicly. But I did it.
So that in itself is a challenge to meet head on, although admittedly, one I was hoping to avoid. My aim really was to learn to read and write Welsh well, but Ali is all about the speaking. It's the hardest bit but I won't be a coward.
We also did days of the week and numbers to 10. When I did the 10 week taster course at my previous work, everybody else already knew the numbers because they'd grown up here with enough of the language around them to pick up stuff like that. I've never been taught it, and we didn't explicitly cover it on the taster course (because everyone knew it) so this is the first time learning these for me.
Dim = 0
Un = 1
Dau = 2
Tri = 3
Pedwar = 4
Pump = 5
Chwech = 6
Saith = 7
Wyth = 8
Naw = 9
Deg = 10
Wyth forms wythnos which is 'week', literally meaning 8 nights, which I find amusing. We did breifly cover numbers above 10 but I want to stick with learning those before I confuse myself with the stuff that comes after.
Dydd Llun = Monday
Dydd Mawrth = Tuesday
Dydd Mercher = Wednesday
Dydd Iau = Thursday
Dydd Gwener = Friday
Dydd Sadwrn = Saturday
Dydd Sul = Sunday
Ali made me repeat these a few times and then covered up the list and made me repeat them again. Now I hate this because I want to take it away and look at it and write them out again and again until they stick, but no. I had to repeat them. Some of them fell out of my head straight away. Tuesday especially, sometimes Thursday, and then Wednesday and Friday got a little muddled.
But the process of actively thinking about it, trying to remember, peeking, being reminded of what it sounds like (Tuesday is a bit like 'mouth'), getting it in order and then jumbling the days up to remember them out of order - it makes it stick much faster than if I'd gone away and tried to repeat and learn by rote.
All in all a successful lesson, even if challenging. I feel like I am making progress.
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Lesson 3
Ali pointed out that there is no hiding when lessons are one to one. Very true.
I'd like to keep hiding from the fact that I still find it nearly impossible to get 'll' and only seem to manage it accidentally, and then can't do it again. It is a difficult one anyway, fair enough but even trickier for me because I can't hear it or really see it that well either. It is another of the back of the mouth kind of sounds. Tongue on the roof of the mouth, behind the front teeth and blow air through.
I have been practising but I just sound like I'm hissing and I don't think I am meant to. I don't get very good feedback on my own voice at the best of times. When I woke up this morning I vaguely recalled having got it right during the night but I suspect it was a half remembered dream.
I do sometimes manage to get it right at the beginning of a word but not in the middle or at the end. Here's a bastard - pwll. Purlease. Or how about cyllell? Not good.
So how to learn a sound that I can't hear, when I can't hear that I've got it right either? Still working that one out.
The previous two lessons are beginning to stick now I think. I'm slow at constructing sentences but I'm getting there.
So;
1. Dw i'n - I am
2. Dych i'n - you are (as a statement or as a question with correct intonation)
1. Dw i ddim yn... - I am not
2. Dych chi ddim yn... - you are not
yn comes before a verb. I don't know verbs. Deaf kid without support in classes that were too large can be blamed there.
So, dw i ddim yn chwarae tenis heddiw.
But,
dw i ddim eishau edrych ar y teledu.
Or Dw i eishau edrych ar y teledu. (not dw i'n ...)
No yn before eishau. Just because, apparently. It is a verb, no?
Then we moved to he and she.
3. mae e'n - he is
4. mae hi'n - she is
in the negative, it is slightly different:
3. Dyw e ddim yn... - he is not (pronounced like 'do air thim')
4. Dyw hi ddim yn... - she is not
Using those to construct sentences:
Dw i'n mynd i sglefrio yn y Bae (sglefrio = ice skating!) (yn y - to the)
Dw i'n mynd i'r hoci ia, yfory. (I think I constructed that right...) (i - to, i'r - to the)
Mae e'n chwarae pel-droed heddiw. (uh, how to do accents etc in a blog? The e in pel needs a ^ over it).
Mae hi'n mynd allan ond dyw e ddim yn mynd allan.
Mae e'n coginio a mae hi'n bwyta.
Dyw hi ddim yn gweneud te.
I have an expressive face according to Ali. I imagine it is my WTF face he was referring to.
I'd like to keep hiding from the fact that I still find it nearly impossible to get 'll' and only seem to manage it accidentally, and then can't do it again. It is a difficult one anyway, fair enough but even trickier for me because I can't hear it or really see it that well either. It is another of the back of the mouth kind of sounds. Tongue on the roof of the mouth, behind the front teeth and blow air through.
I have been practising but I just sound like I'm hissing and I don't think I am meant to. I don't get very good feedback on my own voice at the best of times. When I woke up this morning I vaguely recalled having got it right during the night but I suspect it was a half remembered dream.
I do sometimes manage to get it right at the beginning of a word but not in the middle or at the end. Here's a bastard - pwll. Purlease. Or how about cyllell? Not good.
So how to learn a sound that I can't hear, when I can't hear that I've got it right either? Still working that one out.
The previous two lessons are beginning to stick now I think. I'm slow at constructing sentences but I'm getting there.
So;
1. Dw i'n - I am
2. Dych i'n - you are (as a statement or as a question with correct intonation)
1. Dw i ddim yn... - I am not
2. Dych chi ddim yn... - you are not
yn comes before a verb. I don't know verbs. Deaf kid without support in classes that were too large can be blamed there.
So, dw i ddim yn chwarae tenis heddiw.
But,
dw i ddim eishau edrych ar y teledu.
Or Dw i eishau edrych ar y teledu. (not dw i'n ...)
No yn before eishau. Just because, apparently. It is a verb, no?
Then we moved to he and she.
3. mae e'n - he is
4. mae hi'n - she is
in the negative, it is slightly different:
3. Dyw e ddim yn... - he is not (pronounced like 'do air thim')
4. Dyw hi ddim yn... - she is not
Using those to construct sentences:
Dw i'n mynd i sglefrio yn y Bae (sglefrio = ice skating!) (yn y - to the)
Dw i'n mynd i'r hoci ia, yfory. (I think I constructed that right...) (i - to, i'r - to the)
Mae e'n chwarae pel-droed heddiw. (uh, how to do accents etc in a blog? The e in pel needs a ^ over it).
Mae hi'n mynd allan ond dyw e ddim yn mynd allan.
Mae e'n coginio a mae hi'n bwyta.
Dyw hi ddim yn gweneud te.
I have an expressive face according to Ali. I imagine it is my WTF face he was referring to.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Lesson 2
The cats went flying through the air and knocked a cup of tea all over the floor. I'd say that in Welsh but we aren't that far in yet.
Although, cath/od (singular/plural cat/s)
Something was said about verbs and something was said about adjectives and that already goes over my head slightly. Reminding me that I have a PhD makes no difference because that was all about the numbers.
We spent lots of time asking and answering questions today:
Dych chi'n...?
Ydw/ nac ydw.
Dych chi'n hoffi te?
I knew I should have written some stuff down. The day ran away with me after the lesson so I didn't quite get to consolidate it immediately afterwards. Lesson to learn.
Dw i'n hoffi te. Dw i eisiau te. And to eat cake. It helps the concentration.
Dw i ddim yn gallu chwarae piano.
Dw i ddim eisiau dawnsio.
Are you going out today?
Ydw. Dw i'n mynd i Grangetown, ond dim ond am dipyn bach o amser. That already has a mutation in it.
I like how:
ond=but and dim ond=only and you can run the two together to make but only.
ond dim ond.
I am already hitting on the bits that will be hard to pull together in my head. There are not always literal translations, in addition to the sequencing being different to English.
Dw i eisiau cysgu...
Hwyl!
Although, cath/od (singular/plural cat/s)
Something was said about verbs and something was said about adjectives and that already goes over my head slightly. Reminding me that I have a PhD makes no difference because that was all about the numbers.
We spent lots of time asking and answering questions today:
Dych chi'n...?
Ydw/ nac ydw.
Dych chi'n hoffi te?
I knew I should have written some stuff down. The day ran away with me after the lesson so I didn't quite get to consolidate it immediately afterwards. Lesson to learn.
Dw i'n hoffi te. Dw i eisiau te. And to eat cake. It helps the concentration.
Dw i ddim yn gallu chwarae piano.
Dw i ddim eisiau dawnsio.
Are you going out today?
Ydw. Dw i'n mynd i Grangetown, ond dim ond am dipyn bach o amser. That already has a mutation in it.
I like how:
ond=but and dim ond=only and you can run the two together to make but only.
ond dim ond.
I am already hitting on the bits that will be hard to pull together in my head. There are not always literal translations, in addition to the sequencing being different to English.
Dw i eisiau cysgu...
Hwyl!
Friday, 11 February 2011
Lesson 1
Today we covered basic greetings.
I should say I did a 10 week taster course a year ago that I organised for my previous workplace, run by Cardiff and the Vale Welsh language centre. Some bits have stuck, pieces of vocab but not the structuring aspect. We had a brilliant tutor, but I struggled to keep up with it. Partly because there are some sounds in Welsh that you can't 'see' because they come from the back of the throat - 'ch' and 'll' especially. I need to have the opportunity to repeat and repeat until I get it vaguely right and when you are going at the overall pace of the group, the opportunity to do that isn't there.
Also, it is difficult for me to learn anything within a group environment anyway. I have to concentrate so hard to lipread and follow, that I struggle to organise my thoughts and absorb information, process it and spit it out in a relevant way, whether that is to answer a question or discuss a concept. So I do the group bits but most of my learning is then independent, I go away and read up on everything. It is how I passed my degree (chemistry), I barely picked up anything from the lectures. Audio information is just too tough to process fully. So I got my system down for my degree but I don't have a system for learning and retaining a new language.
My brain is a brilliant processor, it's capabilities are beyond my conscious comprehension at times. My audiologist says she has never met anyone with hearing as poor as mine who can still function with it, but the understanding of my environment largely comes from being able to filter and make sense of the non-audio stuff. Body language, lipreading, gestures, expression, context - my brain is constantly doing a complex puzzle which is missing some pieces. I often get the gist and not the detail. I often misunderstand, or get by on informed guesswork. If I hadn't learnt to laugh at myself and my mistakes a long time ago, I'd spend most of my days sobbing and feeling humiliated. Then I'd never go anywhere or be around other people and it would be too isolating. It is hard work to live in a hearing world and I do compromise myself too much. Maybe this will be a way to help educate.
So, over lunch last week we covered some pronunciation and:
Pwy dych chi?
Sut dych chi? (I get the North and South Wales versions muddled)
and today
Ble dych chi? (Ali seems to have forgotten that Gordon Brown was PM for a while)
Beth dych chi?
Then we got the post it notes out, and started slapping them about the flat. Vocab in context. Verbs 'n' that.
Dw i'n coginio on the cooker hood along with cinio in the cegin.
Bwyd on the food cupboard and dw i'n bwyta on the crockery cupboard.
Dw i'n darllen on my PhD thesis (which is a lie).
Putting sentences together, dw i'n edrych ar y teledu
and negatives
dw i ddim yn mynd
and combining sentences
dw i ddim yn mynd allan heno, dw i'n edrych ar y teledu. Actually, I am going ice skating but that isn't in my vocab list.
Some of the post its are dropping off already and the cats may well get to some of the rest but visual, colourful reminders are good for my learning. Besides, Ali has threatened to test me on it all next week...
I should say I did a 10 week taster course a year ago that I organised for my previous workplace, run by Cardiff and the Vale Welsh language centre. Some bits have stuck, pieces of vocab but not the structuring aspect. We had a brilliant tutor, but I struggled to keep up with it. Partly because there are some sounds in Welsh that you can't 'see' because they come from the back of the throat - 'ch' and 'll' especially. I need to have the opportunity to repeat and repeat until I get it vaguely right and when you are going at the overall pace of the group, the opportunity to do that isn't there.
Also, it is difficult for me to learn anything within a group environment anyway. I have to concentrate so hard to lipread and follow, that I struggle to organise my thoughts and absorb information, process it and spit it out in a relevant way, whether that is to answer a question or discuss a concept. So I do the group bits but most of my learning is then independent, I go away and read up on everything. It is how I passed my degree (chemistry), I barely picked up anything from the lectures. Audio information is just too tough to process fully. So I got my system down for my degree but I don't have a system for learning and retaining a new language.
My brain is a brilliant processor, it's capabilities are beyond my conscious comprehension at times. My audiologist says she has never met anyone with hearing as poor as mine who can still function with it, but the understanding of my environment largely comes from being able to filter and make sense of the non-audio stuff. Body language, lipreading, gestures, expression, context - my brain is constantly doing a complex puzzle which is missing some pieces. I often get the gist and not the detail. I often misunderstand, or get by on informed guesswork. If I hadn't learnt to laugh at myself and my mistakes a long time ago, I'd spend most of my days sobbing and feeling humiliated. Then I'd never go anywhere or be around other people and it would be too isolating. It is hard work to live in a hearing world and I do compromise myself too much. Maybe this will be a way to help educate.
So, over lunch last week we covered some pronunciation and:
Pwy dych chi?
Sut dych chi? (I get the North and South Wales versions muddled)
and today
Ble dych chi? (Ali seems to have forgotten that Gordon Brown was PM for a while)
Beth dych chi?
Then we got the post it notes out, and started slapping them about the flat. Vocab in context. Verbs 'n' that.
Dw i'n coginio on the cooker hood along with cinio in the cegin.
Bwyd on the food cupboard and dw i'n bwyta on the crockery cupboard.
Dw i'n darllen on my PhD thesis (which is a lie).
Putting sentences together, dw i'n edrych ar y teledu
and negatives
dw i ddim yn mynd
and combining sentences
dw i ddim yn mynd allan heno, dw i'n edrych ar y teledu. Actually, I am going ice skating but that isn't in my vocab list.
Some of the post its are dropping off already and the cats may well get to some of the rest but visual, colourful reminders are good for my learning. Besides, Ali has threatened to test me on it all next week...
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