Following on from the success of our ‘Merched mewn Llenyddiaeth Cymraeg’ last year, 14 eager learners attended another excellent course in the company of our guest tutor Bethan Gwanas. The course concentrated on some of Wales’ contemporary authors including Manon Steffan Ros, Sonia Edwards and Lleucu Roberts, some male authors were also included this year, the likes of Rhys Iorwerth, Mihangel Morgan and Ifor ap Glyn. The spotlight was mainly shone on prose but Bethan also referred to a poem or two. Ifor ap Glyn came over to meet the learners on Tuesday night. This is what he had to say following his visit and he also had a very important message to all learners during their language journey – “It was good to be able to meet all the learners. Keep reading!”.
The tropical weather during the last few weeks enabled the tutor to hold some of the session out in the garden in the sunshine.
During the week the learners joined a special Reading Group with local Welsh language avid readers. They enjoyed an afternoon discussing ‘Inc’ a book by Manon Steffan Ros. During the afternoon a one to one discussion session was held before they all joined and formed the largest Reading Club ever in the chapel whilst enjoying tea and homemade scones from Caffi Meinir. Alun Jones also attended and was able to share information about his work as Manon Steffan Ros’ editor. The Reading Club were all in agreement that you all need to find a copy of ‘Inc’ and make the most of the good weather by enjoying a good book out in the garden.
This is what one of the learners had to say about the course:
“What a treat! Can I say thank you to you all for providing such an excellent course. This is the best course I have ever attended. It was good to use the language to discuss other things. I really enjoyed discussing books in Welsh for the entire week. I also learnt so much about the language, the natural spoken word. It was very refreshing and something I really needed. The session with members of the local community was a perfect way of increasing our confidence and gave us an opportunity to hear the language that’s being spoken locally. It was also good to be amongst people from North and South Wales and it added to the excellent experience. This choice of books was very interesting and also a good opportunity for us to read the first chapters with Bethan that encouraged us to keep reading. The week was filled with laughter and learning about the language and its different dialects and the individual style of each author. A stonker of a course! Thank you all and thank you to Bethan for all her hard work and the scones were also excellent!”
Our Higher 2 themed courses are very popular with learners and many return annually. The next Higher 2 course will be held between the 1st and the 5th of October (2018). It will be a brand-new course concentrating on the ‘Decades of the Revolution’ with the award-winning author, Angharad Tomos. There are limited spaces left. To secure a place on the course you will need to register as soon as possible.
Llyfrau Amdani are a new and exciting series of reading books carefully graded on four levels, aimed at adults learning Welsh. For further information, contact info@books.wales or follow @LlyfrauAmdani