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Former student co-writes the first book in Japanese for Welsh learners
25.08.2011
Congratulations to Takeshi Koike from Japan, a former student of the School of Welsh and Bilingual Studies, for writing the first course book in Japanese for those wishing to learn colloquial Welsh.
Ue-ruzu Go no Kihon (The basics of the Welsh language) was co-authored by Yoshifumi Nagata and is based on Takeshi's experiences of learning Welsh in Lampeter. The characters in the dialogues live in his old hall Roderic Bowen and practise their Welsh in one of the numerous cafes in the town, namely the Mark Lane.
Ue-ruzu Go no Kihon mainly introduces the basic sentence patterns called ‘the periphrastic construction’ with the verb bod (such as rydw i’n rydych chi’n, mae e’n, etc.) : by mastering these patterns learners will be able to talk about most of everyday conversation topics such as hobby, likes and dislikes, and of course, weather!
The mutations, one of the biggest hurdles in learning Welsh, are introduced with abundant explanation and examples, and the exercises will drill the learner in mastering the mutation rules.
A list of all the words and phrases contained in the textbook is given at the end, with a pronunciation key (in both IPA and Japanese Katakana), the meanings, and the number of chapter in which the word appears. This will prove very useful for Japanese users, considering that fact that there is not (yet!) a Welsh-Japanese dictionary published so far, and moreover, that there is NO dictionary of Welsh (whether Welsh-English or any other language) which gives a pronunciation guide for each word.
A cultural column is also given at the end of each chapter. It deals with food and drink, music, tourism, history, proverbs, literature, as well as the language itself, which are all important aspects of the Welsh culture.
And over 100-munite of audio files are available for download and include the Welsh alphabets, greetings, dialogues, numerals, and answers for all the exercises.
Ue-ruzu Go no Kihon is available to buy on the amazon Japan site.
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