Prestatyn’s Carol Vorderman appears on S4C’s Iaith ar Daith

Prestatyn’s Carol Vorderman has recently appeared on a new show on S4C called Iaith ar Daith (Language on Tour).  She appeared on the 1st episode of 5 where 5 different celebrities take on a tour across wales with a welsh speaking close friends to enable to learn and use the language or even just to have knowledge. Other celebrities in the series include former athlete Colin Jackson, Actress Ruth Jones better known as Nessa from Gavin and Stacey, Former Welsh Rugby International Scott Quinnell and Broadcaster Adrian Chiles.

The press release for the show describes it as “5 celebs, 5 mentors and different reasons for learning Welsh”
Carol is joined by her friend and mentor BBC North West Tonight’s weather broadcaster Owain Wyn Evans, she describes that she has a “genuine love for her country and she wants to be part of the language to be able to talk to the amazing people who speak the language and she wants the language to survive”.

Before embarking on this challenge she did an online course with “Say Something in Welsh (SSiW)” and also had one full day of lessons. She starts off her journey back home in Prestatyn passing her house on Palmeira Gardens where she lived until she was 10 and was emotional to see her old house in the town. She is described by Owain as being nervous about the challenge and that she may fing it hard going, but carol thinks there will be a lot of laughter. Her 1st challenge is at Ysgol y Llys in the town where she takes a maths lesson which is her strong point being a mathematician, but she has to take this lesson through the medium of Welsh, the following day she uses her maths skills again to add up a food and drink hamper in the Pwllglas Community shop in Ruthin and the list of what is going in it is completely in Welsh and she learns that Welsh cakes in North Wales are known as “Cacen Gri”.

Whilst on this tour she also goes to meet famous Farmer Gareth Wyn Jones on his farm and meets a calf named after her called Carol Bach. Her next challenge is at Gregynog Hall near Newtown in Montgomeryshire where she is given half an hour to learn a script to take on the job as a  tour guide  for  the visitors of the hall and its art collections, at the end of the tour some of the visitors ask questions and are suprised at how many lessons she has had and appears so confident in using the language. Her biggest challenge of the tour comes at the end where she visits the Tinopolis in Llanelli where the set of S4C’s Weather and is asked to present the weather in welsh with no help from Owain her mentor which she really gets into and is given the thumbs up by both Owain and presenter of S4C’s weather Chris Jones.

At the end of the tour and challenges her mentor is pleased with how far she has come and how much she is using the language and how confident she is too. To end their tour they take a trip to Pembrokeshire and the blue lagoon, at the end she describes herself at the end as feeling sad and that the people of wales are kind, the country is beautiful and that her heart is back in wales.

The episode is still available to watch on BBC iPlayer and having watched the show and learning welsh myself it makes me feel so happy that this show is on to see how others get on with learning.