18 July 2021

Welsh summer school

Every summer, the body that organises Welsh teaching for adults organises summer schools. I have never actually joined them! Even in summer I have a fair amount to do. And I am sometimes a bit hesitant; you tend to learn languages a bit quicker if you are Dutch than when you are British, and most of the people in such schools are of course British. So there is a beautiful valley not too far from here where they do week-long residential summer schools, and they have a really good reputation, but I was arrogantly afraid I would get a bit bored.

This year they offered online courses. And one of them was short! Just four afternoons, between four o'clock and half past six. And as I have not been doing a proper course the last semester I registered.

On the first day, I recognised a lot of faces! It often is the same bunch of people who show up for classes like this. It is nice to get to know some of them a bit. The tutor was new to me! That is a bit unusual; I have done so many classes I know most of them. And that it was an online course had perks; most of us were from around here, living in places like Benllech and Criccieth, but we had one bloke calling in from Ottawa. He was originally from the Conwy valley, but had moved to Canada decades ago. And now he had decided he wanted to stay in touch with his mother tongue. I think he'll be glad if online courses continue after the pandemic!

The first session seemed a bit slow; the tutor had a lot of work talking some participants through the technology, so there was a lot of time spent in breakout groups just discussing either the topic tutor had given us, or straying from there. But from the second day on, that got better. And we even did some proper exercises, with grammar and all! So I was glad I had registered. I came across several things that I remembered having revised during my sick leave, but which I had forgotten since…

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