Bŵtcamp June 2023 - 5th to 12th - Lampeter

This is the official thread for news relating to the June Bŵtcamp.

It will be held in Llambed (Lampeter), Ceredigion - an area with a sizeable Welsh-speaking population - and the accommodation will be in the same large house as last year. Garth Newydd has 3 twin rooms and 3 single rooms available for bwtcampers.

As with previous Bŵtcamps, the most important rule for the week is the WELSH ONLY rule. Once the set up for the week has been explained in English during the introductory session, there will be only Welsh spoken until the Bŵtcamp is declared officially over.

Bŵtcamp is NOT a Welsh course. There are no “lessons” or class type activities. Rather it is a chance to have a total immersion holiday in Welsh - enjoying fun activities and outings, meeting new people, having new experiences, all through the medium of Welsh.

For that reason, the experience is most successful if you have a certain amount of Welsh under your belt already. A minimum is to have completed Level 1 SSiW, though if you’ve completed Level 2, you are likely to benefit more. It’s also useful if you’re already started using your Welsh a little with others - either face-to-face, or in a Zoom chat group - however, if you haven’t had that opportunity but feel confident you could cope in a Welsh Only situation, don’t hesitate to apply.

The cost for the week will be £600 (£500+VAT) for a Twin Room and £660 (£550+VAT) for a Single Room. As well as your accommodation this includes the organisation, admin and time spent by Nia and Deborah, your evening meal on the first night, and as many of the activities as we can budget for. If there happens to be a particular special event during a bŵtcamp week, e.g. a concert or theatre performance in Welsh, we will ask if participants are willing to pay to attend it.

There will be a communal ‘purse’ which everyone will need to contribute to equally at the beginning of the week and that will cover the costs of the food for the meals prepared during the week in Garth Newydd and picnics. When we eat at a cafe, individuals will pay for their own meals.

Bŵtcampers who act as drivers during the week will need to be compensated for their petrol costs, so we will ask those who are passengers during the week to contribute towards their driver’s costs at the end.

If you’re interested in knowing more, send an email to deborah [AT] saysomethingin.com or click on my username and send me a Message.

We will be using the same booking system as trialled last year, rather than the pre-pandemic method which used to see places filled in 2 minutes and people missing out. Instead, we’re inviting applications from everyone who is serious about coming and we will look at how the group would fit with the accommodation available.

If there are more applicants than spaces, we will hold a live “lottery” on Zoom with all the names in a hat, and the lucky bŵtcampers will be selected at random. Those who miss out will have priority for subsequent Bŵtcamps.

Pob lwc!

EDIT: Note that just clicking on the saysomethingin.com doesn’t link to my email address. I’ve disguised it to deter spambots, so you need to put it together again, replacing the [AT] with @

Is there anyone else who would like to come to the June Bŵtcamp? I have 9 very probables, but that’s risky if anyone should pull out.

If a few of you could be on the Backup List, that would be a huge help!

yes please i would like to register my interest in the June bwtcamp.
thankyou
im not sure of the exact date though?

Diolch @Rwth - I’ll add you to the Waiting List and let you know if anyone should need to pull out and I can offer you a place. It runs from Monday 5th to Monday 12th June.

Helô Deborah a Phawb! I would very much like to attend the Bwtcamp 5-12 June in Lampeter. Deborah, do you still have some spaces? Or if not, is the waiting list long? (I am more than happy to arrange my own accommodation nearby, so I wouldn’t need a room/bed in Garth Newydd if that’s already booked up.). I am sitting the Canolradd exam on 16 June, so this BwtCamp would be perfect for me to get my speaking up to better fluency! Fingers crossed you can fit me in? Sandy

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At the moment the bwtcamp is theoretically full but the waiting list is quite short. Email me at deborah@saysomethingin.com and I’ll see what the possibilities might be.

Diolch Deborah. I have emailed you. Cofion gorau. Sandy

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The invoices for the deposit have been sent out and Nia and I are looking forward to welcoming you all to Garth Newydd next month!

So you can start getting to know each other here! And if anyone is coming by public transport, pop information on where you’re coming from here too. Perhaps a fellow bwtcamper will be able to give you a lift.

Pob hwyl!

Hi, Deborah and Nia - really excited about coming! I didn’t realise it was starting at 17:00 on Monday, I’d assumed it would be a morning start and as it takes a long time to get to Llambed from where I live (Leicester) I booked a night at Garth Newydd for Sunday evening. Do I just go there Sunday afternoon and knock on the door to check in?

In fact, I discovered that getting to Llambed on Sunday is a challenge, so thought I’d come Saturday to West Wales, then found there was a train strike, so I’m actually going to stay in Aberystwyth for a couple of nights (arriving Friday) and get the bus to Llambed on Sunday! This will give me a chance to get to know Aber a little better, and pay a trip to the Llyfrgell Cenedlaethol.

My other question regards the very sensible “Welsh-only” rule. For total immersion, I assume that we shouldn’t just be avoiding English (or whatever our first language is) when speaking, but also in reading? I’m thinking of either not taking my smartphone, or turning it off on arrival and not turning it back on until the following Monday - so I’m not tempted to catch up with emails (in English), Facebook and so on. What have previous bŵtcampers done to avoid the temptation?

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Shwmae @chris-mitchell! I will be staying in Garth Newydd on the Sunday night too, so let me know about what time you’ll be there, and I’ll try to be there as well. If you do get there before me, there is a key in a keysafe by the front door, so I’ll be able to text you the code for that.

If you need to turn your phone off, or at least turn the sound off, to avoid any temptation, then do that. The more you can avoid anything that pulls your brain back into English, the better. It gives you that chance to start feeling that thinking, speaking and doing everything in Welsh is natural, and that’s what this week is all about.

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If anyone wants to give their Vocab a little boost before coming to Bŵtcamp, there are 3 Vocab Units at the end of Old Course 1 that deal specifically with Bŵtcamp Vocab.

If you go to Old Course 1 - Vocab 6 that will take you directly to the first of the three. Units 7 and 8 are the other two.

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Hi @chris-mitchell , if you are going to the National Library can you avoid going to the BBC archive exhibition because we’ll be probably going there. The Library is probably big enough with plenty to see anyway - and the great thing is, everybody speaks Welsh there!

Looking forward to seeing you at Lampeter. :grinning:

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Hi, I’ll be travelling from Aberystwyth to Lampeter on the Monday ( fellow bwt camper) if that helps? Very happy to give you a lift , nicola

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Shwmae ! I’m Nicola James . I’m English but have lived and worked in Wales since 2015 and now will never leave . Home is Aberystwyth so not too far away. I am a very enthusiastic learner but I must admit to finding it the most difficult thing I’ve ever learned! I’ve completed the SSIW course but now feel I’ve forgotten it all. Apart from the word ychydig which I loved and it’s stuck! I’m about halfway through Sylfaen on the Dysgu Cymraeg course. But of course have now forgotten all that I learned on Myneddiad . I can’t wait to meet you all
Nicola

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I’m sure it will come back to you during the Bŵtcamp week, Nicola!

Diolch Nicola for the offer of a lift, but I’ll be getting the bus on Sunday, not Monday. I hadn’t realised the Bŵtcamp didn’t start until 17:00 so thought I’d need to be there the night before. Looking forward to meeting you and everyone else. The irony is I won’t be able to do my “SSiW challenge” that week because I’ve decided I’m turning my phone off once I arrive so I’m not tempted to get my social media fix (in English) while I’m there :slight_smile:

You could always do it ahead of time while you’re in Aber @chris-mitchell :wink:

I get the email every Monday morning, so I suppose I could cram before getting the bus to Lampeter !

Am I just being incredibly dense, or is anyone else having problems paying the invoice for the balance of the Bŵtcamp via the Xero link that was sent out? As soon as I click on the link to see outstanding bills to pay, it shows me the right amount but Xero tells me I have to set up an account to access the area (which I did), but then I have to enter the name of my business and what it does (I don’t have one!) in order to proceed to the bills area and it won’t let me get any further. I’m pretty sure I just paid the deposit by bank transfer?

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I will pass this on to our Office Manager, Chris. It sounds rather odd to me.

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