Yeah, in the non-immersive schools they still teach Welsh from the age of about 5 on a smaller scale and it's compulsory to age 16, but honestly my...vague experience is that most kids don't pick up anything even approximating fluency. A friend of mine who chose to take it through to 18 and who was actually interested managed to get very close to fluency - like quite advanced conversation, through second-language education, but I think that the interest is the key and most kids just aren't. But then again we're also awful in the UK at second-language education. We teach kids French or German usually starting at 11, but a lot of kids drop it by 14 (I did) and barely remember any now.
Also thinking about it, I think I may have started to speak with confidence after three months but it may have been more like six before I was truly fluent, but still, yes, it is remarkable how fast young children learn.
I sometimes try to consciously speak Welsh to my old high school friends, and I also sometimes choose to watch Welsh TV or something for the news. Quite often I'll check out the Welsh language printed news on the BBC website. Also, and this sounds dorky, but sometimes I make a conscious effort to switch my inner monologue and then panic when I can't remember complicated words and look them up on the online Welsh dictionary. ;)
My limited observations of continental folks is that they're much, much better at English no matter the level of education than UK folks are at other languages. But it is interesting to hear that even at your level of fluency (because I'd never know you were German from reading your words) you don't feel it's become instinctive. I guess that early adoption really does make the difference. Because like you, I get it worse when I'm tired or distracted or in a hurry, but it is mostly limited to like, swapping out Welsh nouns for English ones, rather than any issues with grammar or verbs or tenses.
Accents! Um, that's an interesting question. Basically no - when I'm speaking Welsh I sound like a Welsh speaker from my area, but when I speak English I actually don't sound like most people expect a Welsh person to sound like. Torchwood lies! They all sound like they're from the valleys not from Cardiff. Cardiff has two main accents - neither of which sound very "Welsh" by traditional standards. The one I have is like, super UK neutral. I basically just sound "British" so people - even Welsh people sometimes - assume I'm from England which can be kinda irritating. ;)
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Also thinking about it, I think I may have started to speak with confidence after three months but it may have been more like six before I was truly fluent, but still, yes, it is remarkable how fast young children learn.
I sometimes try to consciously speak Welsh to my old high school friends, and I also sometimes choose to watch Welsh TV or something for the news. Quite often I'll check out the Welsh language printed news on the BBC website. Also, and this sounds dorky, but sometimes I make a conscious effort to switch my inner monologue and then panic when I can't remember complicated words and look them up on the online Welsh dictionary. ;)
My limited observations of continental folks is that they're much, much better at English no matter the level of education than UK folks are at other languages. But it is interesting to hear that even at your level of fluency (because I'd never know you were German from reading your words) you don't feel it's become instinctive. I guess that early adoption really does make the difference. Because like you, I get it worse when I'm tired or distracted or in a hurry, but it is mostly limited to like, swapping out Welsh nouns for English ones, rather than any issues with grammar or verbs or tenses.
Accents! Um, that's an interesting question. Basically no - when I'm speaking Welsh I sound like a Welsh speaker from my area, but when I speak English I actually don't sound like most people expect a Welsh person to sound like. Torchwood lies! They all sound like they're from the valleys not from Cardiff. Cardiff has two main accents - neither of which sound very "Welsh" by traditional standards. The one I have is like, super UK neutral. I basically just sound "British" so people - even Welsh people sometimes - assume I'm from England which can be kinda irritating. ;)