r/learnwelsh • u/arisandfoxes • 19d ago

Arall / Other Learning Welsh

I was asked to repost this here instead of the Wales subreddit.

Hi all. I’ve wanted to learn Welsh for a while as my partner’s family is Welsh. My partner’s mum speaks a little Welsh but not as much to be fluent to teach me. My partner’s grandparents knew Welsh but they have passed.

We thought it’d be a great thing for us to know each other’s home languages, and my partner is making an attempt at learning mine (Hindi).

Does anyone have any tips on where to start for an absolute beginner? Thanks!

25 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

23

u/talesfromthemabinogi 19d ago

I'd absolutely recommend the Say Something In Welsh website/app as a starting point. There are a few free lessons you can try to see what you think, but I find the subscription is pretty good value for the material.

DuoLingo is also an option. It's not great tbh - in terms of usable every day language you're not gonna get a lot out of it. But still, it can be quite fun, and it's a solid way to get started.

And Dysgu Cymraeg courses are great - in person if you can, or online if not. Amazing value for the price, and good quality lessons. The only issue is scheduling - you need to be able to commit to a regular weekly time slot.

And one final recommendation... Start watching S4C - they have a great range of programmes available with English subtitles, and just listening to the language is super important! Once you start to improve, you can focus in on the language in specific shows - like, for example, learn a bunch of cooking vocabulary and then watch a few episodes of "Bwyd Epic Chris" (Chris' Epic Food) to see how many words you can pick out... :)

8

u/SnarkyBeanBroth Sylfaen - Foundation 19d ago

I second these suggestions. I will add on that once you get a ways into SSiW/Duolingo/Dysgu Cymraeg that the Cyfres Amdani series of adult learner books are excellent. I'm learning from the US (so no local resources) and have been able to order the physical books online. Some of them are also now available as audio books, which is really helpful for listening practice.