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PARSNIPS AND OWLS
Are you just like over a million other Welsh learners who’ve used Duolingo to learn the language? Have you completed the course and are now craving the next step? Are you sad that Duolingo’s ‘Stories’ are not available in the Welsh?
Well, crave no longer because Twitter’s favourite Welsh guru, Doctor Cymraeg (@CymraegDoctor), is on hand.
Based on Duolingo’s French course, here are 50 stories translated into Welsh to aid your learning. This book includes:
• 50 stories based on the highly-effective ‘Duolingo Stories’
• Real, colloquial language to help you better get to grips with the natives
• Short translation tasks for each Story to improve your retention of new words
• Breakdowns of interesting or difficult concepts for every Story
• Comprehension activities in the back to test your understanding
PARNIPS AND OWLS 2
If, like so many others, you enjoyed Parsnips and Owls and are ready for more of a challenge, you’re going to love Parsnips and Owls 2!
Doctor Cymraeg (Twitter: @CymraegDoctor) is back with some more short stories to aid in your transition between learning Welsh on Duolingo (and/or elsewhere) and using the language in the wild. In contrast to the book’s first iteration, the Stories in Parsnips and Owls 2 are slightly more challenging and include fewer clues and translations. No matter how you’re learning the language of the heavens, you’ll definitely find plenty of interesting tips and tricks in this book. Once again based on Duolingo’s Stories, here are 50 more stories adapted into Welsh to aid your learning.
This book includes:
• 50 stories based on the highly-effective ‘Duolingo Stories’,
• Real, colloquial language to help you better get to grips with the natives,
• Short translation tasks for each Story to improve your retention of new words and phrases,
• Breakdowns of interesting or difficult concepts for every Story,
• Comprehension activities for every Story in the back to test your understanding.
CYMRAEG EFO FFRIND
If the motto of the Wales football team is GORAU CHWARAE CYD CHWARAE (The best [way to] play is playing together), the motto of this book is GORAU DYSGU CYD-DDYSGU (The best learning is learning together).
Bringing others along on your journey is the final piece of any language-learning jigsaw, and this book offers just that. Learn with a friend, family member, co-worker, neighbour… whoever! This book also works just fine for those learning alone ready for when they go out using their Cymraeg in the wild.
Full of real-life terms and phrases – rather than traditional book-Welsh that can be rare in common speech – this book will get you right on the road to speaking like the natives.
CRACKING WELSH QUESTIONS
Whether you’re learning alone or with a friend, exposure is key to language acquisition.
With 50 Welsh questions to ask yourself or someone else – as well as 50 more day-to-day ‘off the cuff’ questions – you’ll find plenty of opportunities to expose yourself to the language.
Each question is joined on the opposite page by:
- its translation,
- notes on grammar,
- potential avenues to respond to the question,
- useful vocabulary, and
- dialectal variations of the question itself.
This book can be your ultimate companion to getting closer to using your Welsh in the wild.
WELSH WHILE YOU BONK
Downright vulgar Welsh phrases for use before, during, and after bonking that you never knew you needed!
This silly collection of rude Welsh phrases comes with both a warning of mature content, as well as a breakdown of interesting linguistic and grammatical nuances that will help you outside the bedroom too.
WELSH AND I
Set out in the form of a memoir, Stephen Rule goes about tackling the challenges and celebrating the successes of the Welsh language in an attempt to establish the language as one which has the ability to live in the lives of the people of Wales and the world.
As one who has learnt the language, earned his degree in it, and now teaches it to young people and adults alike, Stephen’s personal journey to become fluent has been a nightmare and a dream, has opened doors to another world, and has urged him to challenge both the way Welsh is delivered via education as well as general stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding the language.
Written in English, the book is arranged into six chapters; • Cymraeg a Fi (Welsh and I – Stephen’s own experiences of learning Welsh and how he overcame struggles), • Addysgu’r Gymraeg (Teaching Welsh – ideas he uses on a daily basis that have worked to inspire learners of all ages), • Dysgu’r Iaith (Learning Welsh – encouraging those who wish to take up learning Welsh or who can become frustrated with certain elements of acquiring Welsh), • Pam Lai’r Ddwy? (Why not both? – questioning what place Welsh can have in the lives of the reader and the nation as a modern community), • Amddiffyn ein Cymraeg (Defending our Welsh – the lengths to which people have gone, inspired by their love for the language, to ensure its survival as a living tongue), and • Iaith Arbennig (A Special Language – celebrating how the Welsh language has shaped the lives of so many people as well as the entire world).
The book can become a fantastic companion to people thinking about learning Welsh but aren’t sure where to begin; people who are currently learning and attempting to deal with the challenges of the journey; teachers of Welsh in English-medium schools craving dynamic tactics and ideas not easily found in conventional ‘how to’ education books; people who speak the language and who are keen to aid a non-Welsh-speaking partner or friend on their own journeys to fluency; people who question the morals of supporting such an old language; and people of all ages who seek opportunities to ymfalchïo (take pride in) in a language that belongs to them as much as it has belonged to all its speakers across centuries.
By following his own personal experiences – of being one with a burning desire to learn Welsh, went on to learn it, now teach it and, on a daily basis, attempt to share the delight and value of our language to others – Stephen’s hope is that this book can inspire individuals (or even an entire nation, with a bit of luck) to realise what part the Welsh language can play in the future of our nation. In essence, this book is for anyone who possesses any connection to Wales or her language.
67 FAVOURITE WELSH VERBS
It can be easily argued that verbs are one of the most important building blocks of any language, but, when dealing with a VSO (verb-subject-object) language such as Welsh, the importance of fully grasping how verbs act in sentence structures cannot be understated.
This book includes 67 of Doctor Cymraeg’s personal favourite verbs that he wishes he’d spent more time studying when he was learning the language.
Included are English equivalents for each term, information on how modern Welsh deals with each, sample sentences and questions to show how they act in real-life structures, and full literary verb tables for those wishing to get to grips with the ‘higher’ registers of the language.
Doctor Cymraeg 