Good news and Bad News
I’ve just come back from driving my son, Chris to and from Shrewsbury.
The good news was that a lot of our return journey conversation was conducted in Welsh. 
The bad news - He announced/confessed(?) towards the end that he preferred the Gogledd dialect. 
I’m trying to come to terms with this, but before I accept the inevitable, are there any specific “conversion therapy” courses being planned in Tresaith? 
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Hmmm. This sounds a lot like good news and more good news… 
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Lllongyfarchiadau on coming out, Chris! See if you can persuade the old man to come out of the closet now. And if there are conversion therapy courses at Tresaith, to help southerners learn north Welsh, I’m willing to help in any way I can.
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When I have mastered Gog (blue) the pink candy stripe in my 6mws week number will have faded badly. Can I have conversion therapy or maybe a Nicky-led Hwntw-Gog reconcilation and integration course mediated in the French language, please?
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Update on my last post on this subject. After summer school the tutor cornered me in the pub and persuaded me to try Dosbarth Nos - and she’s put me in the Hyfedredd group. I was surprised when reading the description of the class " for proficient and fluent speakers"!!
No bad since I started with SSiW in February…
I do find the reading and vocabulary a real challenge…but what’s life without a challenge!
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If it’s really easy, what’s the point?
Da iawn ti.
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With a bunch of hiking enthusiasts gasping ankle-deep in red-hot sand up a huge 1000 ft dune in Namibia recently, I managed to keep going by reciting the mantra “cwrw, cwrw, cwrw”—unfortunately bringing a line of excited birders to a standstill, binoculars scouring the horizon for the elusive bird. I didn’t dare admit I was fanticizing about beer, rather than some rare feathered desert-dweller. However, after sliding to the bottom one of them winked and whispered “Hoffwn i cwrw hefyd!”
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That is a brilliant story! Did you know the other person could speak it as well?!
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No—just goes to show what a worldwide language Welsh is becoming.
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That’s so cool, and what a great place to discover that. I keep asking people I hear with a Welsh accent in London but have yet to find someone who does!
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So I just finished Level 1 Lesson 13 and WOW that was a ride.
When I first started the lesson and got about 5 minutes in, I stopped it and thought, “there is NO WAY I am going to get through this craziness!” But I carried on knowing that with all the mistakes, using the pause button and what not, my brain was still learning. My breakthrough came when I finished the lesson and for the next 30 minutes (as I grocery shopped) I was quietly talking my way through everything I had just learned and it was just rolling out and making sense! Also, I used different words and sentence constructions with what I had learned and had some great fun!
It is so uplifting when you start to really roll with the lessons; when words and phrases have meaning and they are understandable. I am enjoying my Welsh language journey. I can’t wait for lesson 14!
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Spoke Welsh for the first time on Friday evening at Capel y Boro in Llundain. It was a brilliant experience which made me realise how much fun it is learning, but also that speaking is the way I’m going to improve the most! Motivated more than ever now!!
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Ha ha. Well done. That particular challenge is legendary. I could be wrong but I think there is a whole topic on here dedicated to survivors 
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We moved to Wales about a month ago (a small place near Llandeilo). In that month I have tried to use my limited Welsh - in the local hardware shop, with my welsh speaking neighbour, with the postwoman, wherever I can really. Even if it’s just to say hello, good morning, I’m trying to learn Welsh, I need a paint scraper, thank you and goodbye. I have to admit to struggling a bit, being embarrassed a bit and frustrated a lot. (I have so much to say…) However, the response from absolutely everyone I have spoken to in Welsh has been wholeheartedly positive and encouraging. Even when I got myself all mixed up (which is really quite often) it’s been brilliant. Over the last four months or so since I started SSI Welsh I have learned three things:
- Don’t over think it - I often make the mistake of trying too hard and then find out that the first thing I thought of was OK. So,start by jumping in feet first and your listener will (pretty much always) help you out;
- Listen to what Aran says on the tape - time and again the advice has proved to be spot on (take the praise, you deserve it);
- It’s so obvious but it’s a lesson I really need to remember: Don’t give up. And so, no rest for the weary or peace for the wicked. I finished level 2 today now level 3 beckons.
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Thank you John! I can see why it is a legend. I am glad to know I made it through! Although it makes me wonder what is next!
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Da iawn and Welcome. Brilliant advice and well done. When you say “Aran”, does that mean you are on the N version? If you ate just about to change levels, I’d go For S first if you are near Llandeilo.
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13 is, ahem, perhaps a little too tough. So is 14. But I calmed down a bit after that… 
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That’s good to know! But I feel like the tough ones are where you really learn. It’s like biking up a huge hill and getting to enjoy the pleasure of coasting down the other side. After lesson 13, I felt like my brain had clicked over into something different. Like I could understand Welsh in a different light.
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like most people, I too struggled with 13 & 14. Paused and rewound a fair bit. What was interesting is going back through the lessons after completing the first level, how quickly I went through them the second time. It was very reinforcing to hear myself saying, “I really have this and understand it.” As Aran and Iestyn say numerous times in the challenges, “Trust the process.”
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I am on holiday in Wales and am trying to take advantage of hearing Welsh spoken around me (not too much call for that in Vancouver!!) and so to that end I visited West Wales to hear Welsh in the wild and ordered coffee at a cafe and told random strangers in museums that I am learning Welsh (promoting SSiW too) and could I try talking to them and everyone has been lovely. However I did feel a bit demoralized and disappointed because I was having difficulty understanding fluent Welsh speakers.
Fast forward to yesterday when I visited Ty Tawe after reading John Young’s post on the forum about the group being welcoming and that was certainly my experience too. I had a wonderful time and at one point I had a “pinch me” moment", here I was surrounded by Welsh learners/speakers and that I could understand quite a bit of what they were saying and also make myself understood - it was a real confidence boost! I also got to meet John face to face too rather than via hangout which was fun.
So after this small success I am planning to drop into some other conversation groups and get in as much Welsh as possible before I head back to Canada.
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