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I come from Scotland, and the
Gaelic language is almost dead.
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No one speaks Gaelic in the village I’m from
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and when I moved to Wales, to Anglesey,
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I didn’t know the Welsh language existed.
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So, I decided that it was important for me to
learn the language
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and keep the language going strong,
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I don’t want it to die out like the language in Scotland is going.
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You only really hear Gaelic
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spoken on the islands, really.
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So I decided, right, I live in Wales,
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they have their own language, and
this is the language
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I want to learn.
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I met my husband, Siôn,
and his first language is Welsh
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and I could see
that it was difficult for him to talk
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to me in English.
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So I decided that I was going to learn
Welsh, and we made it fun
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because I’ve never had a
Welsh lesson.
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We just put sticky
notes around the house with the words
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I used every day.
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I learnt the alphabet, how to pronounce
the letters.
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Watching S4C, trying to use the
subtitles with S4C.
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And just talking to people,
just to try to have a little confidence
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to have a conversation with them.
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I’ve enjoyed learning the
language and I’m still learning now.
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I’ve raised seven children
in Welsh.
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The whole family is Welsh.
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I just see it as really important, it’s
the language of the country and it's
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important to try to keep the
language going.
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important to try to keep the
language going.
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I find that when I go into work
in the morning,
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I can sit down with people who are
first language Welsh speakers
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and they open up more to you.
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They’re more relaxed with you.
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They’re able to have a more personal conversation
with you because they’re not worried
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about how they’re going to switch from
Welsh to English
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and I see this as very important.
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If you go into someone’s house
and their first language is Welsh,
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why should they have to switch
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to speaking English in their own house?
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I’ve had a positive response from people and
they’re so pleased I’ve
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learnt Welsh and it’s a big deal for them, you
can see their eyes
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widen and they say, “what, really?”
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Yes, people are just proud and happy.
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I remember once I was working on shift for Betsi
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Cadwaladr Health Board and a man was supposed
to be going home that day
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but there was a problem
with transportation or something,
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so an English speaking nurse
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went to tell him “you’re not going home today.”
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He was a Welsh speaker, and he didn’t understand
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why he wasn’t able to go home.
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So he became really angry in his room.
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And then they asked me to go in and
explain to him why he wasn’t going home,
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and then he started to settle
down and understand why.
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And just think, if someone who spoke his
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first language had gone in initially
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and told him why, and explained everything properly,
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it would have been a completely different
situation, I think.
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It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake.
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I think, just go for it.
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As I say to people I meet,
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I still have problems with mutations and things like that,
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that I still can’t get my head round.
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But it doesn't matter, I’m still able to have
conversations with people every day.
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I’d like to see myself still going back into the community,
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because it’s really important for me
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to try and get more people in health and social care
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to speak Welsh.
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It’s important for me to be an inspiration
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for people and try and get more people
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to see how I’ve learnt Welsh
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and get more people to be like me and just
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understand that the people they’re looking after
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their first language is Welsh and respect that.
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I would just like to get more people speaking Welsh.