Colloquial Welsh

by Gareth King

Colloquial Welsh is easy to use and no prior knowledge of the language is required. These CDs are recorded by native Welsh speakers and will play on any audio system. The material can be used on its own or to accompany the book, helping you with pronunciation and listening skills.

Genres: Language, Nonfiction

304 pages, Audio Cassette

First published January 24, 1995

Reviews

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colloquial Welsh is a really good primer on the Welsh language, geared to the contemporary spoken language but including information about the more formal written language as well. It is quite informative and includes a variety of exercises and reading passages. The tone is often cheeky and entertaining. I enjoyed working my way through the material, slowly but surely, usually covering each chapter twice to absorb the information better.

Though much of the book is excellent, it does have some drawbacks. The biggest one is that the glossary at the back of the book does not begin to cover all the words included in the text. Sometimes Gareth King specifically states that he wants the student to try to pick up the meaning from context. Which is all well and good if you live in Wales and might be exposed to more of the language in your everyday environment. For me in America, this was a big frustration. The book also lacked an English-to-Welsh section, which made reverse translation difficult if I couldn't immediately recall a Welsh word. So you will most likely want to use this book along with a Welsh-English dictionary.