Tasai mwy o amser gyda fi, baswn i'n dda am Gymraeg!
That’s a sentence from the Duolingo course, but it’s true! If I had more time I would be good at Welsh.
I’ve been working mainly on Welsh when I have had the energy this weekend. I’m still pretty sick, although I think I’m past the worst of it.
I’ve made progress on both my Welsh Memrise courses, although I feel asleep last night before I got a chance to work on them and lost my streaks in both. I worked on all my other Memrise courses earlier in the day so in evening I could just work on the Welsh courses, but I was pretty tired and fell asleep about 3 hours before my usual bedtime and when I woke up, the streak counter has expired for that day. I have the streak counter on Memrise set so I have to 1 AM the following day to keep up a streak and I woke up at 2:30 AM. Oh well.
Earlier today I spent about 90 minute reading Welsh Twitter and articles people had linked to. I'm quite happy with how my reading comprehension has been steadily improving just from building up my vocabulary with Memrise and practicing basic verb-pronoun constructions on Duolingo (although for some reason future tense in Welsh gives me fits).
The other language I tried to spend more time on this past week was Japanese. I was working on exercises in Unit 5 of Colloquial Japanese and got annoyed again by how the answer key for that unit is almost all in romaji, and I am trying to get myself to write in the script to help me internalize it more. So I will go ahead to Unit 6 this week. I also watched some Japanese anime on Netflix, which Japanese audio and subtitles. My listening comprehension seems better than my reading at this point but I take it as a sign I am learning
something.
I also spent some time this week on Navajo, not just the (incomplete) Duolingo course, which I finished rather quickly (I finished the like-wise short and incomplete Hawaiian course too). I have also been practicing pronunciation and some grammar. The early release of the Duolingo course has led to some people posting a few useful resources in the forum, so that's been a distraction but I am trying not to spend too much time on it before November, so I can continue to focus on my other languages.
Regarding my other languages, I think I've developed a good habit of getting in regular practice with Spanish, French and Gaelic throughout the week--watching stuff on Netflix or You Tube, Twitter, reading, and working on Memrise courses. And I am making small progress with Catalan. But I have been neglecting Indonesian and I will have to make some effort this week to get some more work done with it. I am progressing slowly through my Memrise course, as I try to learn 10-15 new words most days, but I haven't been doing much else. One problem is the lack of other media in Indonesian that I find accessible and enjoyable. That's one thing I need to sort out this week. In the very least, find some Twitter accounts I can follow.
Well, time to get back to my Welsh studies. Here's a trad song, "Calon Lân," which I plan on learning this week. According to wiki, this song is sung at Welsh rugby matches. I'm not the biggest fan of her voice (I'm generally not a fan of adult women singing in "little girl" voices, in any language) but she does enunciate clearly, which is nice. She doesn't sing the complete song here, so I will only post the lyrics she sings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=44&v=9YFGM8LXRPMNid wy'n gofyn bywyd moethus,
Aur y byd na'i berlau mân:
Gofyn wyf am galon hapus,
Calon onest, calon lân.
Calon lân yn llawn daioni,
Tecach yw na'r lili dlos:
Dim ond calon lân all ganu
Canu'r dydd a chanu'r nos.
Hwyr a bore fy nymuniad
Gwyd i'r nef ar adain cân
Ar i Dduw, er mwyn fy Ngheidwad,
Roddi i mi galon lân.