A very minor sort of breakthrough… my first dream partially in Welsh.
Sadly, the dream involved hearing Welsh I didn’t understand, realising this would be my first conversation with an actual Welsh speaker, trying to remember “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand what you said”, and failing miserably. Still, it’s nice to get my first experience of stage fright out of the way in the privacy of my own head 
P.S. I managed to say it with no problems once awake…
My first one of those involved actually running away, so I think you’re doing well… 
good job you didn’t in real life, Aran!
You should have seen my first visit to the Eisteddfod…
I went to the Learn Cymraeg summer school for adult learners today…and got immediately bumped up from the Canolbarth class to Uwch!!
Asking for job application advice. A bit different to the earlier ones I’ve noticed. The job is in highway maintenance so should be easy enough for me. But they are looking for level 3 Welsh spoken and written. Having said that they are also looking for level 4 English and legal knowledge 
. So it all sounds overqualified, so I think I’ll just apply, but is there any easy fix for the written Welsh? I won’t have chance to enrol on any courses before applying. As you know I am SSiw level 3 plus Slack and also old Dosbarth Nos level 2. I have the Wlpan notes up to Uwch and Gareth’s grammar book. Any thoughts?
PS looking at my phone typing, im gonna struggle with the level 4 English. 
I’ve corrected most of the errors on a real keyboard, now. So basically, I’m looking for a very quick way to improve my Welsh literacy, and perhaps widen my vocabulary.
Do you have to write the application in Welsh, or will there be any sort of written test?
Given the likely timescale, I’d guess the only thing you can do is practice writing, and basically write as you would speak (leaving out anything you happen to know is “slangy”).
And then brush up on Welsh spelling rules, and maybe browse through a dictionary to reassure yourself that words you know are spelt as you would expect.
I assume the job does not entail having to write formal papers or essays, or things of that nature?
The employer is Carmarthenshire County Council (Sir Gár) and the vacancy material was bilingual, Welsh first. I think that they would like to assure themselves that the candidates are fairly serious about their Welsh.
The level 3 requirements were in the job description PDF. However, the covering details were less onerous and just stated “Conversational Welsh is required to accomplish this post. Support can be provided on appointment to reach this level.” So I’m guessing that they want someone who can chat to residents and answer e-mails in Welsh. There might be a need to write some basic reports in Welsh, but these will probably be of a repetitive nature.
On the plus side, I have worked on Carms CC sites and their staff have been quite relaxed about talking in Welsh, which I quite like.
I would just go for it! Job descriptions often ask for ideal qualifications and are thus higher than they will accept in reality if you tick all the other boxes.
As you’re pretty confident with conversational Welsh, I would explain this in any covering letter/email or any boxes on the form where you can add a bit more about yourself. You can also mention that you’re working on your written Welsh skills.
Good luck with the application!
I am currently working on Level 4 (!) and doing a few different things to try to improve my listening speed, practice speaking and broaden my vocabulary.
On the listening front, one of the things I have been doing is listening to the old listening practices which I stumbled across by accident. These have a mixture of sentences in different tenses jumbled together at close-to-normal conversation pace. When I first discovered these, if I am honest, I was initially a bit disappointed at how difficult I found them …but have subsequently realised why and found them invaluable.
Part of the challenge of listening to Radio Cymru for example (which I am doing as well), is that inevitably some of what you hear is vocabulary you don’t yet have…still a good thing to listen to as you gradually pick things up…but it does mean that you tend to only understand part of everything you hear - at least at my current stage.
With the listening challenges - apart from a small difference in vocabulary between the old and new courses - I was expecting to be able to understand everything. The reason I found it so difficult was the pace and continuity - firstly getting used to what the things sound like as they fly past at pace and secondly, the sheer word crunching initially to process the combinations which you know (tense, person, pronoun, adjectives) in time to start afresh for the next sentence, particularly if you get a word you can’t quite recall, spend a small amount of time trying to dredge up, by which time you have fallen behind.
So, I have been listening to them over and over - in the car and around the house - and found that gradually sentences, phrases, tenses seem to get dispatched somewhere in the brain where the meaning comes to you without thought - leaving you to worry about the ones that do.
Anyway, today, I have driven into the Dales to a specific place to walk the dogs…and during the journey listened to all 10, 5 minute exercises…
…I arrived with a very strange sensation - something akin to my brain pressing against the inside of my head…plus a slight headache…
However, I realised that, by and large, I had understood everything that was said…I suspect that in due course, I am not supposed to have a headache!..however this feels like progress!!
I thought that this must count as a small success/ breakthrough - so I thought I would share!
Rich 
No, I’m afraid not.
It’s far too big to be a small success…
Well today I was helping an English speaking friend out at the local agricultural show selling honey and candles. One chap came up with his daughter and he was speaking welsh to her so I served him in welsh and we did the whole transaction through Welsh! I was so pleased. Also there was someone who I have met who came and spoke to me in welsh and he always said that he doesn’t speak it but his wife does. Anyway his wife wasn’t there so we had a chat in Welsh.
Fantastic!
In other words, today you’ve actively helped make this a more naturally bilingual country… 
Squeak…
Did you hear the little squeak from across the pond, over the hills and far, far away from Vancouver?
It was me ‘squeaking in Welsh’ for the first time on Slack—thanks to the help of others who explained which buttons to press to get started. I could not have done it without you, ‘Diolch yn fawr iawn!’
I said I would dip my toes in the water this week. Mmmm it was lovely and warm, because everyone in the chat was so kind and welcoming and friendly.
Even if you are a little afraid or timid (like me), squeaking in Welsh is a great feeling—a real confidence booster and lots of fun.
I cant believe that was your first time speaking Welsh, Marilyn. You did very well. It was great to see you there and this post is so encouraging.
By the way, something Ive been meaning to ask - When you worked in Wales, did you know John Richards from Castell Coch, Barry & Cardiff? He was involved in building multi story buildings and roads. He’d be a lot older than you, so it would be when you were stsrting out perhaps. Hes a good friend of mine. Hope you dont mind me asking.
FBore da John (over here),
Diolch yn fawr for your kindness on Slack and encouragement here.
Yes, I was a complete novice speaking on Slack. Firstly, Bronwen helped me out by explaining what I needed to look for and which buttons to press, then I discovered I had to retrieve my Google account, download the Hangout app which kept refusing to accept my photo, and finally find the link. Despite that sounding complicated, prompts from Bronwen, Siaron and the Slackbot guided me through—so to any other newbie, ‘no drama, no worries’ there is plenty of help and if this dinosaur can wade into the swim of things, you can—and it is really worth it because the folk already splashing about are really delightful. This will be my new mental ‘aqua-fit’ (saves all the palaver of getting changed).
Oh, by the way—for other novices, the above one-time-only set-up took 10-15 minutes, but only because I had to reset my password on Google and Hangout didn’t like my photo, maybe I should have just taken a selfie—that is an option.
So to your question John, no the person doesn’t ring a bell, but if mine does as Marilyn Wren, then please ask him to name a few projects. I started as a graduate apprentice in 1971, straight out of university, having studied mechanical engineering, then did my professionals in civil engineering, specializing in bridge design and construction, so working on the likes of the Heads of the Valleys road.
After transferring to Co. Durham, then emigrating to Ontario, doing much the same, finally we fetched up in Vancouver where I went into mining and spent the rest if my career traipsing around every remote corner of the world—but loved the work, and loved the people—salt if the earth are mining types wherever they are, whatever language they speak. There you go, a potted history of me—oh except that overlapping with that I studied theology (you got to do something on planes) and became an Anglican priest as a volunteer—so I have never been paid, but this has been my payback for a wonderful life.
Now over to you…
Hwyl,
Mari
Brilliant! Llongyfarchiadau mawr IAWN i ti, Mari! I suspect there’ll be no stopping you now…
Diolch yn fawr Aran—as always, you offer amazing encouragement which is a huge part of my progress—and I’ll bet the same goes for many others here too. Your positive ‘waves’ are infectious in the best possible way.
Onwards…
Mari
Lovely to see you again, Claudia! It’s a great sign that you can still remember some bits…