I’ve been doing the AutoMagic lessons for awhile now. (I’m at the point where I’m saying “Fedri di ddeud be’ ddudest ti eto?” if that gives anyone an indication of where I am.) I’ve been listening and repeating every day am tua mis. But that’s all I’ve been doing! There’s no way to know where I am in the course. I don’t know where to start with anything else. I don’t see any FAQ’s or guidance about how to go about things. I didn’t even know there was more to it than my daily AutoMagic lessons! In short, I have no idea how to navigate through this whatsoever. Are the two methods unrelated? Am I supposed to do both? How do I measure my progress? I am hopelessly lost! SOS!
Sorry that you’re feeling so lost, Wendy - it does sound as though you’re doing really well, fwiw!
I’ll try my best to help, although I’ve been around for a while so didn’t do the AutoMagic version (which came in after I’d “finished”).
So when I started, there was the “old course” - this is what I used. Then the team learned even more about how people acquire language and created the “new levels”. Exactly the same principle, but the information is presented in a slightly different order. Both the course and the levels were presented in lessons of about half an hour each.
But people used those half an hours in all sorts of different ways (I know I did!) And some people thought that they weren’t doing “as well” as other people because they found they needed to do the lessons more before they would stick.
So the AutoMagic you have been using is the new levels but so designed that you will be moving through it at your own pace, and doing as much or as little (and as much or as little repetition) as is right for you. (And that’s what you’re influencing when you choose the “how do you feel?” answer, or whatever it is?)
I’m hoping someone more knowledgeable will be able to help with the “where am I on the course?” and “how do I measure my progress?” questions. I seem to remember that people have asked on the forum before about doing those alongside/before/after AutoMagic - if you do a bit of searching, there might be some helpful advice there already. (Really sorry that I don’t have time to go and search for that myself at the moment.)
As far as “anything else” is concerned, my advice would be: do it all! Listen to the radio, watch TV, etc. More than anything, try to talk to people and use what you’re acquiring as soon as possible (@siaronjames do you know anything about the conversation groups? I’d usually tag Deborah, but I suspect she might still be on leave…)
I’m going to be cheeky, and link to the S4C learners’ website (which I wrote), which hopefully has some more helpful information: Dysgu Cymraeg | S4C
I’m sure others will be along with more information shortly! (This is a really helpful place 
) But I hope this helps to start to answer your questions.
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As Sara said, the two methods are related in that they use the same material. Some people do find it useful to do both Automagic and the levels but others prefer one or the others - it’s entirely up to you - there’s no real ‘wrong’ way to do it because everyone is different, which is why there is so much flexibility.
Measuring progress is a little more tricky, because Automagic doesn’t have levels, and the course levels are not the same as you’d get in traditional style classes (because it’s all about speaking and listening, above reading, writing and grammar).
‘Anything else’ can be whatever you can find that you want to do. Having S4C, Radio Cymru, Welsh language podcasts or YouTube content on would be your best starting points. But don’t expect to or try to understand everything - just let the patterns and rhythms absorb to begin with.
There are online conversation groups on our Slack channels if you can’t find any ‘in the flesh’ chat groups near you. To get into those, just drop admin@saysomethingin.com an email to ask for an invite.
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I’vestarted the 6min a day course but have got well behind because of other things cropping up. Is there any way to reset my position to week 1 so that I can do a thorough recap?
You can email admin on the address above to ask for that too.
Helô @wendy-36 . I’ll hazard a guess that you are at about Level 1 Challenge 8. You don’t need to know where you are with Automagic: you work through what comes up for however long you want and at whichever speed you feel capable of on any one day. Automagic provides text as well as audio, which is useful if, like me, you feel the need to visualise sound. I started Automagic last year while it was still new and being loaded with content, and ended up doing Challenges while waiting for newer content to be loaded onto it. If you have the time and inclination, you can start on the Challenges and work through those at the same time as doing Automagic – or do them (as fast revision!) after you have finished all the Automagic content. The Challenges are audio only, though both the SSiW website and the App provide vocabulary and short lists of example sentences for each Challenge. You can access the 3 levels of Challenges by going to the ‘Learn’ tab at the top of the SSiW home page, or by downloading the App. Automagic is newer than the Challenges but, as far as I know, covers roughly the same material. The ‘Old Course’ material is (er…) older than the Challenges and can be found either on the App (keep on keeping on scrolling left) or in blue text under ‘Old material’ at the bottom of any of the Challenge pages on the website. I’ve just finished going through the Old Course and it provides a lot more grammar. How I think of the SSiW material is like this: Automagic gives the reassurance of seeing text; both Automagic and the Challenges act to provide the skeleton of the language; the Old Course puts muscle and skin onto the skeleton; and then toning the muscles and giving the skeleton its appearance (and perhaps some clothes) is done through all the other learning stuff you do. Speaking with others definitely helps tone those muscles, and you could ‘bulk-up’ with other formal learning courses e.g. DysguCymraeg (there are free downloads of content off their website if you can’t or don’t want to enrol in one of their courses). What colour hair and eyes you give to what is now a functioning body, and what clothes you put in its wardrobe depends on the vocabulary you learn through books, radio, podcasts, etc. Hope that helps!
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I should really adjust that analogy @wendy-36 because it is really useful, as the others have written, to talk, read and listen to stuff as you are building the skeleton of the language: i.e. you can get those bones moving early on and start planning the wardrobe!
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Thanks. That’s very helpful
@andrew-cooley Good luck with everything. And for resetting your position, just send an email to admin@saysomethingin.com and explain your predicament. The SSiW staff are very helpful.