Refugee learns Welsh in a year
HE’S only been in Wales for a year but Joseph Gnagbo is already fluent in Welsh and is even teaching the language to others.
The refugee, who has recently been granted asylum, says he didn’t even know there was a Welsh language when he arrived in Cardiff in 2018.
A linguist who worked for schools and a university in his home country of Ivory Coast, Joseph, 45, who speaks seven languages, took free Welsh lessons offered by volunteers at the Oasis Centre in Splott.
He picked up the language so fast he was offered free classes at Cardiff University and now gives free lessons to refugees.
“Learning Welsh helps me feel I belong,” said the father of two, whose life was threatened as an opponent of the current president of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara.
“People are very warm here and really supportive here, especially if you speak the language.
“Learning Welsh has made me more attracted to the language and Welsh culture. I want to stay here and it’s important to learn the language.”
Joseph has been unable to see his two daughters, aged eight and nine, since fleeing government forces in 2011 and making his way to sanctuary in Wales across Africa via Morocco.
Ivory Coast, a former French colony, has suffered violence since civil war effectively split the country after insurgency in 2002. After Alassane Ouattara was declared president in 2010 postelection violence left 3,000 people dead and 500,000 people displaced.
“When I left in 2011 people were being killed on a daily basis in the capital where I lived,” Joseph recalls.
“I saw people shot and cut. My uncle died in the bush fleeing government forces and my 15-year-old niece was shot.”
After threats to his life Joseph fled by bus to Ghana.
“The hardest thing is not being able to see my daughters. They live with my sister and I speak to them at least once a week on Whatsapp. I can’t let people see their names or know where they live for their safety.”
A natural linguist, the refugee, whose mother tongue is French, also speaks Russian, Arabic, Swahili, Italian, German and English, some of which he perfected on his eight-year journey to the UK.
“Welsh is very different to other languages but it’s interesting and the grammar isn’t too difficult,” he said.
“I want to perfect my Welsh and contribute to the promotion of the language and encourage other refugees and asylum-seekers to learn it.”
Joseph is being supported by Welshlanguage campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith and was at its stand at the National Eisteddfod in Llanrwst, Conwy, this week.
Colin Nosworthy, from Cymdeithas, said: “Joseph started with basic and intermediate lessons, then going on to advanced, and now he is fluent. It just shows that people can do that.”