Dechreuad/Beginning

Over the past 6 months I’ve been inspired to start learning Welsh again. Hopefully I’ll get to the point where I can speak it fluently.  I was born in Rachub, a small village near Bethesda and I attended the local Welsh primary school called Ysgol Gynradd Llanllechid. I spoke Welsh as fluently as a little boy could, but English was still the language I spoke at home with my family.

Then when I was 9 years old I moved with my family to the ‘big town’, Bangor, about 15 mins drive away, where I attended Ysgol Cae Top and then Ysgol Friars (secondary school). So basically I lost my fluency, because the language used to teach in these schools was English. We still learnt Welsh as a subject alongside everything else. But I don’t remember ever really enjoying Welsh lessons at that time, and it was popular to not like Welsh class! I did my AS Level at Friars in 2nd Language Welsh aged 16 and then pretty much haven’t used my Welsh since then.

I’ve been on a course for the past 6 months with students from all across the world, so suddenly my being Welsh and being able to speak a different language becomes more important (I’m not sure what word I’m looking for there). So now I’m back in Cymru, I’m going to attempt to learn my country’s language again. I’m writing this blog in an attempt to improve my Welsh (at least my written Welsh) a bit more.

Please feel free to comment on my Welsh, ask a question, correct it (I’m pretty sure it needs correcting). Be aware that what follows is from my memory with the help of a Welsh dictionary and I’m from the North of Wales!