From: johansc@hedda.uio.no (Johan Schimanski)
Subject: Re: help learning Welsh
Followup-To: soc.culture.celtic
Organization: Comparative Literature - Oslo
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 21:07:42 GMT

In article <librik.713864304@cory.Berkeley.EDU>, librik@cory.Berkeley.EDU
(David Librik) wrote:
> All the colleges of the University of Wales have Welsh departments.
> Bangor's does not really cater to the non-Welsh speaker, though --
> however, the EXTRAMURAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT offers "wlpan" (intensive
> Welsh-learning courses).  If you really want to write to the Welsh
> Department at Bangor, write to the "Adran Gymraeg"; the "Ysgol Gymraeg"
> is likely to end up at the grammar school down on Ffridd road...
> Try Aberystwyth's Welsh department if you want to do a university course
> on Welsh as a non-Welsh speaker.
> 

"Wlpan" courses are offered all over Wales. The Welsh Education committee
has published a pamphlet called "Dysgu Cymraeg? - All you need to know
about Learning  Welsh" which has a lot of addresses. Write to:

Cyd-bwyllgor Addysg Cymru
245 Rhodfa'r Gorllewin
Caerdydd CF5 2YX
Cymru


> >As for dictionaries and language books:
> >'Spurrell's Welsh-English Dictionary', edited by J. Bodvan Anwyl
> Not very good.  It's about all you can find in your local mall
> bookstore, though.
> 
> >'Y Geiriadur Mawr (The Large Dictionary)'  (which is Welsh-Welsh)
> It is Welsh-English, English-Welsh, as a matter of fact!  Definitely the
> best dictionary, though a bit unwieldy.  What you really want as a
> learner is a more compact version, called Y GEIRIADUR NEWYDD, also
> published by Christopher Davis.
> 
> Somebody else mentioned Y GEIRIADUR CYFOES -- this is nothing more than
> a word-list and doesn't deserve the name "dictionary".
> 

The only good dictionary in Welsh is the GEIRIADUR PRIFYSGOL CYMRU (the
Welsh University Dictionary) - unfortunately, it weighs a ton, and only
covers words from "a" to "obo" at the present time (new parts arrive
regularly). One day they promise to publish a complete CD-ROM version, but
I don't see it happening before the next century. Next time somebody starts
editing a Welsh dictionary (Welsh-English/English-Welsh), they should take
a look at a REAL dictionary - even the tiny Collins/Hachette
French-English/English-French includes thousands of examples, different
uses of each word explained, irregular verb-forms as heading words,
irregular plurals as heading-words, the gender of the French nouns even in
the English-French list...).
        Personally, I have a heavily annotated version of the new 1991
edition of the Collins-Spurrell Welsh Dictionary.

The Welsh Books Council/Cyngor Llyfrau Cymraeg has a couple of leaflets on
materials for learning Welsh: "Rhestr ddethol o ddeunyddiau ar gyfer
dysgu'r Gymraeg/Select list of materials for learning Welsh" by Miranda
Morton & "Rhestr ddethol o lyfrau addas i ddysgwyr/A select list of books
for Welsh learners" by Jo Knell. Write to:

Cyngor Llyfrau Cymraeg
Castell Brychan
Abersytwyth
Dyfed
Cymru

The Oriel bookshop in Caerdydd (Cardiff) has a similar brochure - they also
sell books by mail order:

Oriel
Heol Ty'r Brodyr
Caerdydd
Cymru

There is a magazine for Welsh learners, PRENTIS:

Gwasf Taf
99 Heol Woodville
Cathays
Caerdydd
Cymru

it's almost a Welsh course in itself - each issue starts with material for
beginners, and ends with quite advanced stuff. So with each issue you
progress a little further.

One of the most famous Welsh language learning centres is the

Canolfan Iaith Genedlaethol
Nant Gwrtheyrn
Llithfaen
Pwllheli
Gwynedd LL53 6PA
tel. Llithfaen (+44-75 885) 334/335

They are quite cheap, and open all the year round (I spent 20 days there in
February a couple of years back, and got individual tutorship for much of
the time, being one of the few people there at that time of year). Their
Prospectus 1992-93 contains info on their own courses and a lot of info on
other courses in Wales (also correspondance-courses).

I checked the back page of Y Drych - given to me by an old lady from LA at
the Eisteddfod in Aberystwyth a few weeks ago - but I didn't see any
listings for Welsh courses in Virginia. Each Sunday there's a Welsh class
in Washington DC, and there was a Welsh course at Waukesha, Wisconsin July
25-Aug 2.

Pob lwc!

     - Iwan

Johan Schimanski             johansc@hedda.uio.no
pb.1015 Blindern               N-0315 OSLO, Norway
+47-2-18 38 00                    +47-2-85 40 37
my love is like a liquid    it flow fitful day and night
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