Another online bootcamper... From Wigan

Welsh Bootcamp
#1

So, after long periods of procrastination, I finally decided to take the plunge and go for the 10 day online bootcamp.

The first thing that stood out to me was the rule - do one lesson a day, pause as much as you like, but don’t go back to it. This is a bit of interesting one for me, because normally I do each lesson approximately 714 time before moving on. But, as the rules state, today I did lesson 6 of course 2 (gogledd) once, and surprisingly (I think) I can still remember most of what was learned.

Todays challenge – bore da, p’nawn da, etc, etc – wasn’t too much of a struggle as today being a day off, everyone I came into contact with is used to the random Welsh throughout the day routine. Tomorrow however, there’s plans afoot to actually do some work, and I’ll definitely be continuing the trend then.

That’s my take on day one. Methu aros tan yfory :slight_smile:

#2

Well done! I was just wondering if it was only me that did each lesson c. 300 times… Maybe I should take the boot camp plunge.

#3

From what it’s been like over the past 3 days, I would absolutely recommend the online bootcamp. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a good chance I’ve accidentally signed a waiver to supply Aran with a 60" LCD TV and life long subscription to Sky, but so far so good, and it feels like my Welsh has come on leaps and bounds :slight_smile:

#4

Due to the lack of a decent internet connection while working away, day 2’s challenge comes a little later than planned. But rest assured, lesson 7 and the challenge were both completed within the given time scale :wink:

Rather surprisingly, moving on to a new lesson wasn’t as much of a struggle as I’d envisioned, and most of what was learned yesterday appears to have sunk in! Todays lesson however, was one of those, “I just can’t seem to get my tongue around around the new structures” type of lessons. This may have something to do with staying up all night and watching S4C’s excellent coverage of the Scottish independence vote – which really was excellent, by the way. But, after a quick reference to the written notes, recalling the problematic phrases was much easier.

Anyway, on to the challenge. And, due to the nature of my work – alone and in the middle of nowhere – I thought I’d text my Dad (he knows me enough, right?), and sure enough, he was more than happy to knock out a few lines for translation purposes. Now, before I go on, I’m not entirely sure if it was down to sleep deprivation or some form of new hobby including narcotics, but I have absolutely no idea what’s going on here :stuck_out_tongue:

Dad: Bore da, Danny. Oeddet ti’n cysgu’n dda?
Me: O’n i’n cysgu’n dda iawn diolch. Ond wnes i cael dream digrif
Dad: Beth wedi y dream?
Me: Mae mochyn fawr wedi bwyta fi brawd. O’n ni’n medri aros y mochyn. Wnes i ddeffro ar ol hyn.
Dad: Ar ol oll y gweithio, dwi’n meddwl dyn ni’n angen rhywbeth i fwyta. Wyt ti eisio bacwn?
Me: Wyt ti’n trio digrif? Ond, yn do os gwelwch chi’n dda, mae’n sounds gwych!

And in English…

Dad: Good morning Danny! Did you sleep well?
Me: I slept really well, thanks. But I had a funny dream.
Dad: What was the dream?
Me: A large pig was eating my brother. Fortunately I managed to stop the pig. Then I awoke.
Dad: After all that work, I think you need some breakfast. Would you like some bacon?
Me: Is that supposed to be funny? Anyway, yes please, bacon sounds delicious!

Aside from the peculiar story line, there were a few words and sentence structures I didn’t know the Welsh for, so have either taken a linguistical detour or opted for the English word. Any help, advice or error spotting would be greatly appreciated.

Diolch yn fawr! :slight_smile:

#5

there’s a good chance I’ve accidentally signed a waiver to supply Aran with a 60" LCD TV and life long subscription to Sky

I’m enjoying the stuff on Sky, cheers…:wink:

That dialogue is my kind of dialogue, and will see you become a confident speaker in very short order! The more you play with language, the faster you acquire it, so it’s not only entertaining, it’s a genuinely important sign that you’re going to do well.

I’m particularly delighted to hear that you’re pushing on with the ‘no repetition’ - and starting to find that it works - keep on going, because that bit is vital…:smile:

#6

Day 3, and on to some more tongue twisting whilst trying to explain why I love the plurals :stuck_out_tongue:

As the day has been spent away from home and signalling trains, my only opportunity to act out yesterdays dialogue was during a shift change (apologies to the innocent member of train crew involved). It was a less than theatrical performance, done twice in-between the hysterics of a born and bread Lancashire man’s attempt and trying to read Welsh. But that counts, right? :smiley:

#7

Dydd pedwar. Another lesson, another challenge.

I’m really enjoying this fast paced learning. It’s challenging, but moving on to a new lesson, making mistakes and being remarkably smug every time I get a sentence out correctly before Catrin seems to be paying dividends! :slight_smile:

The hardest part of todays challenge was actually remembering I was meant to be doing a challenge. I’d go through a whole conversion, and only remember I was meant to be translating it after they’d gone, so the day was mainly spent translating things around me - road signs, magazines and even the odd work related telephone conversion. Things did take a turn for the tricky whilst in the shower and trying to translate “Herbal Essences with botanical silk extract,” but aside from that, the constant translating of everyday phrases and making new and interesting sentences from the deluge of Welsh words floating around my head, was rather fun :slight_smile:

#8

Aran Jones:

I’m enjoying the stuff on Sky, cheers…

That dialogue is my kind of dialogue, and will see you become a confident speaker in very short order! The more you play with language, the faster you acquire it, so it’s not only entertaining, it’s a genuinely important sign that you’re going to do well.

I’m particularly delighted to hear that you’re pushing on with the ‘no repetition’ - and starting to find that it works - keep on going, because that bit is vital…

Thanks for the reply Aran. Glad I’m doing at least some of it right! :smiley:
Bootcamp really is excellent, and you’ve done an absolutely brilliant job putting it together. Any chance you could do a bootcamp on ‘Successful bank robbery’? :smiley:

#9

For day 5, it was on to taking full advantage of the pause button in lesson 10.

However hard I tried, I just couldn’t get my head around the whole taswn/faswn/taset/faset way of saying things. Hopefully it’s found it’s way into the brain department, and and after a bit of hunting, will be come second nature. :slight_smile:

Onto the challenge, here’s my take on 3 long sentences:

  1. Taswt ti eisiau ffonio’r siop, mi faswn cerdded i’r siop a siarad efo hi cyn mae’r siop yn cau.
  2. Yfory, dwi’n mynd i redeg i weithio ar y rheilffordd, ond rhaid i mi agor y ddrws cyn trio rhedeg.
  3. Bydd gen ti amser i nofio i Gymru ar ol i fo fwyta brechdan, yfed y llefrith ac anobeithio’n llwyr Dydd Llun.

They score pretty low on the sense scale, but they’re the longest I could string together :smiley:

#10

Any chance you could do a bootcamp on ‘Successful bank robbery’?

Haven’t got that one down to a fine art myself, yet - I’ll keep on trying and let you know when we have a working model…:wink:

There are bad bits of lesson writing in Course 1 - so bear that in mind as you struggle with overload - and yet you’re right to keep the faith that the brain will be busy mapping and indexing, and you don’t need to have a full conscious understanding for the interval process to make it right eventually…:smile:

Excellent long sentences! Great to see that kind of construction ability happening. You’re doing superbly…:smile: