Here We Go Again!

 Pedwar can diwrnod o ddysgu Cymraeg!*

If you thought my title was going to lead to a tirade about going into lockdown for the second time, you were wrong, although I admit my opening comment might have given you no clue.  In fact that sentence is a squeal of triumph, for it echoes the (much anticipated) announcement that I read on this screen an hour or so ago, that I've now been learning Welsh for 400 days.

In point of fact, it's quite a bit longer than that, as you will find out if you read on.  Although I wasn't aware of any Welsh connections - and many decades of family history research have yet to contradict that understanding - I first began to learn yr iaeth Cymraeg* over fifty years ago, when I was planning a holiday in north Wales with my then girlfriend.

As it happened, our relationship fell apart some weeks before the expedition was due to begin, and instead I found myself hitch-hiking on the south coast.  I think I ended up in Eastbourne ... where there would certainly have been no call for speaking Welsh!  However, the fascination for a language that thwarts the dictionary by changing the beginnings of its words lingered and, as I visited the land of y ddraig goch* from time to time, I would pick up books like "Welsh is Fun!" and "The Pocket Welsh Dictionary" which still sit idle on my shelves.

Five years ago, now, aware of the potential dangers of letting the brain stagnate in retirement, I picked up once more that same "Teach Yourself Welsh" book that I'd begun to use in my youth.  Although very structured much as the French that I learned at school and the German that I dabbled with shortly afterwards, since it was now locked some fifty years behind the curve of language development, it was teaching me a language that was almost archaic.

To accompany my studies, I had acquired a modern translation of Y Beibl* and a couple of small books written in Welsh and found that - even with the help of a decent dictionary (thank you, W H Smith, Bangor branch) - the words that I was now reading differed significantly from those in my teach yourself book.  

Last summer there was a parliamentary by-election in the Brecon & Radnorshire constituency and I decided it would be a nice idea to combine my political interests with a few days' break in a part of Wales that I hadn't before explored.  In the campaign office, I met Portia, a woman from Northamptonshire who, with her Welsh-born husband, had moved into the area a couple of years previously to take on his parents' former house.  Their children were now attending a Welsh-language school and so she was making an effort to keep up with them, using a language-learning app on her phone.

Fired with renewed enthusiasm, I got the details, got the app, and began the course for myself.  After a few weeks, with the frustration of fumbling my way around the phone's keyboard along the problems with accents getting the better of me, I gave up again.  But, this time, I was hooked!  I discovered that the same system was available on line, simply by logging into the website every day.  As well as teaching a system recognised by the Welsh education authorities, the program has a distinctly competitive edge, with league tables and a notional currency that pays a reward for each exercise completed.  I can 'pay' in this currency for an amulet that secures the continuity of my studies if I have the odd day off, so my achievement is spread over a number of six-day weeks, but is still something of which I feel justifiably proud.

And this time ... I don't feel like giving up, so there won't be any slipping back to start all over yet again!

* - Pedwar can diwrnod o ddysgu Cymraeg! - Four hundred days of learning Welsh;  yr iaeth Cymraeg - the Welsh language;  y ddraig goch - the red dragon;  Y Beibl - The Bible.