#iaith

Pysgod wibli-wobli neu slefren fôr (neu cont y môr)?

Gwdihŵ neu tylluan?

okay people can prise popty ping from my cold dead hands. it grates on my nerves and I can't help but fall in love with it, it's so silly.

when I was little, I'd call jellyfish 'contau' until one day I was told off in nursery and from then on just used 'pysgod môr'. they're still contau bach to me.

You may have seen my post earlier this week about being interviewed over the phone in Welsh (which I've just been learning for two and a half years… eeek!) and having a full page editorial written about me and my Royal Society of Marine Artists prize, in Golwg (a weekly Welsh language publication which has the largest circulation of any magazine in Wales - 12k people see it monthly). The Arts Correspondent who wrote the piece was incredibly generous, kind about my Welsh and in telling people how to buy products featuring my Welsh language Illustrations on print-to-order. I couldn't have hoped for better!

Here are the two illustrations I produced for adult Welsh language learners featured in the article. One is about telling the time in Welsh, the other includes every sentence pattern I needed to know to pass the first exam for adult Welsh learners, all framed in the context of my interest in cake!

And I thought you might like to know the story behind my creating these kind of illustrations.

People can learn two dialects of Welsh - South (De) and North (Gog). I'm learning Gog as I love holidaying on Ynys Môn (Anglesey) and I want to show the people there who speak Welsh respect (and of course people in other parts of Wales too) by learning the recognised national language.

You may not know this but one of the tricky things about learning Welsh is that the first letters of words often change!!!! This includes place names, and to help us learn how to make these changes, in our first term, the textbook for Gog Welsh included a poem about various people being from various places.... To be honest, it was all a bit too hard for me to take in at first, as I'm not very well travelled and I'm ashamed to say I had never heard of many of the places!

So, with just one term of Welsh under my belt, I decided to create a little illustrated story about a teenage boy disliking these letter changes (using all of them!) written in Gog Welsh (as there are less learning resources for Gog), with no place names in it! I was incredibly lucky to get some help correcting it for free from a Welsh tutor on a Welsh learners' Facebook group! And the rest is history...

The two illustrations featured in the magazine are available at:

and

Diolch! Thanks for reading this far!

Ps. What i really apraciate in Welsh so far is lack of (idk if true yet just from what ive seen so far) articles! Since my mother tongue doesnt have those its so much more natural for me.

Thanks for reading this!

greetings from wales! the lack of indefinite articles is definitely one of the perks of welsh. luckily the only articles you need to learn are the ones for 'the': y (before a word beginning in a consenant), yr (before a word beginning with a vowel and h) and 'r (after a word ending in a vowel)

so like:

the cat - y gath 🐱

the apple - yr afal 🍎

here is the skull - dyma'r benglog 👉💀

anyway, enough of grammar. WELSH MEDIA!

S4C - the Welsh language channel, with a section just for learners

Movies set in Wales:

Pride - About the gay activism that defined part of the 1984 miners' strikes.

Twin Town - My old science teacher was in it. That's all you need to know.

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill, but Came Down a Mountain - Garth Hill, my beloved <3. Oh, also Hugh Grant is in it, but this isn't about him.

TV Shows to just jump in, cause why not:

Dal Y Mellt - The first Welsh language show on Netflix. Might only be available on UK Netflix, but you might be able to find it somewhere else too.

Y Gwyll (Hinterland) - Noir, police detective drama set in Aberystwyth. Available on iPlayer, Prime, S4C and ITVX. Y Gwyll is the Welsh language one, and after its success, they filmed Hinterland in English.

Iaith ar Daith - Celebrities and their Welsh-speaking mentors travel around Wales learning the language and just generally having fun. I used to binge watch this.

Welsh Music:

Spotify link to a playlist of Welsh songs

My favourite Welsh artists, because there are too many really good, famous Welsh artists to mention in one list:

Catatonia - 90s indie rock band from Cardiff. I will never shut up about International Velvet. Mainly English, but some Welsh.

Candelas - rock band from Llanuwchllyn. Mainly Welsh, but some English.

Adwaith - women <3

Nia Wyn - beautiful storytelling, vocals and guitar.

Calfari - they may only have one and a half albums, but Gwenllian is a banger, okay

I also wanted to say thank you for running this blog because it’s made me feel really connected with the culture i’d been cut off from when my great grandparents moved to the USA

Diolch yn fawr iawn! That really means a lot, and I'm happy you're finding your place with Welsh and enjoying learning about the culture.

Here's a list of resources that might be useful for the Americans out there, but most of online resources I've shared before should be useful too.

List of resources from Cymdeithas Madog, an American-based Welsh learning organisation.

Articles and resources from Wales.com about Welsh culture, history, politics, arts and tourism.

Learn Welsh YouTube page, good for grammar and vocab.

The holy grail, Dysgu Cymraeg. Lots of resources, free textbooks and audio resources, option to learn with classes in person, virtually or by self-studying.

Can't vouch for how good it is, but Listen and Learn USA offer in person and online Welsh lessons and resources, so could be worth checking out.

Doctor Cymraeg. Just trust me.

is there anything i should be worried about doing thats bad? the last thing i wanna do is upset real people or like fetishize welsh culture and shit. i just wanna learn abt yall

( and also maybe live there one day because i am not staying in this hellhole)

also i saw Nye in theatres and it ruled it was so good

SHWMAE! YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE :D

Honestly, the main things to remember if you're worried about offending people is 1) we're not England, and 2) we don't all watch Gavin and Stacey, please if another person asks me about Barry Island, I'm going to commit violence

I don't have any specific book recommendations, but I'd definitely recommend looking into the Welsh language if you haven't already. With any celtic language, it's important to respect it as a language in its own right, especially since they're quite different to what English-speakers 'expect' (i.e. different pronunciations, structure and spellings, almost as if it's not English!)

As it's almost Christmas, you could have a look into Mari Lwyd as well - a Welsh Victorian wassailing tradition where a horse skull on a stick demands entry into your home to drink your alcohol (not a mythical cryptid, sorry). Very fun.

Two films which are really good and focus on Welsh life are Twin Town and Pride. Twin Town's set in Swansea (South Wales) about two brothers who terrorise the city. The only reason I mention it is because my old science teacher played any extra in one of the scenes. Pride is based on a true story about the lesbian and gay supporters of the Welsh miners' strike in 1984. Very emotional.

If anyone could comment below with book or documentary recommendations, that would be great!

And, because I'm Stereotypical Wales Incarnate, here's some YouTube videos! As a treat.

I'm delighted to share with you that my winning a Royal Society Prize for my painting of a lifeboat built in 1907 has made it into the Welsh language press, at: https://mon.360.cymru/2024/12/12/peintiad-gwch-achub-cemaes-ennill-gwobr/ I'm feeling incredibly honoured!

Dw i'n hapus iawn i rannu fy stori i am ennill gwobr y Gymdeithas Frenhinol am fy narlun o gwch achub a adeiladwyd yn 1907 wedi cyrraedd y wasg Gymraeg. yn: https://mon.360.cymru/2024/12/12/peintiad-gwch-achub-cemaes-ennill-gwobr/ Dw i'n teimlo anrhydedd anhygoel!

Diolch/ Thanks!