Welsh Websites, Great places to learn more about Wales

[Siarls]

I nearly had a heart attack reading that website Gwen. It may be best I don't post on there. I am quite angry.

Any help I can be to you, let me know.

If you want to register with S4C learners, you're more than welcome to use my details and I can forward the information to you.

[Siarls]

I hear many good things about Acen. It is well-liked by learners in Wales.

[gwenynen]

Helo austaff. I used to listen to Radio ACEN but for some reason (something to do with our MAC which is beyond my field) the music gets interrupted every few seconds now so I gave up. They do play the kind of music I like though (lots from Sain.)

Diolch Siarls for your offer but I think I'll wait and see if ACEN will do something about it because there are many overseas learners who want to register, I'm sure.

As to the discussion on BBC messageboard, I think the guy indeed is a professional trouble maker. I checked there now and he had more rediculous statements. If he thinks he can dampen the enthusiasm of Welsh learners by his insults, he's wrong. At least I get MORE eager to learn! He doesn't know he's contributing to the very language he's trying to slander!

[Siarls]

It seems ridiculous that Acen does not allow overseas learners to register. I wonder what their reasoning is.

I don't understand trouble makers. How can anyone possibly enjoy provoking negative human reaction? I am reduced to tears when I get myself into trouble and provoke anger/sadness!!!!!

Are any of you using http://www.geiriadur.net ?

[gwenynen]

That trouble maker at Learn Welsh gets worse everyday. He almost seems to be enjoying slandering Welsh. He's totally unreasonable. I think it's best to ignore him. There are plenty of people like him in the world, I fear. On the other hand, I'm glad to read positive posts from many Welsh learners about Welsh. It seems we are united in support of our dear language.

Yes, I do use the site from time to time. I mostly use Learn Welsh geiriadur.

[Antwn]

I use www.geiriadur.net, but mostly rely on the dictionary on Learn Welsh like Gwenynen does. Sometimes when Learn Welsh doesn't have a word I'll use the Lampeter site, they seem to provide more alternatives. One thing I like about the Lampeter site is that they'll translate more phrases.

Once I looked up the word "year" on Learn Welsh and they didn't have it. I also tried blwyddyn but they didn't have that either. I was writing that letter to Lingo Newydd and couldn't remember the gender of it. I needed to know whether it would SM or not. I couldn't believe they didn't have the word year listed. The Lampeter geiriadur did. Sometimes I'll have both up on the computer.

[Siarls]

We're eager to promote it because it's the University of Wales. I was wondering if you found it useful? I'd be interested to hear what you don't like about it and what your needs are from a dictionary as learners.
Enthusiastic, good learners at that!

[Antwn]

What's really frustrating about the Lampeter site is that after it gives you a meaning and you click on the word to find if there are any more subtle connotations to the use of a particular word, then you click back hoping to just go back to the last page where you were, it takes you back to the original search page. Sometimes you'll get a page that says "Warning this page has expired". That problem becomes very tedious. So then you have to put in the word all over again to get to the page where you were. Because some words have multiple meanings, this becomes a problem. I think the BBC does a better job of helping you understand which word to use when there are multiple words of similar meanings. Lampeter does a good job of this too, but since you can't just go back to the page you were on as I mentioned above, it becomes very frustrating at those times. The Lampeter site is also a bit slower, but I like it anyway for reasons below.

One book I'm finding more usefull now is a dictionary of idiomatic phrases by Alun Cownie. The Lampeter site provides many more of those than the BBC site. I come across phrases which can't be understood if translated literally. One good thing about the BBC site is that you can get conjugations of verbs by clicking on "conjugation" when its offered. The Lampeter site offers conjugations of prepostions however and explanations and examples of their use, and it does a phenomenal job on those whereas the BBC site just defines them. That's a great asset, since as a learner one of the biggest problems for me is knowing which preposition to use. We've discussed that before. So each site has its strong points and problems, that's why I often will use both.

Another great asset in the Lampeter site is the search criteria for part of a word. You can enter "ar" for example and get tons of the many phrases which begin with it. That's a great feature! Lampeter gives you pronunciations too.

I like the Lampeter site and I also appreciate all the work it takes to put together a site like that. It must be a massive effort and cost quite a bit. So I think the best way to appreciate it is to use it. I'd already gotten into the habit of using the BBC site before I'd discovered the Lampeter one, so that's part of the reason too. But recently I discovered other features it has, so I'll probably be using it more. I'm really glad they put it together. If they'd fix the back button problem, I'd probably use it even more.

[Siarls]

Thank you. I think I agree with what you're saying. I shall see what I can do with your comments.

[Siarls]

http://www.ybyd.com

[gwenynen]

Best wishes for y Byd!

Does anyone read Welsh blogs? There are so many of them (isn't that great?) that I only read some of my favorites. This site is handy to brwose latest entries but they're having a technical problem at the moment which should be fixed soon according to the admin.

http://blogiadur.com

What about you, Siarls? Aren't you going to start one? I'll be a faithful reader!

[Siarls]

Does dim amser 'da fi, Gwen! Weithiau, fi'n ffeindio fe anodd i gadw lan a^ chi gyd fan hon!
No time, Gwen! I find it difficult sometimes to keep up with you all here!

Falle y bydda i ar wefan Prifysgol Cymru yn y dyfodol! Gyda blogs ar fy ymchwil i Ieithyddiaeth Gymraeg!!!
Maybe I'll be on the University of Wales website in the future! With blogs on my Welsh Linguistics research!!!

[gwenynen]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4464736.stm

Congratulations, Siarls.

[Siarls]

Diolch, yr ydym yn falch iawn o'n prifysgol!

[Antwn]

I'd sure like to be able to go back to university now that I'm older. It would be nice to go to Swansea to study Welsh. Yes, very nice Uni Siarls, except I'm disappointed to see that they're closing the philosophy dept.

Gwen - yes I like to read Welsh blogs. There are some learner's blogs out there too. You may want to start one. I also go to maes-e.