What’s your aim for 2016? Climb Mount Kilimanjaro? Do a triathlon?Recreate a miniature Titanic using just lollipop sticks?
The new year sees many a resolution come and go so this January, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Wales made it their mission to help keep one aim on track by launching ‘’.
Born and bred in Wales, I’ve often lamented that I should have learnt my mother tongue, but so often distractions and excuses have got in the way.
It was this thought - bolstered by the admissions of fellow sheepish colleagues - that made us here at Audio Always think about how we could reach out to those who felt a similar draw. And as an independent radio production company, how could we engage with this audience?
Working with , we designed a campaign to inspire, encourage and support Welsh learners by sharing simple words and phrases every day, success stories from across Wales (and beyond) and helpful hints and tips to get us all on the right track.
We heard from so many incredible Welsh learners proving that learning a new language amidst a busy lifestyle can be done. Whether they be like Hugh from Ellesmere who wanted to learn a language that harked back to childhood holidays or 99-year-old Helena who is still winning awards for her Welsh at the National Eisteddfod.
We also featured helpful and sometimes inventive initiatives that can help people improve their vocabulary - such as welsh language walks around Barry with Ruth from Valeways to The Deck cafe in Cardiff Bay who play basic Welsh phrases in the loos of their café.
We quickly realised that learning Welsh isn’t just for those of us born here, as proved by surgeon Dr. Phillip Moore from Barbados who loves surprising the patients at Ysbyty Gwynedd with his Welsh skills. We also spoke to Lidia Lammardo who hails from Argentina, lives in Belfast and travels to Cardiff for Welsh classes.
The project also gave us a chance to explore how Welsh is developing alongside different industries including technology, leisure and emergency services.
For technology, we visited Canolfan Bedwyr in Bangor to check out their speech recognition software and even heard from Google Translate’s Chief Engineer, Macduff Hughes, about his love of the language and his efforts to represent Welsh online.
A huge part of Share Your Welsh was getting out and speaking to listeners across Wales. When I mapped everywhere we’d visited, it was great to see how many communities had been involved.
Map of Share your Welsh project
Whilst our main aim was to reach out to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Wales listeners, the campaign also stimulated activity across other areas of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ including S4C’s Dal Ati, Pobol Y Cwm, Radio Cymru and more.
It also allowed us to talk directly with people who were getting involved through social media. We encouraged those connected with the campaign to get involved using #shareyourwelsh which trended a few times during the project.
Some of our posts got a lot of attention online, helping Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Wales to connect with even more people.
And even though Share Your Welsh was focused on the month of January, the content will remain a valuable online resource for learners in the future. So if you’ve a desire to brush up on your Welsh or learn from scratch: rhoi cynnig arni (give it a go).
Chelsea Dickenson, Content Producer, Audio Always producers of Share Your Welsh for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wales
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