Just over a year ago, Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn held a ‘vision-sharing evening’ to encourage the local community to get on the ‘bilingual bus’ to meet the Welsh Government’s proposal to increase the number of Welsh speakers to one million by the year 2050.

Now the bus is filling up nicely.

Staff at Talyllyn Railway were the first passengers to get on the bus, instigating the provision of a new course for learners within a few weeks and one year on, they are still enthusiastic about learning Welsh.

General manager Stuart Williams said: “Welsh Classes are a very enjoyable 90 minutes a week. The social side of learning with other beginners is fun, and we are all progressing!  It becomes apparent when you now look at written Welsh and suddenly you can piece things together enough to make sense of it. 

“I can at least ask ‘Eto’ (again) and ‘araf plis’ (slowly please) and ‘amser paned’.  At last night’s lesson we learned ‘draenog marw’ which I’m sure will be useful in the future! (Draenog Marw is a song by the Welsh group Crysbas.)

“I regularly am involved in meetings which are predominately in Welsh, and I think it’s important to at least introduce myself and do some basics in Welsh, people really appreciate and are very encouraging to know that I’m giving Welsh a go!”

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