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Friday, August 4, 2017

How To Learn Easy Welsh Words: bath, coffee, park, party - and make a language bag

Problem
I am too tired to learn Welsh words. Let's just learn some easy ones, which are instantly recognizable.

Answer

Welsh - English
bath - bath
car - car
coffi - coffee
parc - park
parti - party

English - Welsh
bath - bath
car - car
coffee - coffi
park - parc
party - parti

Now you can recognize the signs for bath, coffee and park and an invitation to a party. We are all set for a weekend in Wales.

Welsh
bath
car
coffi
parc
parti

Learn only one word of Welsh a day and at the end of the year you have a vocabulary of more than 300 words. Learn four or five words a day and by the end of the year you have a vocabulary of more than 1000 words.

Work out your own limit.

Story
I found it easy to learn and remember a list of four words:

Welsh - English
bath
c o f f i (spaces inserted to thwart the authentic oops a u t o m a t i c spell checker)
parc
parti

A coffee in the bath and a party in the park.
 c o f f i  bath p a r t i   p a r c
Bath is the same word. the other three words change the last letter - or double letter in the case of coffee. But they all keep the same sound. Just slightly different intonation.

English emphasises the first syllable of party. Welsh has equal emphasis, although it sounds like the second syllable is emphasised and higher if you are used to English intonation. 'Pa! Tea?' Or say, 'par tea!'

I added the word car and could not remember any of the words. So my limit is four words. I could learn one at breakfast time, one at lunch time, one at tea time and one at dinner time. Better still, just learn four words before breakfast, or over coffee (c o f f i).

We have now repeated c o f f i and p a r t i and bath and parc so often that we should have remembered them. If we haven't remembered them, at least we will recognise them, when we are drinking our 'c o f f i' or having a 'bath' or sitting stuck in a traffic jam in the 'car' or sitting in a 'parc'.

The words are so easy, we don't even have to write them down. (But we will write them down, put them on the fridge door, or in our diary. If you have a diary with not much in it, just add words of the language you wish to learn, every day. When sitting at a bus stop, or train stop, look at the words.

If you are creative, write the words in Italic waterproof pen all over a plain white or cream linen shopping bag. Then it's no effort to sit and look at the words each day. No need to even get out your diary. Just look at the bag on your lap, whilst drinking your 'c o f f i'. Leave the bag beside you in the 'car'.

Bag
I typed the word bag into Google translate and the Welsh came up as bag.

I am now looking for a plain bag. I need a pretty font. Italic. Whilst I am making my bag, I shall be learning the words.

I can do this for any language. I can keep my dictionary and guidebook and map for the country in the bag. I can do the same for all sides of a box file. A box file has six sides. I can write the words Wales and Cymru in bold, black, large letters.

The words which I want to remember can be in yellow highlighter, or green or blue or red. Better still, one word in each colour, green for P A R C, red for P A R T I, brown for 'C o f f i'.

English - Welsh
bag - bag
bath - bath
car - car
coffee - c o f f i
park - p a r c
party - p a r t i

Welsh - English
bag - bag
bath - bath
car - car
c o f f i = coffee
p a r c - park
p a r t i - party

You could do the same with Spanish and other languages. I have several more posts on Welsh, and other languages, and travelling to Wales and around the world. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Author
Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and other languages. Tutor and workshop leader.

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