From student to tutor – passing on my Welsh inheritance

Many people will look back and say that 2020 was a defining year in their lives – but for me, it was 2008.

I went to a family gathering in NW Wales in February of that year.

My uncle and aunt were there with a variety of cousins too. My uncle was suffering from dementia, so he had lost his English.

The language kept reverting to Welsh, not out of any discourtesy, but because that's what the Welsh side of my family would normally speak.

I had a 'that's it, I'm going to learn Welsh' moment. So that next time we met, my Welsh cousins wouldn’t have to speak English for my benefit. 

I wanted to see how much Welsh was hard-wired into my brain from a childhood in Bangor.

Growing up, I listened to my father speaking Welsh with his family – my aunt and uncle used to call at our house for coffee on their way home to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch from shopping in Bangor. We would in turn go to their house in the afternoon to watch the rugby. My treat was to watch Basil Brush. Boom! Boom!

For part of my time in Bangor, we lived just off the campus of a Welsh medium teacher training college where my father was chaplain.

I would be sent to find him in the college at the end of the day, running along through the legs of students and the college cat, Sheba. I would often have to wait while he finished talking to other staff members. All Welsh!

My mother and I attended the college chapel every week, where she had the foresight to sit me right at the front, so I could see (and hear) everything.

Later we attended church services which were in Welsh on alternate weeks. My father would occasionally preach.

The day an ‘of course’ strayed into an otherwise totally Welsh event has outlived him! 

I would occasionally read aloud in church, and in assembly at school – coached by my father. 

I was keen to pass on the inheritance of sound and rhythm which my father passed on to me. To do it in his memory. And be the best I could.

I guess I count as one of the many feathers in City Lit’s cap – a student turned tutor.

I started on my own, with books, and joined a City Lit class after Easter.

I can't describe the insatiable hunger to be fluent, to connect with my roots, to be able to say that my father (long gone by then) had a Welsh-speaking daughter.

I did courses at Bangor University (in person and by post), and at Nant Gwrtheyrn, the Welsh Language Centre near Pwllheli, staying with a long-suffering cousin who wouldn't let me speak English (totally for my benefit ‘of course’).

I listened to radio Cymru and Welsh folk music and watched S4C. 

By 2010, I was a regular at the pub after the level 5 class at City Lit! (Big nod of gratitude here to Peter Humphreys, his encouragement and patience, and the rest of the class!)

In 2010 an opportunity emerged – to teach Welsh beginners at City Lit.

I tried hard to run away, begging for more time, but eventually agreed to be interviewed, fairly confident I'd be turned down. O, dear!

The rest of that year was a blur of Welsh exams and a teaching course.

I was keen to pass on the inheritance of sound and rhythm which my father passed on to me. To do it in his memory. And be the best I could.

I realise looking back that if I hadn’t taken that opportunity, the whole story would have been different, so thanks to those who booted me from behind!

I'm still at City Lit, having taught Welsh at, or through, City Lit for a decade!

And really enjoying introducing students to that peculiarly Welsh way of thinking and expressing ideas, and the quirkiness of mutations, which any Welsh student will tell you about!

I hope that my learning experience will help other students to navigate the grammatical complexities, as we explore Welsh prose, poetry, and song together.

I guess I count as one of the many feathers in City Lit’s cap – a student turned tutor. But to be fair, I'm not going to let City Lit take all the credit!

Many other people helped me on my journey, and to them I'm eternally grateful. 

Obviously, there is a degree of cold-blooded hard graft to learning any language.

It is said that it takes multiple repetitions to embed a new word into the memory and the physiology. To solder it onto your soul. Never mind learning and applying grammar rules and being idiomatic!

For adults, the parts of the brain needed to learn – as easily as children do, have long atrophied. So adults learn differently. They conscientiously acquire each building block and begin to connect and stack the blocks – inching closer to expressing the ideas they want to convey and experiencing the joy of being able to convey those concepts clearly, and the bright moments of understanding or connection.

There's intrigue and fun to be had as an adult learner too. Welsh has been given a certain amount of freedom to freewheel as a language – reflecting the rugged landscape, and the creativity and passion of the Celtic people. So I urge you to regard it as an art form and be patient with the shades of grey! Whatever your particular interest is, you can dive into it in Welsh, and for me, there is no need to learn another language – there is a lifetime’s worth of trails to follow!

Languages classes provide a useful structure to the learning, the companionship of classmates, and the support of a tutor – but they are not the only way forward.

A multi-pronged approach is required!

Lots of talking and listening with anyone who is willing (even the cat). listening to the radio or Welsh songs, lots of reading and writing. Once the ball is rolling, there is no end to the entertainment to be had, and the lasting friendships made.

Perversely, the financial crash in 2008 helped my Welsh learning considerably.

My day off nearly became my day on, so I spent all my time trying to work out how to unpick this beautiful and magical language, how to get the sound of it out of my head in any kind of meaningful shape.

Inheritance is all about passing on; maybe a windfall of time will crop up out of the blue for someone, or life will take an unexpected direction, and Welsh will charm and seduce as it has many others before. Often in life, seemingly insignificant things can be amazing catalysts, which ripple into the future in totally unexpected ways.