The Celts

Sunday, 18 September 2022

A New Beginning

A new challenge

Well, reading back over the post for the past five and a half years, I can see that there have been quite a few changes. I've moved from being somewhere between level A1 and A2 in Welsh to working towards B2. I've taken, and passed (with Distinction) the first grade examination in Cornish, and I've been offered, and accepted, a place to study an MA in The Celts at Bangor University - it starts in a couple of weeks.

I'm elated, but also a bit scared. I'll be distance learning part-time. I think that I may be the only one distance learning. I've done distance learning before, with the OU, but I found that changes to how we were able to operate affected my studying and learning. When I was at UCL, forty years ago, we used to talk things over. We'd get together over coffee, or go to each others' homes. We'd debate, discuss, rip ideas to threads - and eventually come to understanding. When I studied with the OU, twenty odd years ago it was the same. We would talk about ideas, and come to a better understanding. However, the OU has become terrified of plagarism (probably rightly), and people gaining credit for other peoples' work, and has discouraged discussion. The last course that I did with them a decade ago I felt isolated, unable to hone my ideas, not even sure what it was that I was supposed to be doing. You end up studying in a vacuum, with no chance to bounce ideas off other people.

So, what will it be like being a sole distance learner? Hopefully, I can talk to tutors, but how can I replicate the way that I used to learn, talking over ideas in depth so that I gain a greater understanding, and become a better student?

Other changes

In the last year I've been learning Cornish. The Breton that I have mentioned several times in this blog has fallen by the wayside. I'm not sure why I've become so enamoured of Cornish, it's a revived language, having fallen into disuse in the 19th C. So I feel that it's a little bit like learning Klingon, as it has had to be reconstructed from notes and from old documents - mostly plays as there isn't a lot of Middle Cornish literature. I suppose I'm interested in the fact that it is so very fragile - even today there are probably only two, or maybe, three hundred people who can hold a conversation in it. Welsh is the strongest of the Celtic languages, with 800,000+ speakers in Wales, and many more scattered around the world. Cornish is closest to Breton, but it's also the closest language to Welsh. It's the combination of the two things, the strength of Welsh and the fragility of Cornish, and the close relationship between the two which attracts me. Of course, being a fairly fluent Welsh speaker has been a big advantage to me in learning Cornish. Quite a lot of the vocabulary is similar, but it's more the fact that I don't roll my eyes when the Cornish tutor says "mutations", "inflected prepositions", etc. I know how Brythonic Celtic languages work, which smooths my path.

So, a new challenge, at a fairly advanced age. I'm looking forward to it.

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