Hi Guy! We’ve tested this on breaks of up to 16 months, and it successfully reactivates 85%+ within about 30 minutes of starting again. It really works, we promise, although it’s counter-intuitive.
It also deals with one of the main reasons why people don’t achieve success with us, which is when they get stuck in massive repetitions of early material because they suffer from perfectionism. That’s a real issue for us, because our mission is to help as many people as possible become confident Welsh speakers - so when we see a pattern causing a lot of people not to achieve success, we have to try to deal with it.
Guy I have to say that before I started Automagic I would have agreed with you. I too was constantly rewinding and going over the same material. But I have found that as others have said, doing that is counter intuitive. I find that by pressing on and trusting in the spaced repetition, I am doing much better. I will never go back to the old challenges.
I had completed SSiW Levels 1 and 2 (south) by summer 2021, but I realised that I hadn’t engaged with any spoken Welsh on Slack (too shy/too afraid!) and so I signed up for the Sylfaen course, because it would force me to speak to others. All was going well for the first few months, but then life events took over. My husband (he was already very disabled after a stroke) became desperately ill, and after nine awful months, he died. By then, it was too late to start the next Sylfaen course, and in any case, I really wasn’t in the right headspace for learning anything or engaging with anybody. Fast forward to this month, and I was feeling better and was determined to pick it up again - but it had been a two year gap in doing any Welsh at all, so where to start? I decided it would be best to start again, from the very beginning to try to refresh and consolidate my learning, and boost my (vanished!) confidence.
I chose Automagic, because I thought it’d make it seem more like “progress” to use a different approach. Although it’s felt strange and sometimes uncomfortable, I have come to really appreciate not being able to rewind! In the past, I would go back over everything (multiple times!) because I believed I was rubbish at remembering and because I felt I needed to be 100% perfect. I have been astonished to find that I am remembering far more easily using this method and have started to accept as part of the learning process that it’s OK to use a wrong word, or to mispronounce. I love that it saves my progress -it just starts again from where I stopped last time and pushes me forward! I love hearing the different accents and pronunciations. And I especially love that I can change the pace of it. It’s brilliant!
So sorry for your loss, Jackie. That must have been an extremely difficult time for you, but lovely to hear that you’re making such progress with your Welsh now. Your delight comes across in your post. Da iawn ti!
@christine-30 AutoMagic is the latest learning method that we offer. It’s still having material added into it, and extra features are being developed, but if you go to ‘Learn’ at the top of the page here, that will take you through to the Learning website. From there, click ‘Learn’ again and you get a dropdown of the material available to subscribers, including AutoMagic Beta.
Hello,
I am doing the SSiW 6 month course, but this is via weekly emails and the recorded challenges. Is there a guide/option to using automatic for this course and ensuring I am keeping pace with the weekly learning objectives? I like the recordings but also feel seeing it written down as well really helps. Thanks
@sharon-22 it’s fine for you to use the two in parallel if you wish, using one to reinforce the other. You can swap back and forth easily but clicking on ‘AutoMagic’ at the top of the main website, and clicking on the SSi logo at the top of AutoMagic to return.
Diolch Deborah.
I will have to use the static recorded lessons this time as my primary resource and then use automagic as an extra, otherwise I have no idea where I am in terms of keeping up with the weekly lessons as per the 6 month course. I lost track before and ended up falling behind further than I thought. I do prefer automagic but I guess it is not ready to be utilised solely for the 6 month. Shame as I noted Aran mentioned it is more effective than the static lessons. Out of interest do you know why, if is more effective, why the transition hasn’t been made for the 6 month? Automagic is a great tool, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
It’s more effective in that it gives you more control over the speed of your learning. With the static files you are just moving along at the same pace with no variation, while AutoMagic lets you choose if you want more repetitions or fewer.
That means that it’s not really suitable for something like the 6 Months course, which relies on people covering specific material at the same time, even if that pace of learning isn’t the best for them. AutoMagic lets you personalise your learning to suit yourself.
There is no need to continue with the 6 Months course if you prefer to learn with AutoMagic. You will cover all the same material in the end, but at a pace that suits you. Or you could just download the static files as you receive the links to them, and use them as offline revision sometime in the future.
Diolch Deborah.
Good advice. I would like to keep going with the 6 month programme and the Automagic can be a nice bit of extra practice over and above the static lessons. The static lessons do have the advantage of being able to be done offline which is a real benefit when travelling with patchy reception. I can definitely make room for both tools in my life
Ive been dabbling with Automagic, mainly out of nosyness, and gotta say it’s great.
I left it running accidentally one night and it seemed to be getting quite advanced. Does it ask you to translate from Welsh to English at some point, or did I just wake up during the Welsh response?
Also, is the final stretch mostly revision, or am I finally finding Welsh easier?
Missing the references to wine and love under a bridge now, although perhaps for the best
From what I understand, AutoMagic currently has all of the material covered in Levels 1 and 2, and some of Level 3. The Tech Team are working on getting more of Level 3 loaded in, so eventually it will all be there.
It definitely doesn’t ask you to translate Welsh to English - maybe you were still half asleep and dreaming?
Once you get to the end of the currently loaded material, AutoMagic goes onto a pattern of random revision to give you practice of what you’ve covered before. Once all of Level 3 is in, that will give anyone who has finished the course the chance to easily revise all they’ve learnt.
