An Englishman in Wales

At Welsh Water, we're proud of our Welsh heritage and celebrate it all year round in many ways; including encouraging colleagues to learn and use Welsh where they can.

Recently, we caught up with our teacher Keith, who is part of the Education team here at Welsh Water. Keith previously took a Welsh Government funded sabbatical year out of teaching to learn Welsh. Now, he’s using his role at Welsh Water as an opportunity to apply that knowledge and develop professionally over the course of this year.

Here’s Keith’s story…

An Englishman in Wales

I moved to Wales when I was 22 to study primary school teaching. Having never really visited before, I quickly fell in love with the country and was equally impressed and confused by the bilingual signs, ignorantly chuckling at comedians who brought out the tired old trope of someone dropping the Scrabble tiles over the floor. I soon learned never to call Clwb Ifor Bach “the Welsh Club” and spent the usual amount of time trying to learn how to say LlanfairPG. You know, the usual stuff a non-speaker does. Apart from that, my skill in Welsh didn’t develop past that of a second-language 8-year-old.

Teaching but Lacking Confidence

As a primary school teacher, I have always been one lesson ahead of the children but never felt able to answer questions about the language or how sentences were structured, and I definitely couldn’t teach them why Cymru became Gymru when anyone was welcomed in. My lessons taught pupils the bare bones of the language, but my lack of confidence and fluency was often brought up as an ‘Area for Improvement’ during lesson observations. I certainly never dreamed of using my limited Welsh outside of the classroom and, to be honest, “Pwy wyt ti?” comes across as quite rude when directed at someone on a night out.

Welsh in a Year!

After quite a few years of maintaining this level of Welsh, I wanted to be able to speak the language properly. Around this time, a colleague of mine returned from a brilliant course led by excellent tutors at Cardiff University, ‘Cymraeg mewn Blwyddyn’! She raved about the course and, with very little persuading required, convinced me to apply for the next cohort of teachers. The course did exactly what it promised; in just a year I was able to construct sentences about the past, present and future, I understood when and how sounds mutated and I could have conversations with fluent speakers. I was far from fluent myself, but I could be understood.

Back to School

The ‘Cymraeg mewn Blwyddyn’ course was designed to “enable practitioners to teach Welsh effectively and pass the language on to their pupils” - which it achieved brilliantly. My use of Welsh in school improved and I was a much more capable Welsh teacher. Outside of school, however, it didn’t get much better. I would take a lot to encourage me to speak Welsh – it was clear that I needed a nudge to encourage me to speak Welsh in a variety of different situations.

Welsh Water

I’ve always found that the best way to make myself do something is to apply a bit of pressure by telling people of my intention to do something! Because of this, during my interview for a professional development opportunity on secondment with the Dŵr Cymru Education Team, I informed the panel that, whilst I was not entirely fluent, I had learnt the language and could speak Welsh. I also told them that I would love the opportunity to challenge myself to deliver assemblies, workshops, and lessons through the Welsh language. With such an expansive and varied education programme, it was the perfect opportunity to enhance my Welsh language skills. The interviewing panel seemed to value my appetite to push myself outside of my comfort zone and to further embrace the Welsh Language. I was soon to receive a wonderful phone call telling me that I had been successful in my application. Time to put my money where my mouth was.

Supportive Colleagues

When I started my new role in September, such is the popularity of Dŵr Cymru’s education programme, that school bookings had already been received months in advance. My first Welsh-medium school visit was soon upon me, and there was no going back on the commitments I made during interview! I was extremely nervous but, with the support of my colleagues, I prepared meticulously and jumped into the deep end - with both feet. I was ready to run a school outreach visit in front of hundreds of pupils, in Welsh.

Wonderful Experiences

My initial apprehension soon disappeared as the Welsh speaking staff and pupils of the schools I have visited have been generous, kind and accommodating. They have supported me with nods and smiles during the assemblies, helped me when I have become stuck with a word or phrase, and given me thoughtful feedback. It has built my confidence to no end and enabled me to use my Welsh in and outside of work, without feeling like an imposter. I am so grateful for this opportunity to improve a skill and cement my place as one of the million Welsh speakers aimed for in the vision of Cymraeg 2050.

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For more information on the Defnyddia dy Gymraeg campaign, click here.