Ooo that’s an interesting idea I must try! 
Stu
Stu, the challenge was to listen for just 3 minutes, and write down what words we could recognise. Then start again and see if we could hear more each time. Pb lwc!
Day 8 - aros adref
The Lesson: Gwers 12, Cwrs 3
I went through this pretty quickly this morning. The new stuff was quite straightforward for me, and then I used the pause button more in the middle of the lesson as it jumped about testing what I had already learnt, then there was a section introducing some new vocab with relatively easy constructions.
The Challenge: a 10 minute thinking in Welsh session - Meditation.
I started thinking about this when I was out walking before lunch and decided to think about my mum who died in 2006. The first thing I realised about the process was that I was speaking in my head rather than thinking. I guess I’m at the stage of a young child who is learning to read, but has to say it out loud. I didn’t have to voice my thoughts, but I was aware of my speaking voice in my head. The 10 minutes went very quickly.
In terms of things I couldn’t say / think - there weren’t many, because over the past year I have learnt to use the vocabulary I know to get round the things I don’t know or can’t remember! 2 little things caught me out:
- Oedd fy nhad “design” y ardd, oedd yn hawdd i gadw yn daclus.
- Oedd fy mam dysgu ei cherddoriaedd “from memory so that she could” darllen ei llyfr am yr un amser i chwarae y cerddoriaedd.
Must do more thinking in my head! 
I’m not entirely sure I really understand what the difference is…
Sounds as though you’re doing excellently - and as if you’re about the first person so far for whom the onlineBootcamp/Bobsled Run hasn’t been quite challenging enough!
Design - dylunio
‘from memory so that she could’ - ‘ar y cof fel byddai hi’n medru’…
Day 9
The Lesson: Gwers 13, Cwrs 3
I think the synapses of my brain collapsed this morning. I made a huge number of mistakes all the way through the lesson. I had a bit of a headache, so I think my concentration was rubbish. I misheard things, said completely the wrong verbs sometimes - so perhaps you kind comment above Aran was a little premature! I hope tomorrow I will be a bit more on the ball.
The Challenge: speak and record what you say for 3 minutes and then listen for mistakes.
I had been thinking about what I might say in the recording earlier in the day, and practised a bit. However, as soon as I got in front of the microphone my brain kept going blank, so it is all a bit disjointed. The challenge was hugely about keeping going. Perhaps I should have jotted down some pointers.
As for mistakes -
Speaking in the present instead of the past (several instances)
Loads of hesitations while my brain worked out how to say something.
No link word before ‘sylweddoli’
Plannio? I should have remembered to learn the word for design after yesterday’s challenge.
Gwneud instead of rhoi
Yn y gardd (instead of ardd)
Dw i ddim yn siwr beth arall i wneud - I meant to say i ddeud!
Lousy sentence about my sons and that they lived in a town near the town where I lived.
At that point I pressed the pause button and took a deep breath - but it seems not to have worked, and therefore the next 30 seconds is just background noise, and me whispering “no idea” about the technology!
I shall now try and upload to Sound Cloud and put a link in a new post.
I do this all the time
Stu
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So here is the Soundcloud link. Took me ages to find the lead, which I haven’t used for a long, long time. I wish I could speak more quickly. It sounds very boring!
Gwych! Llongyfarchiadau!
It’s very important that you have occasional days when it all feels like mud. It’s natural, inevitable, and a great opportunity for you to show faith in yourself and the system by pushing on with more new material the next time you still down to work…
Mishearing, wrong verbs? This is genuinely trivial stuff - I guarantee you that while you were focusing on that, your brain was busy continuing with the mapping process - so the next session you move on to will not be the nightmare you might currently be expecting.
And your SoundCloud track shows what I of course already knew from Bootcamp - you can speak Welsh The further you go, the more often you do it, the more easily it will flow - but don’t ever forget that you can already do it 
I’ll look forward very much indeed to hearing how 14 goes for you!
Thank you for those encouraging words. I know I can speak Welsh - but I suppose I just want to speak it better - and the only way is practice. (Just like playing the piano!) 
Day 10
The Lesson: Gwers 14, Cwrs 3
So this morning I took a deep breath and make a pact to take as much time as I needed to do this final bootcamp lesson. I used the pause button a lot, so that I could process the English sentence and turn it into correct Cymraeg. It worked - I was so much better than yesterday, and I really enjoyed learning the new verbs and using the structures from the previous lessons with them.
I have 2 questions:
I would like to clarify the endings of the short forms for him and her. Is it ‘th’ or ‘ff’, or does it vary. e,g, Neiff o or Neith o. (Or is it Naiff/Naith?)
I am happy to take a break from “learning” and doing lessons after I have finished this bootcamp - I think my brain deserves it! You said it’s ok to listen to the radio or watch TV if it’s fun. Is it ok to speak in Welsh during this next two weeks? I’ve spoken a lot more Welsh this week than normal, and am hoping to speak to Vaughan again on Tuesday, and to meet up with Doug on Thursday. And yes it is fun to do!
Will post something about The Final Challenge later or tomorrow. Gwyn’s away watching rugby and won’t be back until 6/7 ish, so we may save our conversation until tomorrow morning - especially if it is to be an hour! Depends how we feel.
And that’s on a new, should-be-harder lesson - so it shows that your brain has been working its usual magic even while you’ve felt overwhelmed. Take a bow, brain!
Great idea to be a bit more careful and patient on this one - galloping through is good too, but a well-paced steady session is always a good thing.
Sure, as much as you like, if it feels like fun and you enjoy it
It’s ‘neith’ (wnaiff if you’re being formal/written/etc) - you will occasionally hear an ‘ff’ ending in speech, but not all that often - in fact, I can’t think that I ever have in Gwynedd, but it might be a bit more common in the south…
You’ve done excellently, Anne, and all you want will come to pass - you’re doing exactly the work you need to get to where you want, and we’re going to produce more, better material in the new levels, so it’ll all work out well
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Day 10/11
The Challenge: talk to another Welsh speaker for 10 minutes or an hour.
After Aran’s encouraging comments I decided I’d better do more than 10 minutes. I’d hoped to do it yesterday evening but Gwyn was tired and we weren’t really in the right frame of mind. So this morning we set off for a walk through the fields and lanes nearby, and apart from the first 5 minutes or so we spoke Welsh all the way. (About 4 miles - so probably about 1hour and 15 minutes. I got stuck lots of times, but often managed to find another way to say something or sometimes Gwyn kind of guessed what I wanted to say, and helped me out. I used lots of tenses, and some of the new short form verbs I’ve been learning over the past 10 days, and I also used some of the words I learnt from the Cwrs 2 vocab units. Gwych! Oh, and on the way I told Gwyn how to make Welsh cakes - and now need to check the new vocab which was introduced.
Ar ol roeddwn ni’n mynd am dro, ges i beth o’n i’n heddu. Peint o gwrw a sglodion yn y dafarn lleol. Bendigedig!
So I’m officially finished now. I have found it interesting and challenging at times, and have learnt quite a lot about the learning process and about what phases me. I’ve also spoken more Welsh in the last week, than I have since Bootcamp in April! I have used quite a lot of my time over the 10 days - which is why I chose to do it this week as it is half-term and all my choirs are resting. It’s really worth a try if you are thinking about it - but do allow time to do everything that is planned - because definitely adds up to more than the sum of its parts.
Excellent decision! And many, many congratulations to you for sticking at it and for doing so well
I think the next step for you now is clear. And a bit scary!
I think you need to agree to have a Welsh-only day with Gwyn.
Just one to begin with - and if you both get through it without any serious loss of blood, then you can give some thought to making it a monthly event - until you’re ready to make it a weekly one…
You’re genuinely a Welsh speaker, Anne. From here on in, the more you enjoy being a Welsh speaker, the more you speak Welsh, the more you’ll get out of it. Llongyfarchiadau mawr iawn!
That would certainly be a challenge, and as you say a bit scary. It’s also logistically tricky, as we don’t have many days when we’re not committed to speaking English somewhere. However, I think it would be a great thing to work towards in easy steps. Could we perhaps start with a day where we were not together for the whole day, but that when we were we would agree to speak only Welsh.
I’m also hoping to speak to other Welsh speakers on Skype more often.
Thanks for all your support, and ideas.
Going for an evening of Welsh only would be a terrific first step
You’re more than welcome - it’s a privilege to part of your journey towards speaking Welsh
Syniad da!
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Just listened to your Soundcloud recording. Bendigedig! Dw i’n edrych ymlaen i siarad gyda ti Dydd Iau.
Diolch. Mi welai’ch di dydd Iau i siarad Cymraeg efo 'chdi.
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So - I have done the final stage of the on-line bootcamp. Yesterday I was disappointed to find that although some of the phrases came instantly to mind, there were other that left me struggling for the right constructions. I tried again today and it was significantly better although not perfect by any means.
I think this is because on Day 9 I was all over the place - so I don’t believe I took in as much as was necessary. Then the lesson on Day 10 was very different in that we were learning new verbs and vocab (all of which have stayed in my head).
I also wonder if 2 whole weeks break was a bit to long for me? I presume everyone is slightly different when it comes to retaining/retrieving information.
I think I need to go back and do Lessons 12 and 13 again to nail down all the short forms from “cael”, as this was the main problem today. After that I should be able to skip Lesson 14, and leap ahead with Lesson 15.
After that, what would be a good pattern to follow with the rest of Cwrs 3?
You were disappointed with an absolutely normal pattern that shows you have been successfully learning the material?! How many times have you heard on here that you are NOT aiming at perfection? If you have some phrases coming instantly to mind, especially some of the stuff that was new in the last session you did, you’re doing excellently!
Absolutely NOT. In fact, there’s an interesting possibility that the longer you leave it before revisiting, the stronger the memory will become (even though the initial revisit will feel more challenging). I’m tempted to tell you to take 2 months off now and then do the same again!
Please, please don’t do this. This is exactly the standard belief that I’m trying to break you away from. The learning will work because of the intervals - you do NOT need to go back to massive overkill to gain ‘perfect’ command of every new piece of language. Particularly not when you go back to massive overkill and then SKIP lessons, which means you skip the interval patterns that actually create the learning…
What was the last session you did? You’ve repeated that twice now in the last two days? It’s time for you to press on with the next new session, Anne. I strongly recommend that you go the whole way to the end of Course 3 before you even think about revisiting anything! And when you think about revisiting then, you just know I’m going to tell you to give it a few weeks, and then just run through 24 and 25 again
Patterns - depends on what sort of time you’re looking to put into it. The key thing is for you to challenge yourself to get through to the end of 25 without repeating anything, and don’t worry if it makes you feel that things are a bit out of control!