One of the difficulties facing Welsh learners who do not live in Wales (or elsewhere in the United Kingdom) is the scarcity of easily obtainable reading materials for students. Regular practice is essential to getting the hang of a new language, but finding useful books and periodicals can be tough. When I first started learning Welsh, I didn't even know where to start looking for readings to supplement my grammar books.
Fortunately, while attending Cymdeithas Madog's Cwrs Cymraeg one summer, I found out about a wonderful bimonthly magazine for learners of Welsh published by Golwg. Entitled Lingo Newydd (New Lingo), this publication is aimed at students from high beginning level to high intermediate level. It provides a great way to keep up with your reading skills while at the same time learning about contemporary Welsh culture.
Topics covered by the magazine's brief yet informative articles range from culture, news, and sports to fashion, food, and television. You'll find a recipe in each issue, as well as a horoscope and a couple of word puzzles, all in Welsh and all aimed at learners. Advertising is minimal and relevant to the readership-it usually concerns programming on S4C or outside resources for learning Welsh.
Regular magazine features include O Le i Le (from place to place), a travelogue that covers a different location in Wales each issue; Ar y Bocs (on the box), which discusses recent Welsh-interest television programs; and Stori Lun, a simple and humorous picture story with dialogue captions in Welsh.
The Stori Lun is one of the more beginning-level items in the magazine, but the content ranges in level and remains useful to readers at a variety of levels. Articles are color-coded according to three levels of difficulty: articles with blue headlines for beginning students, articles with green headlines for more proficient students, and articles with orange headlines for very proficient students. This makes for a very clear and colorful layout! In addition, each article is accompanied by a short vocabulary list, translating potentially new or difficult words into English. I've found this format to be helpful and very effective.
In fact, Golwg as a company is involved with setting new standards for Welsh-media and bilingual publications, so it's no surprise that the quality of their magazine for learners is so high. Besides Lingo Newydd, Golwg also publishes a Welsh-language current affairs magazine entitled Golwg (sight or viewpoint) and a children's magazine called WCW a'i Ffrindiau (WCW and Friends). More information about all of these is available at the Golwg website. The website is fairly new and still under construction, however, so much of the information is still in Welsh only and very little of it is available in English.
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