Cornish with Clive - A New approach to Cornish Lessons

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An idea to record basic introductory lessons in the Cornish language as podcasts has proven to be an internet hit.

Cornish language teacher and Bard of the Cornish Gorseth, Clive Baker came up with the idea recently and with four half hour sessions recorded already, the lessons have been widely circulated around the internet and are already receiving over a thousand visits each.

In the podcasts, Clive teaches a pupil, Mike, phrases in the Cornish language and invites listeners to join in and repeat the phrases. Both Mike and Clive have fairly broad Cornish accents which helps the sound of Cornish no end.  Clive feels students should learn the sounds of the vowels in the dialect to assist in their Cornish.

This is followed up with the podcast being published on a number of websites and Facebook sites accompanied by a written script showing the Cornish, English and an easy phonetic pronunciation method.

Feedback has been both considerable and positive, and Clive, Chairman of AganTavas - the Society for the Protection and Promotion of the Cornish Language has received numerous follow up enquiries from listeners not only in Cornwall but further afield.

He remarked, 'The success of this venture has been proven  by the amazing number of 'hits' on the various sites as well as the various enquiries I receive. This is really most encouraging and shows that we must embrace technology to engage with folks.'

The 'Cornish with Clive' podcasts are broadcast at 8.30am on Tuesday mornings, and repeated at the same time in the evening on the newly launched 'KMF Radio' community radio station transmitting on the internet from its Redruth studios to which a link here: http://kmfradio.org/

Apart from on many Facebook sites, the podcasts are also available to listen to on the following Cornish language group websites: http://bayker.weebly.com/ (the Redruth class site) and http://cykc.weebly.com/ (the Camborne class site) where there are also the downloadable phonetic scripts to assist listeners.

Photos show Clive and Clive and Mike researching future podcasts (written by Clive Baker)