7 Reasons for Learning Welsh (Cymraeg)

The Welsh Language is a Celtic Language, a British Language and a living modern language. What you get for learning this language depends on what you are willing to put into it, but he rewards are life-long and keep giving the more you learn and grow through the language. In this video you will be given 7 reasons to learn Welsh (or Cymraeg) and you will pick up some knowledge of Wales and the language along the way.

00:00 Beginning and knowledge
01:20 Identity
03:53 Health
05:04 For others
07:26 Poetry
10:00 The Land
13:10 A Language Gateway
16:28 You are the future
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Gear I use:

[radiojet]

Diolch yn fawr, Ben. There are about the same number speakers of Luxembourgish as Welsh and the Luxembourgers feel the same sense of identity through their unique language as do the good people of Wales. There are actually a higher number of French and German speakers in Luxembourg than Luxembourgish speakers - 95%, 85% and 84% respectively. Keep up the good work, Ben. Welsh, like Luxembourgish, is one of those languages that's just fun to speak, to put it simply.

[Bob-wixj]

Diolch o galon Ben. I've been learning Welsh for around a year now despite not having many opportunities to speak it here in Gwlad o Basg. I'm originally from Cumbria and have little connection with Cymru, other than holidays there over the years. I did not intend to spend so long learning Welsh; just enough to use on visits, and your video basically encapsulates why I continue to learn, and want to "parhau" sometimes in the face of feeling like I haven't improved in months. It isn't just about me. It's also about giving something back to Welsh (and, by extension, Euskera), widening the audience of artists who write or sing yn y Gymraeg, and about perhaps sharing the unexpected opportunity to use Welsh on a plane or in a bar far from Cymru.
Every single reason you gave has resonated. Thank you again.

[garmit]

Another good reason is that it’s possible to learn Welsh at the same time as learning another language because it is so different to the vast majority of other languages. It won’t trip you up if you’re learning a romance language or a germanic one because there is so little shared grammar or vocabulary. It’s not like trying to learn Italian and french simultaneously or learning Dutch and Swedish for example. Also, once you have enough Welsh under your ‘gwregys’ to be able to start using it, you’ll have a new superpower!

[NeilABliss]

My reason was to connect with my heritage.

[annelongbridge]

I started learning Welsh a few months ago because I went in Wales for the holidays and I absolutely fell in love with this country 😊 And I love to learn different languages, Scottish Gaelic is one of my favourites

[ProleCenter]

I think part of the reason that Welsh has so much commonality with Latin is not just because of the Roman invasion of Britain, but rather that the Celtic languages were always closer to Latin, much more so than Germanic or Slavic.

[jjones]

Dw i'n byu un Ontario Canada
My reasons for learning Welsh is to s reconect with my ancestry.

[philoaviaticus]

Drinking a Guinness and tipping it to Welsh cousins.

[BenLlywelyn]

1st ever Premiere, a big Diolch yn fawr iawn (Thank you very much) to all who joined. And if you would like to help this channel become full-time, please donate with Patreon: patreon.com/BenLlywelyn Or click join to be a member. Diolch / Thanks

[philoaviaticus]

Irish has interesting directions too, under, over, up and down based on being edge of world 😅

[suzewilde]

I just watched your other video saying “learning Welsh is easy”. I thought it was very motivating and found it a great antidote to the usual message of negativity. My wife and I are moving to Caernarfon after 3 years of being here part time in a caravan. We have signed up to a beginners course at Bangor uni.
I think tips like exposing the Latin roots and patterns in gender and prefixes will be super useful for me as an adult learner. Thanks so much.

[ProleCenter]

Dw i'n byw yn North Carolina, USA and most of the people here came from Cumbria and Yr Hen Ogledd, including my ancestors best we can tell. Dw i'n dysgy Cymraeg to get in touch with my roots. I'm also planning on learning Cherokee, which is the native language of this area. I'd like to learn both languages simultaneously, but do you think it's better to focus on just one language at a time?

[gandolfthorstefn]

What I found interesting(diddorol) about learning Welsh from the Linguaphone course was in the grammar section it said that the word 'Bod' (to be) is the corner stone of the language. Fascinating that a language has a cornerstone from which the rest of the language is built around this foundational element or support. 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[fredericosampaio]

Enilliff Cymru Gwpan y Byd! Ben, long, long time ago ( maybe 20 years ago) I got in touch with a CD from band Ceredwen ( label Tir Aur). I really enjoyed all the musics, but I didn´t know they were written in welsh. And, I guess around 4 years ago, all of a sudden appeared to me on YouTube some musics whose lyrics are written in welsh with the translation in english. And also the song 'Yma o hyd' showed up with both the welsh lyrics, the english translation, and teaching how to pronounce the welsh phonemes. It was a bit earlier than COVID´s time. So, my fondness for Cymraeg is due to YouTube. Later I began having fun learning welsh on Duolingo. I am past 700 days of studying welsh on Duoling and still counting, thanks God

[gergelybakos]

Diolch yn fawr, Ben! As a native Hungarian speaker and someone who learned both English and Dutch I totally get your points. Cannot agree more. Partly started to learn Welsh because I have been interested in Celtic culture--this interest going back to my childhood days of encountering Asterix and some Celtic legends and mythology and later the LORT by Tolkien...

[zulkiflijamil]

Noswaith dda Ben. In this video when you mentioned about vowel harmony suddenly i recalled from my personal experience. I had learnt Türkçe ( Turkish ) . Türkçe too has vowel harmony. Anyway i need to do some research in the area of vowel harmony in Welsh. Diolch yn fawr Ben

[benjaminklass]

I'm considering learning Welsh in the future (currently learning French), because my grandfather's family has long roots in Leith, Edinburgh.

I thoguht about learning Scots Gaelic but figured that my ancestors likely spoke a form of Welsh/Cumbric before shifting to Scots as they lived in the southeast of Scotland.

I have found that in some ways Lowland Scottish culture is more similar to Welsh culture.

[gandolfthorstefn]

As I have little chance of speaking to anyone I made reading and writing my objective for learning Welsh. Although there is some good content for listening on YouTube and other platforms they lack the spontaneity of everyday conversation. So reading Welsh is the only option but a good one at that. Reading Harri Potter - a Maen yr Athronydd - at the moment.

[gandolfthorstefn]

How many of those words are not borrowings but are Indo-European cognates?

[yudobo-zamurai]

I am living in Japan actually, not Taiwan! 😆