Forum Activity for @ceridwen-keeley

Spanner - monkey wrench

Went pear-shaped - went bad / turned bad (for a situation)

Biscuits - cookies

Shortbread - biscuits

Crumpet - English muffin

Rise - raise (paycheck)

Defence - defense

Offence - offense

"S" in place of "Z" in some words (I can usually rattle a few off but, have a brain cramp.)

British uses more -st words - amongst, amidst, whilst - while American tends to use only the non-st forms: among, amid, while. I hear there's a slight difference in meaning. Don't know what it is.

I'm using Say Something in Welsh, too. Very satisfied with the results so far. Once you start learning, with whatever program(s), I'd suggest listening to programming like BBC's Radio Cymru (available on-line), the various Welsh videos at YouTube, and finding Welsh-language songs you'd like to sing along with. Get used to the way the language sounds. I haven't checked in a while, but I vaguely recall some teaching vids for Welsh over at YouTube, too.

Just looked at the Rosetta Stone site. Welsh is no longer on their list, even at the UK site.

Doug, it looks like you may have identified a niche that hasn't been addressed. Personally, I won't be upset if you don't concentrate on choral singing and church services. Do you have a working website yet?

I don't think the problem is the internet, mobile society (most of us are in America because our pre-internet ancestors mobilated here), religion, or lack of it. IMO, a very large part of it is the image; another part, which might come across badly, is that European-rooted societies are perceived as being top dogs, not underdogs, so, therefore, their culture is not as at-risk as other, non-European, cultures. Another problem is that people think of Wales, as Roger said, as part of England and, therefore, English, not a separate culture or language, to be celebrated in their own right.

Image is everything. Image sells. So, we're the descendants of those western English, and the language is a dialect of English. The Irish were able to sway image through the difference in religion between England and the larger part of Ireland. The Irish publicized that they were persecuted for their minority beliefs, gaining sympathy. The Irish also have fun with their holidays - Christmas in Kilarney, St. Patrick's Day and green beer. On March 17, everybody's Irish, and proud of it. The Scottish have kilts, highlands, bagpipes, Braveheart, and Nessie and are, again, underdogs to the obviously culturally different English. OTOH, here sits Wales, aka "western England," only a tad bit more different from actual English than Cornwall. Anybody out there standing up for Cornish anything besides pasties?

And, add in historic politics. Those blue books, squelching the language, being "England's oldest colony," and having a nice place for people to retire, and you have a population of native Welsh trying more to belong to England than to be Wales and Welsh.

And, language. It doesn't help, in this day and age, when everything must be defnyddiol, useful , that this perception about Wales being an integrated part of England, linguistically and culturally, is out there, or that Welsh is "a dead language", meddan nhw, so they say . Why waste your time learning a dead language? (If you want to do that, learn one that's actually useful, like, oh, say, Latin. /sarcasm.) My nearest and dearest, whom I love to death, insist that Welsh is incidental to the real world, the language is nice if you want a hobby, but if you want to get ahead, learn Spanish, or German, or French.

The problem seems, to me, to change those perceptions on the broader scale, to make pride in one's ancestry into, well, something to be proud of, to make it okay to learn Welsh, or anything else, for the sheer joy of learning, not for what it can do for you.

And, for the mobile society, with geotagging just a click on the phone, get together. If you belong to AmeriCymru, and you're in a strange city, PM another member and have an impromptu meet. Or, set it up beforehand, to fit around both schedules.

IMO, you don't need regular meetings, or if you do, make them fun. Meet for coffee or for a night out playing pool or tennis or whatever. Have a Parents With Kids afternoon. You don't have to sit in a stuffy old meeting hall listening to boring speakers and planning the next Jumbo White Elephant Sale. Make activities for all age groups, and meet outside of the hall. I think we've had enough examples of members either energizing or killing off a group, mentioned here. I think it's true.

There are some Welsh societies or groups on FaceBook and Twitter. The problem may be that people don't think of doing a search for Welsh groups at those sites. It's diametrically opposed to the traditional idea of Welsh societies.

Myself, I'm looking for a southern, east-coast, somewhat close, group that puts on a Gymanfa. I'm Athiest, but I love the singing.

I have no idea why younger people these days don't want to contiue with the link. It really gets me down, sometimes. My kids and grandkids don't seem to care about the connection. I've run out of ideas to get them interested.

Could the church ties be partially influenced by the Welsh religious revival of a century ago? A lot of societies got ex-pats from that era.

Late to the discussion but, I'm learning Welsh. Like Datblygu, SFA, John ac Alun, Bryn Fon, Brigyn, etc. My kids tell me I'm listening to Indie - sounds more like rock / folk rock to me (depends on the group - J&A can sound very country, look up Hei, Anita.)