No, they’re not both used for ‘I need to’ - rhaid is ‘have to’ or ‘must’ as in ‘obliged to’, so if the sentence had said “I still have to improve” or “I still must improve”, rhaid would have been ok, but ‘need’ (in the North) is angen, so that’s why it was dal angen gwella not rhaid i mi wella.
We might interchange ‘need to’ and ‘must’ in English, but we don’t in Welsh 
1 Like
That must be how I keep getting tripped up on that: my brain interprets the English “I need to” as an obligation, so I keep defaulting to “rhaid”. Guess that says something about my own psychology that a need instantly turns into a must, haha. Thanks for the clarification. 
1 Like
You’ll find this happens quite a lot with various words and phrases, but more often than not it’s our English that is tripping us up rather than the Welsh! 
Hi, I’m on my 4th week and I’ve got two small books one to write the Welsh words and English words that I’ve been given by you every week and the other book has just English sentences in it with no Welsh. I take those small books out with me to read the English and try to change it into Welsh. I use the Welsh book to check if I’m right. I find this helps but I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing. I hope i am because I’m enjoying it immensely
1 Like
Hi I’m on week 3 of level 1 and am 2 weeks behind as I should be on week 5. The first lesson was ok but the 2nd and 3rd were terrible, I want to go back to lesson 1 but keep getting told on the emails and lessons not to which isn’t very helpful. I’m finding it very difficult to digest the words and phrases by just repeating them, is there any way I can see the text to understand and recognise what I’m supposed to be saying. I’m also finding it really quickly spoken and loud which flusters me and then can’t remember what to say. I’m glad that I received the 12 month course free via my workplace union as I think I’d be very disappointed if I’d paid for it.
My first question is this: I would really like to move on to the structured courses at some point, I’m willing to pay to really get this language to be a part of who I am, but I really want to be able to read Welsh, too, and write in Welsh, and I’m wondering how hard it would be to “translate” spoken learning to written and read language. Thanks a lot! 
It’s your learning journey - not a race - so you can take it at a pace which suits you.
There is a vocab link for each challenge - just underneath on the page of the challenge ( or are you using the App?)
You can press the pause button if it helps you by giving you time to think - you can also turn the volume down.
The only reason the general advice is to carry on is because each lesson repeats the content from previous ones (so you get a chance to ‘go over’ by carrying on).
However if you want to repeat you can.
Are you joining any of the group sessions as you can chat and share with fellow learners and get advice from a tutor?
The forum is here for help too - so if there are specific things that you need help with, ask them here and we’ll all pitch in.
I don’t think I am anything close to ‘a natural’ at learning languages 
and now I can speak Welsh (more or less!) - and I speak to lots of other people each week who are in the same boat - so hang on in there.
Let us know how we can help…
Rich
1 Like
Hopefully @Stine can help you with how to sign up based upon your starting point now.
I learned to speak Welsh using SSIW initially and then onto reading and writing as part of the ongoing process really…
…quite a bit like how you learn your first language as a child and then to read and write shortly after…it’s very natural.
Rich
2 Likes
Oh, I’ll be fine with signing up. I really just want to know that I’ll be able to take spoken fluency and turn it into writing and reading fluency. I’m also working with Duolingo and trying to immerse myself in Welsh language music and writing wherever possible, so I definitely like my chances! I’m really committed this time. This isn’t just, “I want to learn Welsh because I have Welsh heritage and I think it’s neat,” anymore. It’s more like, “I want the Welsh part of me that I feel deep down in my soul to be able to express itself in its own tongue and be able to read the poets and add my own voice to theirs.”
Well, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but it’s pretty darn close to that! And I think that passion is what will make the difference with this attempt. Thanks again! 
1 Like
Thanks for the advice, I’ll give it another go and see how I get on. Are the words and phrases used in the lesson available on the app? I use this more than my laptop because its useful when I’m at work on my break.
Hello @amber-holloway
I am not sure about the app, but the laptop should have the vocabulary for each challenge. I copied out the whole lot some time ago. They are posted on a thread somewhere, North and South, all 3 levels, but I can’t find it now. Anyway, I am attaching the vocab for Level 1 South and North since I’m not sure which you want. It is really important to read the vocabulary AFTER you have done the challenge and not before, otherwise it messes up the method and is liable to give you the wrong pronunciation.
Good luck with it. It can be done. I started with nothing about 3-4 years ago. I am not good with languages and I don’t live in Wales. I found it hard, yet I went through Level 3 and I am now happily doing a weekend online course with Gwent College at Advanced level. SSiW does work.
SueSSiW vocab Level 1 South.pdf (350.6 KB)
SSiW vocab Level 1 North.pdf (351.0 KB)
4 Likes
Great! I have to say that SSIW is one of the most surprising things I’ve come across - it seemed so wildly different to the way I’d learned anything before. Now I’m a convert - fair play, it works.
Are you watching ‘Iaith Ar Daith?’ - it’s on S4c on Sundays at 8 - or S4c Clic - with subtitles. There are celebrities who have been given a quick blast with SSIW and you follow them around for a week as they try to use it - it’s fun and worth a watch with the subtitles on…
If yoi are using the iPhone App - there is a red speech bubble on the page of the challenge - click on that for vocab.
Rich
1 Like
I don’t know whether it will help, @amber-holloway, but I’ve just done a video about this very problem. It’s on YouTube and the link is here. I’m actually using the Say Something in Spanish as my examples because I’m now a fluent Welsh speaker, but the video explains how I was successful with SSiW despite having a very poor short-term memory.
Basically, people with normal memories can just push on and there will be enough built in repetition for the method to work, but some of us do need to repeat challenges two or three times for the words to stick.
3 Likes
Yes I did watch that and was impressed by them. I did understand some of the welsh on it but only odd words. I’ll press on for a bit longer and see if I improve, thanks for your help I really appreciate it.
1 Like
…Well, let us know how you’re getting on - we can help!
Have you joined Welsh Speaking Practice? …which gives you a chance to share with other people in your situation and potentially get assistance from Nia and others?
If not send an email to admin@saysomethingin.com with WSP in the title and you’ll get an invite.
There’s plenty of people on this forum who will chat with you in English, Welsh or Wenglish on this forum too.
Rich
How do us early learners understand the ‘na’ that slips in before words …please?
Jacqui
‘na’ can mean different things depending where it is - can you give me a sentence with an example of the one (or more) that’s confusing you?
Glad you’re ok with the sign-up process and thanks to @rich for the tag.
I definitely found it no problem to move on from focusing on the spoken via SSiW to then reading and writing. What I did experience were lots of ‘oh, so that’s how you spell x word’ moments when I started reading, because I really hadn’t looked at the course vocabulary along the way at all. For me, sometimes reading out loud helped with that, and it still does when I’m reading fiction with conversational speech in it. I’m sure I make loads of errors in my written Welsh, but no one ever died from reading the wrong mutation is my motto - the main thing is that I’m comprehensible 
Hope that helps, and enjoy the course!
4 Likes
I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this question, but here goes . . .
I started learning with SSiW in lockdown 1. I sped through the challenges when I had a lot of time on my hands and got to the end of Level 3 in January I think. I did the challenges quite quickly and wasn’t following the email instructions so, for example, I didn’t make up my own sentences in Welsh. I did go to group practice sessions regularly at the beginning, but more recently haven’t been doing that (for various reasons).
My question is: what would be the best thing for me to do now to keep learning and improving? I did the challenges so fast I’m wondering if I should go back and do, say, Level 3 again? I could start going to the group sessions again. I’ve never tried having an individual chat with anyone in Welsh.
I really want to keep going with my Welsh, and become a more confident speaker, but I feel like I haven’t been doing it right by rushing through the challenges, and now I’m not sure what to do next. Any advice very gratefully received! Diolch yn fawr!