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Post by criswell on Mar 26, 2022 23:53:21 GMT
I will see if I can think of anything Hezz. I don't watch much British TV although will often watch period dramas. I mostly watch American and Canadian shows - lots of sci-fi and most of that is ten or more years old. I've been catching up with shows that I missed. like A Town Called Eureka which was good fun and quite silly. I know Line of Duty was very popular here but I've not seen it. I'll see what else I can think of. We used to get lots of Australian TV when I was a kid - The Sullivans, A Country Practice, Young Doctors, Neighbours, Home and Away. My mum still watches Home and Away. I quite liked Round the Twist even though I was a bit older than the target audience.
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Post by Hezz on Mar 27, 2022 1:01:31 GMT
How odd, because i don’t watch much Aussie drama, well reality is that I don’t watch much TV at all and when I do it is most often British series of the sort that I’ve mentioned. . And all very much like the sorts of books I read, so I’m not very diverse.
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Post by criswell on Oct 7, 2022 8:07:20 GMT
I have just finished all the lessons in the Duolingo Welsh course. I can only remember a fraction of what I have learn so I need to revise and practice. I've been learning for 2 years and I've really enjoyed it. I don't plan to speak Welsh but I hope to be able to read it properly and to understand Welsh when I hear it. There are still far too many words that I don't know so I need to expand my vocabulary, and there are more tenses to learn. According to Duolingo I have now completed foundation and intermediate Welsh, so once I've properly revised and learnt both of those I shall be moving on to advanced but I don't think I'll be ready for that for quite a while. At the end of the course I got a trophy with a cute little animation
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Post by jellybean on Oct 7, 2022 8:34:38 GMT
Well done criswell 🌟 The only language I ever wanted to learn was Spanish. When I was at school the options were French/German, I chose French, but had no interest in learning either. I started an online Spanish course similar to yours but felt I didn't now have the attention span needed. I can barely sometimes remember what day of the week it is 🤪😂😂
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Post by criswell on Oct 7, 2022 12:16:28 GMT
Thanks jellybean or I should really say diolch. We get so much bilingual mail and leaflets, it will make me really happy if I'm ever able to read the Welsh version as easily as the English. I've not been able to do that in another language even though I learnt some french and german at school.
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Post by tweetiepiesmom on Oct 7, 2022 15:07:30 GMT
I took German in school mostly because that's my ancestry on both my father's and mother's sides. I remember very little of it. Its been on my mind to learn Spanish because so many people here speak it but have yet to do it.
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Post by criswell on Oct 7, 2022 18:34:11 GMT
tweetiepiesmom you should have a go at learning Spanish. I'm sure you will enjoy. I recommend Duolingo.It's free and well paced, with lots of repetition, and the level of progression is good. When you start a new topic it gives you all the words to put in the right order and builds up to you have to write the translation by yourself. There are writen sentences to translate as well as spoken ones too. The writen ones have a voice over as well.
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Post by ariella on Oct 7, 2022 23:12:20 GMT
Well done criswell, that’s a real achievement as the Welsh language looks so complex. How is your accent?
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Post by criswell on Oct 8, 2022 10:35:44 GMT
Thanks ariella . My accent isn't great! There are some welsh sounds which are so hard to do with an English accent. I'm far to nervous/shy to speak Welsh to anyone in Welsh. I was talking Welsh to Dexter the other day and he seemed to like it. He was very chirpy
Welsh is the most complex language I've learnt but I have enjoyed the challenge. Still so much more to learn though.
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Post by ariella on Oct 9, 2022 20:38:35 GMT
Thanks great ariella . My accent isn't great! There are some welsh sounds which are so hard to do with an English accent. I'm far to nervous/shy to speak Welsh to anyone in Welsh. I was talking Welsh to Dexter the other day and he seemed to like it. He was very chirpy
Welsh is the most complex language I've learnt but I have enjoyed the challenge. Still so much more to learn though. Yes, those sounds were what I was thinking of and I wondered if you were taught any methods to try and make them. I’ve never been able to roll my R’s and at school I found it a disadvantage in language lessons and it really put me off and made me self-conscious. I think Welsh is beautifully lyrical (if that’s the right word to explain it ) and so the sing-song aspect probably appealed to Dexter. Perhaps he’ll start talking Welsh! I think it’s an amazing achievement taking on such a complex language to learn.
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Post by criswell on Oct 10, 2022 14:44:16 GMT
Thank you again ariella. There are techniques - for the ll- you have to put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth, just behind your front teeth and blow while saying l. The ch- is hard too - a bit like clearing your throat and hissing. The technique is to have the back of your tongue touching the roof of your mouth and breath out. Chwech (welsh for six) is very hard for me to say. There are lots of youtube videos that are helpful. I've been practicing rolling my Rs and I can do it independenly of a word but it's much harder to roll an r in the middle of saying a word. When I do manage it there is too much rolling which is apparently a common problem for new Welsh speakers. Dexter will probably hear me speak Welsh more than anyone else. I do say things in Welsh to David (OH) too but he doesn't want to talk in Welsh with me. He knows some Welsh after teaching it as a supply teacher for a few months (even though he's not a Welsh speaker) and he did a couple of weekend courses as a professional development target. He can speak English with a really good Welsh accent though, even though he's from Brighton. He's really good at voices. I've never been a very good mimic.
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Post by ariella on Oct 10, 2022 18:07:24 GMT
Super-tricky! I’d be useless at that. I find some African languages fascinating when they make a series of clicks within their vocabulary. I can’t mimic either, though when my youngest was absolutely obsessed with The Simpsons a few years ago, I could do a mean Marge Simpson.
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Post by criswell on Oct 11, 2022 22:27:35 GMT
I once did the best 'bleah' noise that sounded exactly like him. I've never been able to repeat it.
The !Kung (from western edge of the Kalahari) have clicks in their language. The ! stands for the click. I was fascinated by their language when David was learning about them on his Social Anthropology degree.
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Post by samwiseg on Oct 12, 2022 9:03:57 GMT
Wow well done criswell! To complete a course on Duolingo I am impressed! Am currently learning French on Duolingo, highly recommend it because its free and you can learn at your own pace. Have been doing it for over 2 years now, god! That's flown by! Just love how Lockdown has opened up the world of language for some people, was only saying in a message just now how lockdown changed peoples routines so much hence why I think some people may not get time to come on the forum as often. Its sad, but life moves on I suppose
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