Coming back from Illness/Injury

Well - although it hasn’t really been a long time, it feels like it has. I haven’t been around much for a couple of weeks.

I’ve had laryngitis (I still do, but at least now I can actually produce things that sound like words) for the last fortnight or so - and although I’ve still been listening to SSIW and watching my S4C etc in the meantime… I’ve barely spoken anything (Welsh, English, French or otherwise) for a few weeks now!

I went back to our local Clwb Clonc for the first time since early August today and was very happy with how I did, despite the squeaky/creaky/pathetic at times voice.

It was the biggest gap I’ve had in not speaking Welsh since I started learning, and although even pre-Laryngitis I was quite “fluent” - there’s always that worry when you don’t use the language. I know 2 weeks or so may seem quite small for some people, but because I was used to speaking Welsh multiple hours a day, every day - it felt weird.

Anyone else felt the wobble when coming back after a brief break?

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I know it feels really weird when I come back to speaking English after an extended period away speaking predominantly Welsh, so I think it’s just a natural thing. It’s just a clunky gear change. You’ll be back up to cruising speed very soon without noticing it!

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It’s what Rob says - a clunky gear-change - you’ll be back up to speed in no time… :slight_smile:

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4 posts were split to a new topic: Gear Change and Topic Change

“Coming back from injury” as a title was clearly a harkback to my football days :D:D

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As a kind of addition to this, I met someone last night who has A Level second language Welsh but now lives in London and hasn’t spoken the language for many years. It took them about an hour to get back into being comfortable with the language. :slight_smile:

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Nicky,

What you’re experiencing sounds totally normal and not worth worrying about for a minute. It’s probably the same with anything that we learn. Take a break and it takes a wobble to get back into routine. Sounds like life!

I’m not a musician myself, but I’ve been told that when a musician goes a day without practice, he notices. When he goes two days without practice, other musicians notice. When he goes three days, the audience notices.

Wishing you a full recovery from your illness!

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I’ve definitely felt the wobble. I had a glorious 5 week summer holiday in which I didn’t do any Welsh. I left off at challenge 15 and gone back to challenge 2… I know Big @Aran advises against :grin: it but it actually feels good to revise and somehow it seems to sink in deeper. Playing the first challenge after those 5 weeks did require some mental butt-kicking though. :slight_smile: Thank goodness for the forum, that really helped. I felt like posting an “I’m b-a-a-a-a-a-a-ck”-meme.

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