Why I’m Proud To Be From The Land Of Song…

I have never found a country that produces such beautiful music as Wales does, and this is one of the factors which makes me very proud to call myself Wales, to live here, speak the language and, more than anything, to sing the songs. To prove my point, I have a video of a choir – called “Only Boys Aloud” – singing in Welsh. If you’re in Britain, you’ll probably recognize them from the current series of Britain’s Got Talent. In the first episode, they stunned with their audition in which they stormed the stage (there was about 125 of them!) and sang “Calon Lan”, one of the most famous Welsh songs as far as I’m aware. For those of you who haven’t seen it, this is the video of their audition –

 

and this is them at what I think is the National Eisteddfod last year although if I’m wrong feel free to correct me 🙂

Listen, enjoy and realize why I am so proud to be from gwlad y gan 🙂

Maddy-o is a radio star?

Well, not exactly. And apologies for that awful, truly terrible title.

I’m not exactly a radio star. I’ve had my first taste of being in a radio studio and it’s really cool! I’ve been recording an interview for a program BBC Radio Cymru are doing on the Titanic (what with the centenary approaching and my campaign for a memorial in Barmouth having received some attention recently), and it meant I had to speak in Welsh. It was a challenge for me – at first, it felt slightly like my Welsh GCSE speaking and listening exam, an experience I hoped to never have to repeat – but when I relaxed and settled in, it seemed to go quite well.

I’m, technically, a Welsh learner. Yes, I’ve been learning since I was three and a half, but never speaking Welsh at home – and only speaking it sporadically at school, i.e since the age of seven I’ve only spoken it during Welsh language lessons, which weren’t exactly frequent either at primary or secondary schools. I’ll never speak it as well as people who’ve lived here all their life and speak it at home, but I am fluent, and was considered to be first-language – i.e on a par with those who speak it at home with their parents – at secondary school.

I think the main problem is that I haven’t spoken it for a while, other than the odd snippet thrown here and there in conversation, and used on Facebook. I think a lot of people hear my accent and assume I can’t speak Welsh – it still seems fairly strong, especially when I do speak Welsh – when really, I’m fluent, but sometimes it just doesn’t flow as well as other people’s seems to – there are certain words I struggle with because of the pronunciation and others, where they’re easily confused with others and I get confused.

Still, I’m fairly pleased with how I did today, and when I find out when it airs, I shall let you all know – although, if you don’t speak Welsh, you probably won’t understand it, but at least you get to hear my voice! And my (doubtful) Welsh abilities! So, all in all, a good day. Let’s see what tomorrow – the dreaded results day and UBER evening drama rehearsal – brings.