Learning Welsh in Santa Barbara

Last week Pawlie Bryant from Santa Barbara has been learning Welsh with us in the Nant.

Pawlie was born in New York and raised in England.  He moved to California in 1984 to attend University in Santa Barbara.  Pawlie’s journey with the Welsh Language began when he received his British passport back in 2022, and noticed the Welsh words ‘Passport Prydeinig’.  He set about learning Welsh soon after.

Since then he has completed some of the courses and resources offered by The National Welsh Learning Centre.  There aren’t many opportunities for him to practice his Welsh in Santa Barbara so Pawlie practices by reading Welsh books, streaming S4C and BBC Cymru and listening to music.  Pawlie says that he loves music and that music played a very important role when learning the Welsh language.

This year he released his first single in Welsh; Americanwr Balch.  Pawlie describes the song as tongue-in-cheek about American  attitudes.  The single in available to download and stream here:

https://pawlie.hearnow.com/americanwr-balch

Congratulations Pawlie, you are an inspiration to us all.