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Social media can be an ideological battleground in divisive political times but it can also be a wonderful global gateway linking those with a common aim.

The latter has certainly been the case for me since I have been sharing my experiences of learning Welsh. The encouragement I get online is invaluable. Twitter has also brought me the lovely friendship of fellow dysgwr Cymraeg, Susan Floyd, and with it an inspiring story of how the language can be learned a long way from Wales.

Susan describes herself as a “sixth generation Texan” and is an archivist with the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Outside the day job of dealing with historical manuscripts and state records she has nurtured a love of Wales, its language and its culture through family ancestry... and football.

“Well obviously my name is Welsh: Floyd,” she explains. “I’ve known that since I was about eight, coming as I do from a family of history buffs. So I always had some recognition and identification there. I lived in England for about five years in my 20s and have visited Wales on numerous occasions before, including climbing and hiking in Eryri, visiting the Brecon Beacons where my ancestors were supposedly from, and spending New Year’s Eve 2000 in Cardiff. Learning Welsh was always on my bucket list, always in the back of my mind – maybe a project for retirement or my twilight years or something.”

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But then came a moment that made Susan decide there had never been a better time to kick off: “Wales qualified for the Euros. I’d been telling my football-watching friends here in Austin for a couple of years that they would, and that they would be good – and fun to watch. So I was just as utterly delighted as every other Wales supporter when they reached the semi-finals,” she recalls.

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“I watched every game at a local Irish pub here in Austin where I normally watch Liverpool with a group of local fans. I’d been watching England in international tournaments for 20 years, but had never before had the opportunity to even watch a single Wales game on television. And what an introduction! I met other fans, both American and Welsh, who were there to watch the game. It was all a dream. I even stayed in touch with a woman I met at the pub who was here in Texas on holiday (an Everton fan, no less!) and we met up when I was in Bangor in November. I keep saying, ‘Joe Allen: bringing people together!’ She says, ‘No, it’s all Ashley Williams’.”

Susan adds: “My mother, who has always been a fan of American football, tennis, and basketball, became a soccer fan because of the Euros. One day, she told me, ‘I love watching this team! I’m so jealous. I wish I was Welsh!’ So I did a little more digging in her side of the family tree and found Welsh ancestors we hadn’t even known about. She was pretty excited.

“So, long story short, Chris Coleman’s team inspired me to start learning Welsh at the youthful age of 36!”

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It’s great to hear a team that not only performed brilliantly in the Euros but used Welsh so effectively and organically across various media platforms throughout its campaign has left such a positive linguistic legacy. But how on earth do you go about learning Welsh in Texas?

As Susan explains, in cyberspace it doesn’t matter how many thousand miles you are away from Wales: “I began with Gareth King’s Colloquial Welsh and a daily diet of BBC Radio Cymru. Then I decided to get serious in September and signed up for John Good’s Beginning Welsh I class through Americymraeg .

“We meet once a week online, using Google Hangouts, and John leads us through listening and speaking exercises based on that week’s lessons in our textbook, Heini Gruffudd’s Welcome to Welsh. This is invaluable, not just having the regular opportunity to speak the language, but also to learn slang, idioms, North Walian/South Walian variances, folk tales, songs, and get our questions answered by a great and enthusiastic teacher. I look forward to Monday nights.”

Last autumn, Susan supplemented her online learning with a personal pilgrimage to Wales. “I was making great progress until the US election, which threw me off track. I flew to Britain in November and spent one week in England with old friends before spending the next week driving the perimeter of the Welsh coast alone – from Liverpool to Swansea.

“It was wonderful getting to meet native speakers and hear the language in regular use. But I am ashamed to say that I was too out of practice – and intimidated – to try to speak much beyond uttering a very basic ‘Diolch!’ in shops. I also got to meet with several wonderful Welsh speakers whom I’d ‘met’ on Twitter during the Euros, which made my trip infinitely more interesting and meaningful. So, though I was travelling alone, I received a very warm welcome and more than enough motivation to continue learning the language.”

Susan now aims to improve her Welsh by attending a more immersive course. “I’m hoping to attend an Wlpan (course) for a week or, ideally, two, sometime in 2017, so that I can move my Welsh study from basic/academic to conversational/practical. I am also going to try to start a Welsh conversational meet-up group here in Central Texas soon. Unfortunately, though our local university is one of the largest in the world, it doesn’t offer any Celtic languages. But I am fairly confident I’m not the only dysgwr Cymraeg around here!”

And, of course, there is the added support network of the online Welsh learning – and sporting – community. As Susan says: “Social media is definitely a major factor in the spread of interest in Wales and Welsh. The football team doesn’t hurt, either.”

So “America first!” may be the mantra of the newly-inaugurated President but as Susan’s inspiring example proves, there are still plenty of US citizens reaching out to embrace a language and culture thousands of miles beyond any walls that Trump may want to build.

Carolyn Hitt has embarked on a 30-week course to learn Welsh and is sharing her progress. This month she discovers how learning the language can be a truly global experience.

For information on opportunities to learn Welsh across Wales click on www.learnwelsh.cymru and follow Y Ganolfan Dysgu Cymraeg Genedlaethol/National Centre for Learning Welsh on Twitter @learncymraeg