THE WELSH LANGUAGE

We have been increasingly asked if there are any Welsh language classes in the Mid-Essex area. We are sorry to report that, as far as we are aware, no one is taking a class locally.

The society does hold occasional conversational afternoons which are not strictly "lessons", but do allow members to practice their conversation and allow learners to pick up some conversational Welsh.

 If you know of anyone in the area teaching Welsh please let us know, or if you are prepared to start classes, we can put you in contact with some learners who would dearly love to formally improve their language skills.

To our knowledge Welsh is taught at the following:

The London Welsh Centre

157-163 Grays Inn Road

London

WC1X 8UE

Phone 020 7837 3722

www.londonwelsh.org

Classes are held for differing levels of ability.

The Open University run the beginners course "Croeso beginners' Welsh (L196)"This runs from November to October at a cost of £430 (financial support available for qualifying candidates)

 THE OPEN UNIVERSITY L196

"Say Something in Welsh" is an MP3 player based tutoring course which is downloaded from the internet and does receive some glowing reviews.

Try it here

There are also many books, Cd's and radio stations etc., to help you on your way.

Many people believe or assume, that Welsh is a difficult language to learn, full of harsh consonants, fiendishly hard to pronounce, divided into a range of mutually unintelligible regional dialects, and complicated by confusing ‘mutations’ that change the initial letters of words so you cannot recognise them, but honestly, it isn’t that bad.

Any language has its difficulties- enjoyable challenges, if you like learning languages, but just frustrating obstacles if not. For example it’s true the dreaded mutations are a new sort of difficulty you wont have met if you haven’t studied a Celtic language before. Even advanced learners have trouble getting them right all the time. In affecting the beginning of the word of course this does give rise to problems with using a dictionary. However they do not often affect your chances of being understood.