Advice please folks

Some advice please folks. I have completed all the existing Northern courses now - the 3 ‘old’ courses plus lefels 1,2 and 3. Do you think I should now start on the southern courses and I am likely to confuse myself? Have you good people done both North & South successfully / unsuccessfully? Your comments / advice would be most appreciated. Diolch pawb.

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To be honest, I think you really ought to be in a pub talking Welsh to people now… :slight_smile:

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Thanks Aran, but not easy in Weston-Super-Mare! Lol.

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Get @Deborah-SSi to put a note in the email for you:

Wanted - Welsh-speaking pub-goers in Weston-Super-Mare… :slight_smile:

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There are quite a few, I think, who have done all of either N or S then gone on to do the other - I’m sure that’s what @Nicky is doing at the moment (which is why I’ve tagged him!).

Having done a mix of S and N courses myself (albeit before SSiW existed), it can take some getting used to, but it does help with recognising the alternate forms (i.e. some constructions and words that are different N v S) where they occur, and also it gets you used to the different ways the same words are pronounced (i.e. like when pethau comes out as petha or pethe).

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That’s helpful. Diolch Siaron.

The pub thing what Aran said.

But if you do go down the Southern route - it’s competely fine. South and North follow the same English script which serves to very nicely highlight the handful of differences between North and South.

If you knock out a couple of South lessons tomorrow you’ll be perfectly placed for a little road trip to the Newport Riveria for our Saturday morning SSiW meetup in the library…

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As @siaronjames kindly mentioned me, I thought I’d give you an answer :slight_smile:

As a Southern course veteran, I wanted to do the Northern just because I thought it help ‘round off’ my Welsh - not necessarily to use it, but to have a better understanding of the spoken word of my northern brothers and sisters.

Warning: you will spend your first 5 lessons saying things from the other course :slight_smile:

2nd warning: you will start using the accent from the new course. :):slight_smile:

But I’ve enjoyed and can fully recommend.

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Concerning doing both Southern and Northern… as an outsider I chose Northern somewhat arbitrarily, but mainly because personal considerations dictate that when I visit the UK it is easier for me to visit North Wales.
However, in practice I do a Northern lesson, repeating if necessary (rarely these days) and then run once through the Southern version, usually - and intentionally - saying my sentences mainly in the Northern dialect. This has the advantage of allowing me to familiarise myself with the Southern dialect. The occasional mix-ups that result from this way of learning are a very small price to pay when, for example, I have a Slack chat with someone for the first time and he is using “gyda” instead of my “efo”. In such circumstances I hardly even notice it, which is how language should be.

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I’m not nearly as far through as you, but I switch between North and South regularly, but primarily follow South. I do it because every so often there’ll be a construction that is not what I expect from what I’ve seen on Duolingo, so I like to see if what I think I know crops up in the other region.

It does mean my Welsh is a bit of a mix though. Mind you, my English is like that too…

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The “Northen/Southern” border isn’t as hard as I think its made out to be a lot of the time. Lots of North Walians end up moving down to Cardiff and surrounding towns with work and they bring their Northernisms with them - likewise I know of lots of Southern men who have fallen for the charm and Godlike accent of a Northern lady and moved up.

Don’t worry about being a mix - I’ve been known to use “Sa i’n” (the desparate sign that someone is from the South) with “efo fo” (the desparate sign that someone is from the North) in the same sentence :smiley:

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I’ve noticed that from the very first time that I tried speaking Welsh. Another reason to familiarise oneself with the ‘other’ dialect.

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That’s why I did it really, because I come into contact with a bit of everyone, I’ve been given a new team of people to manage in work as well so I’ve got a few guys down in Bridgend (2 speak Welsh) and 1 up in St. Asaph (who also speaks Welsh), so it’s good for me to understand everything :D, even if they throw a “yn hytrach” at me INSTEAD of an “yn lle” :smiley:

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It sounds like you share my closet admiration for the Gog accent :joy:

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[move towards the light… move slowly towards the light…]

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I don’t even really like Duffy - but that accent is just amazing :smiley:

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and of course…

when I first watched this about April 2017 I really had no idea what was going on!!! Now whenever people say they don’t understand them, I have no idea how they can’t!

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I have to keep stopping myself saying ‘efo’ these days, and there is something very satisfying about ‘rŵan hyn’ :smile:

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“efo” is a gateway drug to the rest of them. I started doing efo this time last year, and look at me now!

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Gosh, I picked out “chwarae piano”, “dangos”, “dim byd” and, does she at one point say “Dw i mor fach” or something similar? Frankly I’m amazed I could understand any of it.

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