I saw an ad for extras in a Welsh TV show that was advertised and decided to put my name down for it. After learning Welsh, it’s not that straightforward finding opportunities to use it. I’m lucky really with Garth Newydd and spending one in every three weekends in Lampeter, I probably have more opportunities than lots of people who have learned Welsh but less than people who live in strong Welsh language areas. Outside bore coffi groups, it takes a little bit of effort and confidence to use one’s Welsh. With this in mind, I saw an opportunity and I took it. I don’t want to spoil anything and being relatively careful, I don’t think I will. However, I’d rather be extra careful so forgive me if I’m vague about the details in places.
I was expecting to hear a week before and when that date passed, I decided that I could do without a long drive to Wales anyway, then I got the email two days before. The email was completely in Welsh and advised that I would need to be in the make-up department at 9.30 and then at the court at 10. It also suggested we were to dress smart as it was to be filmed in a court. I dug out my suit and shoes, both of which hadn’t had an outing since the last wedding that I attended. The night before, I decided to drive to a town around an hour away and stay in a hotel, it was my intention to get out and about in the town and speak some Welsh but the day got later and later. Despite the town I stayed in being quite Welsh-speaking, sadly the hotel owners had strong English accents and answered my Shmae with Alrite mate. It had gotten quite late by I arrived and any ideas I had of mingling were over due to tiredness and I pretty much went straight to bed.
It’s quite normal for me to not realise my suit doesn’t fit for the next wedding until the morning of the latest one. The trousers fitted but the Jacket didn’t, but I didn’t have any options at 8am an hour away from where I was supposed to be, so set off hoping it would be ok and I could just leave the jacket open. On arriving at the makeup department, I waited in the car until 9.25. From the car, I saw a couple of the characters from TV arrive and head into the building. It’s quite strange seeing people you know from TV, I don’t get excited about much but at this point, I was really looking forward to the day ahead. I headed in to be greeted by a lady speaking Half English and Half Welsh. I’m not sure if that was her style of Welsh or whether she did that to cover all bases with Welsh and English speakers coming as extras. It was at this point, I was told I was to be the Clerk of the court.
There were 5 others who had been chosen for extra parts that were a bit more important than just being in the public Gallery. Unbeknown to me at the time, we would meet all the others doing those roles later. Two of the people with me were to be the barristers, one lady to be the usherette, one lady I’m unsure of her role and one gentleman to be a policeman plus myself. We were told to get a cup of tea and I was taken through to be given my outfit. Back in the room, I had a brief chat with a gentleman in Welsh about where we were from and so on. Two of the girls who came together were doing that kind of whispering you might do with a friend in a dentist waiting room. I don’t think I would have understood/heard if it was in English. Next, the lady sitting next to me spoke to me in English. It crossed my mind that she was either English or was suitably unimpressed by my Welsh that she felt sorry for me and spoke Engish. I asked her later, do you speak Welsh and she replied “second language” and carried on in English. I regret not asking more really.
I arrived at the court at the scheduled time, we had to go through the metal detectors, and wait for a while. Some of the actors arrived and were walking around. I knew all of them by sight. Some filming was happening upstairs and half an hour later, I was, along with a couple of others taken upstairs. On entering the court, we lined up. Everything was conducted in Welsh. I was concentrating hard, I didn’t want to break the continuity of the Welsh because sometimes once you do, you will always be treated like a learner. Once you ask one thing to be clarified, you can experience having everything explained to you like you don’t speak Welsh at all. I didn’t want that to happen but at the same time, I knew there were important things going on or being said. At this point someone said “Ti ydy’r person efo’r linell?”
“Sori?”
“Mae gen ti linell i ddweud”
Oh my goodness, no-one said anything about this, I thought. And then I started worrying about what the line was going to be. Despite the length of time that I have been learning Welsh there are simply some things I cannot say. I could try ten times and still fail to say certain words right, so I would just avoid them but I’ve just been told that I have got a line and all I can think about is, hopefully I can say it and how long is it? Fortunately, I found out within three or four minutes that the line was “Llys i godi” (Court to rise). Llys i godi, yeh I’ve got that no problem, no one mentioned the English but I noticed the mutation and was happy with my line. I racked my brains about how I could mess it up but I couldn’t see any potential slip-ups, my Ll’s have always been good. It was at that point that they directed me to the front of the court. Not to the front of the side of the court, to the FRONT of the front of the court. The judge (proper actor) was sitting above me, on the first row in front of me were the two barristers and the other lady, and then 8 famous Welsh TV actors all lined up looking at me. I don’t really get nervous, I always say after doing stand-up in the past, nothing is ever as hard as that. However, my brain was in overdrive. Do I have to say “Llys I --- Godi” or is it “Llys ----- i godi” what if when I stand up the seat rolls back and it’s not there when I sit down? Will I sound convincingly Welsh? What else can I do to make Llys i godi sound more Welsh than I think it might sound coming out of me? It’s strange for me, some people say nice things about my Welsh accent, and some say I sound like I’m from Ruthin or Denbigh which is 40 miles deeper into Wales than the place I’m from so I see that as an achievement. However, when you speak a second language, you always feel like you are faking something or going to be found out or asked where you are from. I do anyway. Whatever my brain was telling me, I was managing to ignore it and was pretty confident about my line.
Well that was until the director came and dumped a whole load of new pressure on me. No, my line wasn’t the start of something, it was the end of something. I wasn’t just going to stand up and say it and then things happened, meaning if I got it wrong, I would be the only person to go again. No, three people had to enter the court and sit down two were already sitting down, one was late and had to go to the usherette and be usheretted to her seat. When she sat down, I was told to count to 4 in my head then stand and deliver my line and the court including the actors were to stand. We had a little practice which went well, and then the camera started rolling and off everyone went. It was a bit strange waiting for everyone to get into place and I wasn’t sure if I should count to 4 in Welsh just to make sure my brain was tuned into Welsh but I decided not to. One, two, three four “Llys i godi” wow that was great. Job done. Well, I didn’t realise at the time that the scene gets filmed from 5 different angles including one where the Camera points straight at me. With each practice, I ended up saying Llys I godi about 10 times. All of the actors seemed lovely I didn’t pluck up courage to mix with them. I chatted in Welsh to the judge and to one of the other extras and generally had a great day. I also got to see how filming works and I think I wouldn’t fancy being an actor as a job, there was a lot of hanging about for everyone. Unfortunately, it could be between 4-6 months until the programme comes out but it will be fun seeing it for sure.
What has this got to do with learning Welsh? Well apart from making you braver, I wanted to show an example of what goes on in our heads, versus what comes out of our mouths and compare it to what’s going on when you speak Welsh. A good comedian makes it look like they are just making it up on the spot but 90% of the time it is a script that they have learned. It may wander off occasionally, but they will generally come back to that script. Sadly, that hilarious trip to the vet last Tuesday that they are telling you about has been happening every Tuesday for a year or more. So, with the script solidly learned into one’s mind, one steps onto the stage of the Golden Lion in Chelmsford to a round of apathetic applause and begin to deliver the performance. As you work through your script, the performance voice wanders through the hilarious story whilst the critical voice (nod to spiritual guru Eckhart Tolle) chats away in your mind. Inside your head, whilst telling your hilarious stories, jokes, and observations, a little voice quickly says things like “The woman in the front row is scowling”, “oh no that joke normally goes down better” “Concentrate” “Oh this isn’t going well” “oh thank God, a laugh” “how long’s left”. What’s important to our speaking Welsh analogy is that the audience doesn’t hear this. All they hear is what leaves your mouth. If you imagine that voice as being on a wheel, the faster it goes and the louder it becomes the more chance you have of completely falling off, losing your track, forgetting your lines, and dying on stage. Watching a comedian die on stage, you don’t see that wheel of critical voice but I bet it’s happening every time. Controlling the noise that goes on in your head and delivering your performance is an important part of being a comedian and it’s an important part of speaking another language.
The first time I spoke Welsh out loud in the flesh was in Llanrwst Eisteddfod 2019. I went there with 6 months of Say Something in Welsh learning behind me, ready to take on the world. After a few basic orders of food and drink, I bumped into someone I knew from the SSIW hangouts and I had my first Welsh chat. As the Welsh words were leaving my mouth, my internal voice was saying “Omg, I’m doing it, I’m doing it, just keep going”. I fondly remember that chat and this year I was lucky enough to see Bronwen again and we chatted freely having both improved our Welsh dramatically.
When we speak Welsh, this is an example of what might happen as we try to create a sentence “I was going to go to the supermarket, yesterday”
“O’n i’n mynd i’r ……….. archfarchnad, ddoe”
The person hearing us simply heard the sentence with a slight pause, it may have been a big pause bordering on awkward but they will know you are a learner and allow for these pauses, particularly if they are a learner themselves. Congratulations, you have just delivered a perfect sentence in Welsh.
What you heard in your head might have been something like
O’n i’n mynd i’r (oh god what’s supermarket, its arch something isn’t it Arch angel is it, no don’t be silly, oh come on come on, oh archfarchnad that’s it say archfarchnad) arfachnad ddoe. (oh god thank god, did I say that right.
The important bit is that YOU JUST DELIVERED A PERFECT SENTENCE IN WELSH OUT LOUD albeit with a slight pause before the word Archfarchnad. I may have over-exaggerated what went on in your head it might have been more like “O’n i’n mynd i’r (oh what is it) archfarchnad, ddoe” or it may have been ever worse. It may have broken down completely until your listener guessed the word archfarchnad but the point still stands, what ever came out of your mouth was better than what you heard in your head. Sometimes you will nearly say a wrong word before realising the correct word and feel like you are making all kinds of mistakes but remember unless you say them out loud no one except you heard them. The people who hear your Welsh do not hear all the other things that are going on in your head while you create your Welsh. Trust yourself and this idea that you are speaking better Welsh than you think you are.
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Have you ever been the first person to use Cymraeg without knowing if the other person in the shop or the street speaks it? Perhaps you say “Bore da” to everyone as your standard greeting or always say “Diolch” on receipt of your change in a shop or do you think ‘no one really speaks Welsh round here’ ‘they look too young to speak Welsh’ or ‘oh it’s going to be awkward if I ask and they say no’. I had a couple of strange situations happen when I’ve asked “Wyt ti’n siarad Cymraeg?”. These have ranged from not understanding what I said or that I was even speaking Welsh, to a simple no sorry normally accompanied by one of the standard reasons why they don’t. I won’t list them here, but if you start asking people ‘Do you speak Welsh?’, you will soon hear the top 3 or 4 reasons why people don’t speak Welsh. I recently asked a lady in a Welsh-speaking town “Wyt ti’n siarad Cymraeg?” she replied “tipyn bach” I replied “o da iawn, wyt ti eisiau ymarfer efo fi” which was met with a blank face “oh very good, would you like to practice with me” I translated.
“Not really” came the reply.
I have mentioned this before but I feel that I must mention it here again. This is the reason I say never answer “tipyn bach” when someone asks you “Wyt ti’n siarad Cymraeg?” it’s a conversation killer as it is also used by lots of people as a defence mechanism to mean they know a handful of words and want to be left alone. A much better answer for a serious learner would be something like “Ydw, dw i’n dysgu Cymraeg ar hyn o bryd” or for the really confident “Ydw, dw i’n siarad Cymraeg”.
I have recently been staying in a hotel in Cardiff quite regularly and I’ve just started asking the staff if they speak Welsh as I was hoping to find one that I could have a little chat with when I’m there. On the last two occasions, I have asked the question in English, with the view to flipping into Welsh as soon as they say yes. I’m undecided at the moment if this is the correct thing to do. It seems to be less awkward when the answer is no. Last week the young gentleman at the coffee bar replied “No, I’m English with a Welsh accent and the name Rhys on his badge”. Whilst I waited for my coffee, I pondered if he was actually English born and moved to Wales, hence the accent or had simply said that to justify not speaking Welsh.
Asking people Do you speak Welsh? in English or Welsh, definitely creates some unusual moments. I recently asked the guy serving coffee on the M4 services near Cardiff. He said he didn’t speak Welsh so I asked has anyone had ever asked him for a coffee in Welsh and he said no, which really surprised me. Loads of Welsh youngsters must have heard “Ga i“ in school and would know what to do if someone said Ga i Latte os gwelwch yn dda.
At the moment (it could change at any point) my stance is in the language strongholds of Wales I will ask in Welsh and elsewhere I will ask in English but I am going to push myself to ask more, to risk using Cymraeg in places that appear 100% English. Six months ago, whilst in Pen-y-Bont ar ogwr (Bridgend) I met a friend in the pub. I bought the first round in English and he went back and bought his round from the same barman in Welsh, all because he was more determined in looking to speak Welsh. A friend of mine has started using the words 'bach' and 'mawr' when ordering in chip shops or cafes and using her hands to show small or large, this recently triggered a great chat in Welsh plus other chats about the Welsh language.
Over the summer around 45 people stayed with us in Garth Newydd to practise their Welsh. One gentleman Peter really struck me with his attitude during his stay. He had only been learning Welsh less than two years but he was well ahead of where someone would normally be. He had a couple of his own reasons but the one thing that stayed with me is that everywhere he went, he greeted people in Cymraeg. Peter came from an area where hearing Welsh wasn’t that common but every day when he went out walking he greeted people with "Bore da" and it paid off. He had managed to come to know lots of Welsh speakers in his area, made friends and had regular opportunities to practice and it showed in his Welsh. The other thing that I thought was nice is that he said often people who couldn’t speak Welsh enjoyed hearing it being used anyway or would reply Bore da even if they had no more Welsh than that.
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