Customer Reviews

Colloquial Welsh: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is THE outstanding book for anyone who whants to learn Welsh. It consists of 16 chapters, each one of them containing dialouges, readings, grammar, excersices, vocabularies and descriptions of Wales and of Welsh culture. It is easy to follow, and by the end of it you will be able to converse for hours with Welsh-speakers. (I dear to say this since I myself went to Wales after completing this course and spoke no English for three weeks...) The emphasis is, of course, on the spoken language, and within this area it is beyond doubt the best Welsh course available. I highly recommend it.

I would say that this is the best package on the market, but I have only tried this one and Teach Yourself; I found this one to be far superior. I first started learning Welsh with the Teach Yourself progam, and I was very happy with it, bu then I reached a point in my learning where I needed to have a larger amount of (more advanced) resources at my disposal. I had heard many good things about this program, so I decided to buy it. It has proved to be an invaluable resource to me.

This program goes far more in depth that Teach Yourself did. It gives you a much greater vocabulary, more phrases and idiomatic expressions (I learned how to say "Shut up" in Welsh today), and explains many more grammar points (I'd say twice as many) as T.Y. did. The dialogues are also far more entertaining (Gareth King has a very good sense of humor) and the speaker's voices are far more engaging (dare I say the male voices are pretty sexy). The speakers in Colloquial Welsh have a variety of accents from all over Wales, where those in T.Y.W. have the same accent. Also, the Northern and Southern ways of speaking are introduced and practiced simultaneously in Colloquial Welsh, giving you greater versatility in the language. T.Y.W. uses (pretty much wholly) the Southern way of speaking; I remember it glossing over the Northern way of forming the posessive (gen i, gynnoch chi, etc.) in the beginning of the book but preceding to use the Southern construction (gyda fi/ 'da fi, etc.) in all of the dialouges. I got accustomed to this so I'm kind of uncomfortable with the N. way. [but then again I haven't really bothered to learn it because that would confuse me right now]) Also, this program offers interactive audio excercises, something that I have found very useful.

One major difference between C.W. and T.Y.W. is that the former introduces both colloquial and literary forms of speaking, where the latter gives you only the literary forms. Among other things, I would have never known that "roeddwn" and "roedden" are abbreviated to "o'n" is speech (well, I've never been to Wales so I'll have to take their word for it).

I came back to my T.Y.W. tapes tonight after about a month or two, and I didn't realise it until after I used the Colloquial program - the speakers in T.Y.W. slow down their speech for ease of comprehension, which doesn't help in the long run if you want to be able to speak and comprehend at a level of complete fluency (which I'd like to get as close to as possible). After listeneing to the normal cadence and speed of spoken Welsh with the Colloquial program, I realised that, if I were to get into a conversation with a Welshman/Welshwoman and the Teach Yourself CDs were the only Welsh audio I had ever heard, I would be very ill-prepared for conversation for several reasons - those being speed and the variations in accent, grammar, and vocabulary. The book is a little better-constructed too; my Teach Yourself book started falling apart after three weeks of (albeit pretty heavy) use. I'm pretty sure Colloquial Welsh is printed on acid-free paper, and it's a bound a bit better.

I'm not knocking T.Y.W. at all; it's a good program and I did learn a great deal from it - I'm just heavily praising this one. If you're looking to spend money on only one teach-yourself Welsh audio program, let this be it. If you're going to buy both anyway, I would get T.Y.W. first, and then get this one later on, as T.Y.W. does a bit of a better job introsucing and easing you into the language. I can see how one might get a bit confused with the way Gareth King introduces you to Welsh. I'm currently also studying from the grammar workbooks "Basic Welsh" and "Intermediate Welsh" by Gareth King - these have helped me out immensly and I do highly reccommend them to anyone who wants to build a solid foundation in Welsh. The only thing I lack is firsthand practice of the language (I live in the U.S.), but I'm planning on going to Wales in the next few years to see the country and practice Welsh, and I'd like to get as fluent as I can before I go. Even if I don't go, I'm still having fun learning all the same.

One more thing: Welsh is a confusing language, at first. You're going to start off (with both of the aforementioned programs) learning some canned phrases, and you're just going to have to trust them because, as a complete beginner, it would launch you into overload if they threw all the literal interpretations and grammatical reasoning at you in the beginning. If Gareth King tells you that "Mae'n dda gen i gwrdd a chi" means "Nice to meet you" in the first chapter then just roll with it because it'll all make sense to you soon enough. Persistence is key.

Pob hwyl!

So, where do you start to learn an ancient language? We acquired our own language by listening, and we began a second language in school by study of the written word. The second language never takes full seed until we have the opportunity to hear it and use it. This book and cassette combination is an ideal way begin learning a second language to the same degree that we each speak our native tongue. Gareth King has nailed the foundation beautifully. Admittedly, he makes few allowances for the slow, but in fact he plunges the student into a listening situation, through the cassettes, that would be similar to immersion in Wales itself. When backed up by the analytical approach in the book, this is a sure-fire course for the serious student.

Welsh is a confusing language. Period. I speak almost fluent French, some German and Spanish but I must admit that Welsh is the "major league" of languages. I'm heading over to Wales for a few weeks in about a month and I wanted to brush up on the language in case I got lost and needed directions.

At about the beginning of the tape, the orator mentions that he wants you to listen closely to the Welsh language and that confusion at first is normal until after many listening experiences. Immediately following there are several conversations on the tape with people speaking Welsh very quickly. I think the idea was that you should pretend you are sitting in a cafe in Wales and listening to all these different conversations. Deciphering what they are saying is like a puzzle left to the reader.

Unfortunately, Mr. King neglects to give you much grammar or vocabulary at the beginning. For example, after many repetitions I learned to say "Maen dda gen i gwrd a chi" which means "Pleased to meet you". Thanks to the tape I learned how to pronounce it perfectly. However, ask me what any of those words mean and I haven't a clue (except maybe 'chi' which I deduced meant 'you'). Even the brief dictionary in the back didn't help. In the same chapter he then describes the names of all the different occupations. How about simple conjugations of the verb 'to be'? I'll learn the occupations after I know how to say, "Where is the supermarket?"

All in all, this is an important book however since the pronounciation of the Welsh language is so difficult and counter intuitive. It is important to learn how to pronounce a foreign language correctly the first time around because once it becomes ingrained it's very hard to unlearn it. I recommend you buy a more fundamental book however to complement this one, especially if you've had no exposure to the language before.

I gave this book 4 stars because of the authors emphasis on correct pronounciation and modern-day dialects.

Welsh is the traditional language of all Britain (south of the Highlands) before the coming of the "German" Saxons. It is also the language of King Arthur, Merlin and many other tales. This lends Welsh a quite mystic and emotional feel, further enhanced by being spoken in the mountain regions of Welsh. Thus, Welsh is a very ancient cultural language. However, it is also a very healthy modern language, being used in all spheres of modern life in Wales.

I first started to learn Welsh using some other books, but as soon as I began with this book I realised that it was superior to the others. True, the first two or three chapters could be a bit more organised, but apart from that the book has got it all. The grammar is very well explained and the learner really gets to know every aspect of the grammar of spoken Welsh. All lessons have got some dialouges with extensive word-lists and a lot of excersises. As the icing on the cake, you also get an introduction to different aspects of Wales and Welsh in every chapter, with short introductions about dialects, eisteddfodau, Welsh politics etc.

I have visited Welsh a number of times, and I have found that this book has helped me a lot. I have been able to communicate extensively with Welsh speakers, I have taken part in cultural activities in Welsh, I have been able to read the Welsh epics.

Of course, to really learn a language you have to speak it with its native speakers, but this book is the best tutor you could get and I do not doubt the Finnish reader below who says that he went to Wales and communicated in Welsh after completing this excellent course.

OK, one thing I must concede is that Welsh is a difficult language to try to teach and learn. However, I feel this program could be better, needs to be better. I haven't finished the program, I'm not even halfway through. Already I have been confused by the incongruence between the recordings and the book, answers in the back of the book that seem to contradict the lessons, and poor organization of the information on the page, especially for visual types like me, the book is a mess! Also, there are apparently two different Welshes - northern Welsh and southern Welsh. The two Welshes use different common expressions and words. This book throws it all at you at once, and it's too confusing to try to separate whether you are speaking northern or southern. It would have been much better to concentrate on one at a time.

I think this could be a good program with better editing - perhaps they will update.

I have to say that this is the best instructional book I've ever seen for any language!