So I am about to finish the 6 month course and was wondering what to do next. I have paid my £10 a month and will probably do level 3. I’ve been playing about with the old course on High speed. I’ve done some meet ups and hangout but can’t immerse myself as I’m miles from Wales. Did anyone get quite fluent whilst not living in Wales? Any tips ideas and hints welcome.
Following the responses to this, I’m about to finish the 6 week course very soon and I also don’t live in Wales.
A few witnesses and I will be able to report more in detail about how fluent I’ve become after my week in Wales (starting Sept. 10th). 
I didn’t do the 6 month course, I did Level 1 and 2 at my own pace in summer 2018. Actually supersonic speed, for a few reasons, so when I attempted Level 3 right after…it was just really too much, and had to let it all sink and settle for some time doing different things.
If you’re interested, I wrote a post about that phase here (and short intro in the first post of the thread): My Trip to Wales to try and speak Welsh - Summary+The Plan
Since then, I attempted Level 3 again, and this time I was able to manage it quite well - although I still find it quite a bit more tough than the first 2.
So I used a few tricks, like transcribing the English sentences that I just wasn’t able to remember, for example.
Then:
- I went through all Level 1 and 2 again (during the summer).
- Kept on listening to songs (very often)
- Watched programmes on S4C (occasionally)
- Listened to SSiW advanced content (just occasionally during the summer)
- Thought of sentences in Welsh (whenever I remember to -e.g. while walking, on the bus etc.)
- Asked questions on the Forum when I have a doubt or curiosity
- Attempted to increase my vocabulary with Duolingo again (but again I can’t remember anything after a week, it’s just too boring, and also way too much effort wasted to get the English sentences right in the translations from Welsh that’s just so confusing for me!)
- Spoke live and actually also asked plenty of questions
when @Deborah-SSi happened to be in Italy for a few days in June - Just very recently, chatted a few times on Slack with @Baruch and @BronwenLewis
I still haven’t done anything specific to improve my reading (that I don’t particularly enjoy, to be honest), to study grammar and even less about my writing.
But now I’m I’m getting anxious for my upcoming Welsh-in-the-wild test 
, so for everything else…we’ll see!
p.s. in case anyone reading this doesn’t know it, I live in Italy.
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Thanks for taking the time to write all of that. 
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No worries. I guess it’s actually also good for me to stop and do a recap from time to time, so thank you for motivating me to do it. 
Well, @gisella-albertini has provided a fantastic response which has had loads of options in - it’s a great response…so my response is really just another persons experience but I’ll avoid duplicating…
I live in Yorkshire so chatting with the locals doesn’t help the Welsh much 
…but I do go to a monthly SSIW meeting in Leeds.
This is great to meet fellow learners, get advice from first language speakers, see how you are doing and just have a bit of fun. So if there is one in your area I’d strongly recommend it - the SSIW newsletter is a good source to find meetings. Have you signed up for the newsletter?!
If you live somewhere else put a post on the forum asking if there is someone near you - you’ll be surprised!
Like Gisella I went through the levels myself - the structured courses came out just after I’d finished 
So having completed level 2, I simply progressed onto level 3.
Personally I found Level 3 just a natural continuation - there is no conclusion to be drawn from this - I think people are different…I think I may have not shot through 1 and 2 as quickly as Gisella - but everybody’s path will be different.
After level 3, I worked on the SSIW advanced content - which I found hard - but persevered.
After that and using the BBC Fwy website as a cheat sheet (see here) I found myself on the bottom rungs of Radio Cymru…and have been working my way upwards.
I now listen to the news twice a day and understand the substantial majority and feel I am improving everyday!
I am very happy with this! 
I will have been learning for two years at the end if October.
I hope that helps in some way, shape or form.
Good luck!
Rich
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Thank you Rich.
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Do Level 3. Maybe Course 3 as well, which is effectively a vocab course, not as interesting as Level 3 but with useful verb short-form conjugations.
As much chatting as possible, via Slack if you’re not able to find people face-to-face.
Pob lwc!
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