Quirky Welsh phrasebooks sell more than 100,000 copies
Back in 2018, Welsh artist Anne Cakebread approached publisher Y Lolfa with a rather off-the-wall idea. She wanted to publish the unusual Teach Your Dog Welsh: a handy pocket-sized phrasebook, beautifully illustrated, to help people learn Welsh with their pet.
It might sound like a strange concept, but it’s obviously struck a chord with the public and is still selling well six years later. She’s added more languages to the eye-catching series since then, and the total sales for the series has just exceeded 100,000 copies.
Cardiff-born Anne, who manages Oriel Canfas Gallery in Cardigan and aptly lives in St Dogmaels, explained how the idea for the first book came to her: “I adopted a whippet called Frieda, and discovered that her previous owner had only spoken Welsh to her, so she only responded to Welsh commands.
“I’d started learning Welsh but didn’t really dare use it with anyone at that stage, so I used to practise by speaking to Frieda. It really helped boost my confidence in speaking Welsh aloud, so I came up with the idea for a book to encourage other people to learn and practise with their pets. It’s great entertainment for the owner as well as the dog!”
Since the first book, she’s created lots of others, and you can now Teach Your Dog both big, mainstream languages like French, Italian and Spanish, as well as lots of interesting minority languages like Irish, Scots Gaelic, Cornish, Jersey French and Māori.
There were a lot of requests from cat-lovers to have their own version and the series now includes several Teach Your Cat… titles too. The books contain lots of useful expressions for anyone who would like to learn a few basics – and most of the phrases can be used with people too! Each phrase is accompanied by an appealing retro illustration and help with the pronunciation. There are over 60 expressions to practise, from ‘Come here!’ and ‘Do you want to play?’ to ‘I love you’.
The series has quite a few celebrity fans. Joanna Page from Gavin and Stacey recently posted about Teach Your Dog Welsh on Instagram, and the series has received praise from TV weatherman Derek Brockway (“A really nice, fun way to start learning Welsh – great book!”), BBC radio DJ Bethan Elfyn (“the whole family love these books”), Sunday Times rugby writer Nigel Botherway (“A brilliant Japanese phrasebook for rugby fans – and dog lovers!”), comedian Richard Herring (“A brilliantly fun book”), novelist Marian Keyes (“I think this is a GREAT idea! I LOVE it!”) and comedy legend Dawn French (“Funny & surprisingly clever little books. Love. Love.”).
Y Lolfa Managing Director Garmon Gruffudd said, “I think the reason for the success of Anne’s books is that they provide a really fun introduction to learning another language, and the illustrations appeal just as much to children as to adults. Y Lolfa is especially proud to be playing a small part in helping to encourage people to use some very endangered languages.
Carolyn Hodges, Anne’s editor at Y Lolfa, previously developed bestselling language-teaching courses for Oxford University Press. She said, “Studies show that having fun while learning really helps motivate you to continue, and that’s a key factor in success in language-learning. We hope people will pick up a book because it makes them laugh, but that at least some of them will keep going and want to learn more.
“We’re over the moon with how the idea of these books has caught on. Communicating in another language and the door that opens into another culture is something really magical. My life has changed completely because I randomly decided to start learning Welsh while living in Oxford. Weirdly, as I had nobody to practise with there at first, I did exactly the same as Anne and used to speak Welsh to my cat, Missy. It seems like fate that I ended up editing Teach Your Cat Welsh!”
Anne says, “I studied languages at school, but found it difficult to pick them up as I hadn’t been to the country and didn’t get the chance to practise. I’d love to go back in time and give these books to the teenage me! I hope anyone who’s ever fancied trying their hand at a new language will have fun with the books!”
The newest book in the series is Teach Your Dog German. Commissioning Editor Lefi Gruffudd said, “Y Lolfa is a family business and we are particularly pleased to publish this latest book – our grandmother came to Wales from Germany, so this is the language of many of our extended family. It’s really nice to be able to pay tribute to that in this small way.”
Books in the series so far:
Teach Your Cat Cornish
Teach Your Dog Cornish
Teach Your Dog French
Teach Your Cat Gaelic
Teach Your Dog Gaelic
Teach Your Dog German
Teach Your Dog Gog: North Wales Welsh
Teach Your Cat Guernesiais
Teach Your Cat Irish
Teach Your Dog Irish
Teach Your Dog Italian
Teach Your Dog Japanese (Rugby Travel Edition)
Teach Your Dog Jèrriais
Teach Your Cat Manx
Teach Your Dog Māori
Teach Your Dog Spanish
Teach Your Cat Welsh
Teach Your Dog Welsh
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Part of me really wonders about the differences between “Teach your dog Welsh” and “Teach your cat Welsh”……
TYdogW: “Would you like to play?”
…………………..”Do you want a treat?”
TYcatW: “How may I serve you?”
…………………”Would you like a fishy while you plan your world domination?”
Of course, I’m just guessing……!
Very pertinent questions 🤣🤣