What is the “Adopt a Learner” program?
“Adopt a Learner” is a brand new, totally free service we offer here at useyourwelsh.com, which aims to pair up keen learners with more experienced Welsh speakers in order to help the learner improve their Welsh and to develop friendships that primarily operate through the medium of Welsh.
The idea is to bring like minded people together and to give learners the vital experience of speaking to confident and more fluent Welsh speakers outside of a classroom environment.
The level of contact you have with your adopted partner is totally down to you, and your preferences that you select are used when matching you up with a partner. Some people may want to stck to email contact only, some people may be happy to chat over Skype, some people may prefer to chat over the phone, some people would be happy to meet for a coffee every so often. It really is up to you!
How does it work?
So the idea is that you can choose to register with the programme as either a “Welsh Learner” or a “Welsh Speaker”.
If you register as a “Welsh learner” you will be paired up with someone on our database who is more experienced with the language, this could be a first language speaker, a fluent Welsh speaker who has learnt the language but doesn’t speak it as a first language or someone who is still learning the language but is very confident and is likely to be further down the line than yourself.
If you register as a “Welsh speaker” you will be paired up with a Welsh learner who could come from any part of the world.
You will be asked a series of questions about what type of person you would like to be put in contact with, things like interests, hobbies, location (those learning the northern dialect may prefer to meet a fellow north Walian etc) and what methods you are happy for your Learner or Speaker to communicate with you through.
As a Learner, what should I expect from my partner?
Although you will be paired up with a more experienced Welsh speaker, their role is not to teach you to speak Welsh, their role will be to offer you a helping hand, offer you guidance and to offer you the opportunity to get chatting practice – whether that is over the phone, over Skype or in person.
To take part in the programme, you should be following your own plan of action to learn Welsh. This is not a replacement for an educational course and it would be unfair to expect someone to teach you in this manner.
As a Welsh speaker, what should I expect from my partner?
Your partner will be a Welsh learner, but they will be following their own plan of action for learning the language, this may be via night classes at a local college, using tools like Say Something in Welsh and Duolingo or using other methods available.
Your job is not to teach your partner how to speak Welsh, but rather just to be there as a source of guidance and practice every now and then. You can contact each other via email, phone, Skype or even meet for coffee if you so wish.
By doing so, you will be helping to further secure the future of the Welsh language and helping ensure that the language continues its recent growth.
When I sign up, what happens next?
When you sign up, your requests are entered into our system and we will pair you up with someone who meets your requirements as closely as possible. If you’ve requested that you’d rather be paired up with someone who likes football and is happy to chat weekly over Skype, we will try our very best to set you up with someone who likes football and doesn’t mind Skyping on a regular basis. If you request to be matched up with someone who likes chess and only wants to chat over email, then you will get matched up with someone who likes chess and only wants to chat over email.
How is this free?
It just is. I thought this would be a pretty good idea, and so I did it. It’s completely free. The only thing I’d ask is that I hope for this process to be quite cyclical. I.E If you sign up as a “Welsh learner” and you find the programme useful, I would be so appreciative if you’d then consider becoming a “Welsh speaker” later on down the line when you’ve become a confident Welsh speaker, this way the programme grows in a more “organic way” If this year’s “learners” become next years “speakers” then the programme will grow and help the Welsh language grow.
How fluent do I have to be to offer my services as a “Welsh speaker”?
The people joining this programme as learners are going to be relatively new and inexperienced learners, so even you still consider yourself a learner (albeit a quite advanced one), you are more than welcome to join the programme as someone offering their services as a helper. If you can get by on a day to day basis through the medium of Welsh without any trouble, you are a perfect candidate to fulfil the “Welsh speaker” side of the deal!
What are the rules?
The rules are pretty simple, just be nice and behave. Any reported instances of the following will result in instant dismissal and blacklisting from the programme.
- Offering of paid services – i.e A tutor joining the programme and then offering paid tutoring services to their “learner”. This programme is completely free and there are already channels offering this sort of thing, please use them.
- Abuse of any kind. Any reports of bad behaviour, timewasters and so forth will result in instant dismissal
What if I don’t like my partner or if my partners goes missing/loses contact?
This is a free programme, so if you and your partner don’t get on, or you lose contact with them – just come back here, enter your details, make sure everything is back up and date and we will quickly pair you back up with someone!
Your data
Your data will be held securely and in an encrypted format on our servers under current GDPR regulations. This data will only be stored until the point where you are connected with a partner. Once this process is complete your information will be deleted.
When a connection between partners is made, you will be informed of their email address. It will then be up to yourselves to initiate further contact.
How to sign up….
To sign up, please go to the “Adopt a Learner” page, or find the new option on our menu bar.
And myself, I speak Welsh in any possible context – with colleagues at work and of course in my spare time. It was a great priviledge and pleasure to be part of the Eisteddfod Choir in Anglesey in 2017 – a mostly Welsh-speaking choir. Some people in the choir knew me, but I didn’t mention to the others that I am a Welsh learner – I just spoke Welsh to them from the very beginning. Maybe the choir members suspected that I was not a first language speaker.
Two years ago I decided that I wanted to integrate Welsh into my life, so I applied for some jobs where Welsh language abilities was a requirement. In the second of those interviews I was asked the question: “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”, but I didn’t understand the words cryfderau and gwendidau. I asked the panel member to repeat the question, but I still didn’t understand, so had to ask for the question in English! I felt a right wally! However the process of writing the application in Welsh and spending time preparing for the interview gave me hours of contact time, and the feeling that I had stood on my own feet to submitted an ambitious application through a language that I was still learning gave me a tremendous boost.
Originally from the Rhondda Valley, from a very small town called Edmondstown. When I grew up in the Valleys, I didn’t hear the Welsh language until I went on holiday in West Wales with my family. There was no Welsh-medium secondary school when I grew up – and English-speaking schools in the 80s had a lot more to do to inspire anyone to learn the language.
Crwst attracts an interesting mix of people, evidenced by the clientelle present. Behind me I had a group of 30-something friends, who arrived at 2.02pm, 2 minutes late for the Brunch that closed at 2pm, but despite being slightly too late, Crwst took their order and served them all in the time it took for me to finish my coffee.
