Sophie Garrod, our Marketing Campaigns Officer has been learning Welsh through the intensive Welsh course that we offer all of our staff. She’s been learning since September, we went to catch up with her to see how she’s getting on.

How are you finding the course?

I’m enjoying it! It’s intense, but very useful as we’re learning practical stuff that you need in everyday conversation. There’s a good mix of people in the class – from many departments across the organisation, including security, customer relations, customer experience, marketing, development and from the programming team.

What are you enjoying most?

I really enjoy seeing the progress that I’m making. I understand more of the conversations that I hear around the building and I understand Welsh-language tweets that I see the Centre and my colleagues sharing. It’s amazing really to think that a few months ago I didn’t understand any Welsh.

What topics have you covered so far?

So many! Different tenses, likes and dislikes, holidays, hobbies, time, money, food, the weather.

What are your favourite Welsh words so far?

Ysgrifennu. Cyfrifiadur. Sboncen.

I like the way they sound.

Are you able to use more Welsh in your work?

Not in my written work yet, but I have been using Welsh in conversation and out socially. I’m excited to see some Welsh-language theatre this year. I’ve been listening to a bit of Welsh-language music, and Radio Cymru and they have some podcasts to help Welsh learners that I’ve found really useful. One was a clonc with one of my favourite musical theatre performers, Jade Davies, who is a Welsh speaker and has been in Les Mis, Sister Act, Phantom of the Opera etc. It is definitely opening doors to me.

This is the second time we’ve chatted to Sophie about learning Welsh. You can read the first blog here. We'll be catching up with Sophie later in the year at the end of the course, to see how she got on.

The courses we offer our staff are taught by the National Centre for Learning Welsh.