I think I must just do more driving than you 
Congratulations on becoming Mam-gi
I often find that my ‘production’ works better when I am not fully concentrating… it’s as my conscious (mono-tasking) bit gets caught up in something which allows my subconscious (multi-tasking) bit to get on with producing language.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this is part of the genius of SSiW… they get you concentrating on the ‘new’ thing allowing your subconscious brain to accurately produce the twiddly bit somewhere else in those horrifically long sentences.
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Awesome work, both of you! 
I hope it works - it’s mostly deliberate…
I think it probably fits somewhere between the research done into ‘interleaving’ and stuff around ‘desirable difficulty’…
Hi all, sorry for not posting earlier - one of the joys of being self employed is when you take a week off it takes 3 weeks to catch up! Thought the course was fantastic, really helped me break my conversation phobia that had been holding me back for months. I now have regular conversations in work and with family - hugely exciting and beneficial. Still lots to learn - can’t wait to get stuck in to level 3! Massive thanks to Aran for all the hard work, and yes, I’m even missing the ‘sglod fynchu’ sessions 
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Absolutely delighted to hear that - that is the path to real, utter confidence. Huge congratulations - and thoroughly deserved, after you worked so hard…
[Remember, you can build your own sglod-fwnci sessions at home… ]
I’m gonna write down this sentence and stick it on my computer, as it’s absolutely true and exactly what I needed to hear. To hell with perfectionism and this accursed comparing oneself and one’s abilities and progresses with others. Even if, once again, I didn’t reach my goal today and only managed to learn for 10 or 15 minutes, it wasn’t in vain, as now, I know more than I did yesterday.
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So glad it’s helped in any little way at all. I’m pretty sure it was something that Aran said to us during the course but I took it to heart and it really helped me see language acquistion or learning in a much more manageable perspective.
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Go for it. Even if you think it goes in one ear and out the other, it doesn’t. There is something between your ears that captures it processes it and stores it ready to surprise you when you think you have forgotten it.
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Forgot to say… saw Vicki from our SSiW. She is fit and well and we are going to have a practice in a fortnight.
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Oh, fantastic - I’d love to hear how that goes…
Realised today that it’s about 3 months since I did the 5 day intensive in May and I am very impressed that my welsh is NOT fading away even though I am not skyping as much as I know I should and also not doing much in the way of lessons ( last lesson about 3 weeks ago) and yet I know my welsh is improving because I am using subtitles less and less but understanding more and more and occasionally there’s a welsh phrase in my mind BEFORE the english. I think it’s exceptional that the results of the 5 day have proved to be so long lasting (for me anyway) so thank you to all those people who help to make sure that SSIW is available.
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Thank you SO much for sharing this, Sharon 
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De nada
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I have just ventured off of the new challenges onto the old lessons. Very interesting.
Lots of vocabulary and forms not covered in the new course. Particularly enjoying the work on ‘yes/no’ and the different bits of past tense.
Feels a lot more like ‘traditional’ teaching than the new challenges. Initially it was very difficult to acclimatise to… wondering what other people have found.
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Having got to the end of Level 2 of the challenges, I decided to try the old lessons before diving into Level 3. Yes, I think that it feels more traditional. We take a topic, such as one of the past tenses, and work on it. I expected that this would make it easier to learn the topic, but I am not convinced that it does. It may just be my perception, but I think that the pauses in the old lessons are shorter than in the challenges. (South.) Often I am lucky if I get one word out in time. Maybe people were expected to use the pause button in those days.
I am glad to have the chance to work on the old lessons, to increase vocabulary and have a different experience, but I think that the new challenges are better. They are not exactly easier, but I think that they give a more encouraging feeling of progress. Maybe the repetition is organised differently. In the new challenges, every time I feel that I am about to drown, a familiar phrase appears like a lifebelt.
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I’ve just been revisiting Course 3 (North), several years after first trying them. I did think that the pauses were rather short. I seem to remember the pauses on Courses 1 & 2 being longer though.
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I’m working through the old courses too, about half way through level three, I did skip most of the first level and listened to some at double speed but about half way through the second course I started doing each one.
I agree about the pauses, some are definitely too short! I like the more traditional feel, having more repetition of similar forms helps create a feeling of progress. Although I would not be surprised if it was a less effective way of learning.
I hope the old courses remain available as an extra resource for those of us who like to get a lot of practice. I do feel I am benefiting from the better understanding of the short forms - again it would be difficult to judge if it is actually making me a better speaker, especially as all the new challenges are not available yet for a full comparison.
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This brings back memories of when we addressed this precise issue using @lewie 's programming expertise built on @ianspencer 's prototype software. The formula determining the gaps was a work of programming and logical wonder. I could share it, but then I’d have to kill you all. 
In my own view, occasional brevity in the pauses helps to concentrate the mind. 
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Delighted to be able to share our latest 5 day survivors video in here (and just noticed I haven’t shared the first one, so I’ll fix that next).
This set of brave souls were all intermediate-ish to start with - and they actually did better than shows in the video, because they got a bit of ‘argh! camera!’ going on for the results bit - but it is still deeply impressive…
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And here’s the first one, which I probably have posted somewhere on here before, but, well… tidy…
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And now we just sit back and wait excitedly for the footage from the 10 dayer…
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