Thursday, October 6, 2011

Website Review: Say Something in Welsh

Full disclosure: I am a person who loves languages. I took a year of Latin in college even though I absolutely did not have to and had already fulfilled my Foreign Language requirement with French. So if you are someone who absolutely detests learning languages and are safely cocooned in an English safety net that will see you through the rest of your days, the website I am about to discuss is not for you. However, if you are someone who either likes to learn languages or has wanted to but never quite been able to learn a new one, you are about to get a pleasant surprise.

Say Something in Welsh is, obviously, a website that will teach you to speak Welsh. Now granted this is not the most popular language in the world. I'm fairly positive that everyone in Wales speaks English anyway so even if you visit, speaking in Welsh is not imperative (if anyone from Wales is reading this, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!) When I told my friend I was learning Welsh she proceeded to send me this BBC News article that goes to show that even people putting up Welsh road signs don't know any Welsh. But again, that is not the point. The point is, this is a wonderfully different language from any other I have spoken (I speak English, Hindi, Tamil, and a smattering of French and Spanish). And the way these lessons are taught are tremendous. I have never learnt a language from scratch like this before. The lessons are composed of 30-minute audio files and feature a husband & wife team from either North or South Wales (you can pick your dialect of choice) who start you off with some verbs and send you merrily on your way.

The people on these audio lessons are wonderfully encouraging and in the middle of Lesson 1 when you learn to say "I can speak Welsh," the man very kindly assures you that this is a true statement and now you are fluent and just need to expand your vocabulary. This is a heartening attitude even if I'm a long way from conducting a Welsh conversation with Michael Sheen. I finished Lesson 2 today and already I can compose sentences like "I have to go because I cannot stay," "I can do it," and "Why are you trying to speak Welsh?" For someone who had never heard a bit of Welsh until yesterday, this strikes me as a remarkable accomplishment and a testament to the impeccable manner in which these audio lessons have been designed. Up till now, the biggest challenge has been pronouncing the double "ll." I knew that Welsh words had a lot of "ll"s in them, but I always assumed they were pronounced as a regular "l" sound like in English. Imagine my surprise when the instructor calmly explained through my computer speakers that I had to press the tip of my tongue to the back of my teeth and hiss. It is a most peculiar consonant and you will just have to hear it for yourself. Frankly, learning how to pronounce the letter "ll" is quite the accomplishment in itself.

Another point - you do not do any revision and the teachers are emphatic that you do not ever write anything down. They do have a study guide so you can look up words after you do the lesson just to check if you heard correctly and whether that "g" was actually a "c." I was astonished to discover that the words were spelt completely differently from what I was expecting, but the point of these lessons is conversational fluency and I suppose I will go through all the beginner lessons to get my speech up to scratch before I attempt to make any sense out of actual reading & writing.

You will really enjoy these lessons if you give them a shot, and you can just listen to the first one on the homepage before you even give them your e-mail address. And lest I forget, these lessons are 100% free. And in this economy, that's as good a reason to learn Welsh as any. Just think of the impact it will have when you can put down "Languages: Welsh" on your resume, and add to the list of esoteric skills you have amassed in this lifetime.


9 comments:

  1. There are a lot of negative myths about Welsh, that it's a dead or dying laguage. I concede that it's vulnerable as it was discouraged and virtually outlawed for centuries.It's stil often ignorantly ridiculed.

    The story about the road sign is true but it's not very representative. The language is still quite strong in tne north and most of the west and is making a bit of a comeback elsewhere. There are probably still some monoglot Welsh speakers left in remoet areas but they must be very young , very old or very reclusive.

    Congratulations on your achievement so far and keep it up. I'm vey lazy and not a good linguist but I try to speak Welsh each day as I will not give in to bullying.Similarly, I'd be glad if there was a revival in Breton,Provencal and the other languages that have suffered through French cultural imperialism. The more culturally diverse the world is, the more interesting a place it is.

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  2. Any update on how your Welsh is coming along? As someone who moved to Wales as I found the language (and the culture) so enchanting, I'm always curious to see how others are doing learning the language.

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    1. Sadly my Welsh has fallen by the wayside. I don't live in Wales or know any Welsh people so I've had no chance to practice. However I've saved all the lessons on my computer and will brush up if I ever make a trip to Wales!

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  3. I just read your review of Say Something in Welsh. Since 2014 the instructors have been restructuring the course. The old courses for Northern and Southern Welsh are still available for people who want to use them. The new course is called Welsh Challenge. Level One has been done for Northern Welsh, as well as part of Level Two. I'm not sure how far along Southern Welsh is since I've been concentrating on Northern Welsh. You might want to check out the new course when you have time.

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    1. Oh that sounds marvelous - I'll certainly have to head back over there to check it out :)

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  4. I have been doing this course ( on and off ) for some time now and have reached the magical number 20...4 more to go and the first part of the course is...dare I say...accomplished.I LOVE IT TO DEATH!!! for my part, probably one of the best language learning programs around.

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  5. Hi, I enjoyed reading your review. I am a great fan of the SSiW method, been learning with them for five months.
    If you are still interested in Welsh and in their new courses, they are now running a great discount for 2in1 subscription (both the 6 months course and the 2 years course for £10 per month, more info on the SSiW Facebook) and also there are now many opportunities to practise like slack groups (something like skype).

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  6. I'm confused as I've never heard moine for want just isio and then it says we say shod in south instead of sut which I've never heard as I'm from south. We say sut wy ti. Not shod wy ti. Also they could maybe put the current word on screen as sonetimes cant understand the pronounciation And lastly the woman's voice on there is frigging annoying sounds like she's taking the piss and shouting can't understand her So I feel stuck now cuz I feel like I'm am picking the info up but also don't want to carry on if I'm taking in the wrong infomation.

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  7. Very frustrating feel like giving up its all muddled up and I have questions but know one can be bothered to answer. Some things are just wrong I know this from actual native welsh speakers like the regions seems to be the wrong way round with what information they give you for south and north. Everytime I put it on It discourages me I'll never be able to speak my own God given language bad enough it has been taken from us let alone it's such a struggle to find somewhere to learn it and not be charged to get something which is a part of you which has been stolen. Let's face it only English people are allowed to learn welsh

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