Maybe I should watch Hinterland then, since I've already seen Gavin and Stacey

[cimorene]

My sister was expressing the popular American sadness that she doesn't feel a connection to centuries-old cultural traditions, languages, or places (and in our case not even religions - our dad's family is two generations removed from contact with Jewish cultural traditions), and mentioned that her husband is 'proud' of his Welsh ancestry but probably knows even less about it than we know about Jewish culture (which is all from books and tv basically, even though our dad's first cousins went to shul and Temple and had bar and bat mitzvahs! I know less Yiddish than Wax because she watches more stuff than me, though it was the native language of both my paternal grandmother's parents).

I said, idly, that since our great-grandmother* was born a Welsh-speaking monolingual and her mother was entirely Welsh (her father was English and the Welsh was beaten out of her by his second wife after age 5, so she forgot it before adulthood), it's likely that my sis is just as Welsh as her husband is, and for that matter, if she wants to learn something about one of her cultural heritages, that's a good one since they have it in common, and Wales has an Arthurian legend connection, a dragon on the flag, at least one British sitcom set there as well as Hinterland and a living tradition with like. Welsh-language tv and road signs and things like that, plus it would be comparatively easy to potentially visit on vacation sometime. It turned out that Welsh is on Duolingo, so now my sister and I are doing Welsh Duolingo together.

I guess we'll see what happens. I've never tried to start learning a language like... outside of a classroom before. Any other tv-or-movies set in Wales recommendations would be welcome (except Torchwood: I've seen that too) .

*This is the one who emigrated alone to Canada after WWI and worked as a nurse, was a flapper, jumped into the Hudson on a dare one time and contracted pneumonia, and divorced my great-grandfather when he cheated on her and raised my paternal grandfather alone from the time he was about two.

Comments

[spark]

Bendigedig! Mae Duolingo yn dda, gobeithio dy bod di'n hoffi coffi (a pannas) ;)

You might enjoy some of the Welsh music scene too, these guys are cute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgWlEo0h2hs and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLzmG1qXqlM, and there are lots more good ones.

[cimorene]

Oh thank you (for the links which I will save to check out soon)!

I have only done 2 Welsh lessons so far and had to use Google translate on this sentence, but ... is... Duolingo all about coffee and parsnips...?

[spark]

Coffee and parsnips are indeed dominant themes in Duolingo Welsh. There has been much speculation about Owen's unnatural passion for parsnips.

If you like Hinterland/Y Gwyll you might also check out the film Yr Ymadawiad, it's by the same director. If you read about Capel Celyn after seeing it, some things will become clearer (treat that as a spoiler).

I live right near Aberystwyth where Y Gwyll is set, it's amusing to see it portrayed as a hotbed of murder and terrible secrets when really it's mostly just occasional quad bike theft.

[cimorene]

If you've ever watched Shetland, we were talking about how many murders it usually gets and we're guessing not nearly as many as portrayed on the show. It gave rise to a beautiful idea in my mind, like a realistic police procedural but about the things that police actually deal with on remote islands like escaped pet wallabees (this happend in Åland which is the Finnish equivalent of Shetland more or less) and graffiti and people laundering money... through fake bed & breakfasts (this happened... really close to the town we now live in actually).

[spark]

tbh I'd rather watch something like your idea. I think Doc Martin is a bit like that, if you've ever seen it (tv show).

[cimorene]

Yes, I think I'd enjoy it more than the Shetland formula too - although the setting and cinematography and the main acting will probably keep me watching Shetland even though the writing seems to have gone off the rails in the last few seasons. I haven't heard of that, but I'll try to find it!

[cimorene]

I just had to come back and tell you that my Duolingo is weirdly fixated on coffee and leeks. Either they're rotating through the ingredients in a root vegetable stew or perhaps they have a small pool of vegetables and they just randomly pick one for each person!

[spark]

I'm sure the parsnips will catch up with you soon. I saw your tweet about smwddio too, that's always been a favourite of mine =)

[cimorene]

Great, now I'm looking over my shoulder for parsnips...

[naraht]

Very exciting! You might also be interested in Say Something in Welsh, which I think is free after registration: https://www.saysomethingin.com/welsh

Wales is a lovely place to visit. I've had the privilege of making work trips to the heavily Welsh-speaking areas of north Wales and it really is fascinating meeting entirely British people who are effectively not native English speakers. Probably at this point learning Welsh would be more useful to my career than any other language but... so many languages, so little time.

[cimorene]

Thanks for the link! It does look promising.

I would love to see Wales. Hopefully some day!

[vass]

My sister was expressing the popular American sadness that she doesn't feel a connection to centuries-old cultural traditions, languages, or places (and in our case not even religions - our dad's family is two generations removed from contact with Jewish cultural traditions)

Oh, that is a Mood. :(

Good luck with Welsh.

[cimorene]

I mean I felt that all the time in my 20s, but idk, I guess I just got used to it or reached zen or something.