On Saint David’s Day a new revolutionary Welsh language course will be launched that publishers Y Lolfa claims teaches “real spoken Welsh fast”. It is claimed that Live Welsh by Heini Gruffudd offers a new and easy way to learn Welsh by bypassing grammar altogether. Heini Gruffudd, a prolific author and expert on language planning, explains,
“The purpose of this book is to allow learners to learn the Welsh that is used by many ordinary Welsh speakers. The book does not dwell on the niceties of grammar, indeed it avoids or disregards them intentionally.”
He adds, “When speaking Welsh, many Welsh speakers don’t use verbs, use a lot of English words, change English words into Welsh ones and don’t mutate according to the rules.”
According to the blurb learners should put in English words if they don’t remember the Welsh. There is also a handy list of 120 words that are similar to English.
The book is arranged into twenty-to-thirty-minute parts, each part introducing new words, sentences and a conversation with explanatory sketches by Colin Baker. Lefi Gruffudd on behalf of Y Lolfa said,
“There are numerous Welsh grammar and rules books on the market but this book will appeal to people without the time and patience to study grammar but who wish to learn enough Welsh for straightforward conversations in the easiest possible way. Hopefully after completing this book learners will be able to use basic Welsh and then move on to improve their language skills through practice. The language has become a hot topic recently and we hope that publishing this book is a practical way of increasing the number of Welsh speakers.”
Live Welsh is priced at £6.95 and is available now on their website.
