Make 2024 the year to dysgu Cymraeg!

New year, new you? Or perhaps new year, new language?! If you feel inspired to set a New Years Resolution, make 2024 the year to dysgu Cymraeg! Recent figures showed our Cymraeg learner numbers in the Welsh Government have increased by 740% since 2020. Cymraeg is a real asset for us and we offer support to all our staff to develop their skills, including Sarah…

My journey with the Welsh language has been almost lifelong. I grew up in Wales, so it was always present in my life to some degree. But I was raised in the pretty anglicised county of the Vale of Glamorgan, my parents weren’t Welsh speakers and my schooling was all English medium. My university years were spent over the border before the hiraeth soon pulled me back to Wales after graduation. Welsh sounds have always been familiar, I saw Welsh in place names and road signs, I was taught bits and pieces in primary school, but Welsh always felt like a bit of an ‘other’, separate from my own identity and a mysterious world I wasn’t part of. A few neighbourhood children attended the ‘local’ Welsh medium primary school (in reality a 5 mile bus ride away as opposed to one of the four English medium primaries in my town within a one mile radius) and, in truth, I remember thinking that was odd. This says heaps about my perception of the language and how it related to me back then. Even as I progressed through my schooling and took a Welsh GCSE, and then onto A level, it still felt like an ‘other’.

After heading back to south Wales as a graduate, I began working in the Cardiff media industry scene. A few years of sound-design-on-Welsh-productions later and I had discovered that, actually, the Welsh language did belong to me too. And it wasn’t just about gaining a qualification, I wanted to actually speak this language and be part of the rich culture attached to it. When I started my career within the Welsh Government I jumped on the learning opportunities and began attending weekly classes. It’s been a bit staggered since then, with breaks whilst completing my MSc and during periods of maternity leave, but I took it up again 2 years ago with gusto.

I now have the added motivation of supporting my children through their Welsh medium education and sharing with them this Welsh cultural world that is their heritage.

I’m really proud to have reached a level where I can understand the vast majority of discussions and participate in some pretty complex conversations with varied vocabulary, and I do now attend cultural events and feel like I belong, whether it’s a school concert, or an Urdd Eisteddfod round. As a governor at my children’s school I even followed an Estyn inspection feedback session delivered in Welsh! Working in Education there has been ample opportunity to call on my Welsh language knowledge. It helps my work with schools and other stakeholders, I can address issues more quickly with no longer needing to rely on others to translate a query written in Welsh, I rarely need to rely on simultaneous translation to follow speakers at events, and I have a better grasp of the context and background that Welsh speaking stakeholders are coming from.

I have found the format of the Dysgu Cymraeg course really effective in directing your learning to become a speaker of the language, but I would attribute a significant part of my progress to the weekly chat sessions I have with my Welsh mentor, Esyllt. (I’ll be eternally grateful for all the time she has volunteered, and for championing me all the way over the past two years!) Finding yourself a mentor would be my number 1 tip to anyone learning a language.

However, I’ve still got some distance to cover when it comes to using my Welsh in work. I feel like I’m at that awkward teenage phase of language acquisition, when I pivot from one minute to the next between sounding coherent and mature, and monosyllabic and like my brain is still making the right connections. Not great when you want to discuss things on a professional basis! What I have finally realised, though, is that to learn a language is to use it, and I have to take that leap of faith a lot more. So far, I’ve found only support amongst Welsh speaking colleagues, and management who are keen to find me opportunities to continue progressing.

It’s a common theme, I regularly hear other learners saying the same thing, that they don’t feel confident enough to just get out there and start using it. Perhaps we can be brave, take the leap together and truly own this language! Rho gynnig arni!

Sarah

If Sarah’s blog has inspired you to give Cymraeg a go, start your journey with Dysgu Cymraeg / Learn Welsh.

Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn y Gymraeg.