Now how did I know you would say that Aran?! Earlier today I had my 2nd listen whilst walking with Mr Bill and I realised what it was about the lesson I had found tough…the introduction of new words (ok) which were then used in a listening practise at proper spoken speed (Ooohh, didnt have time to work out what was said). Im still getting used to the listening exercises which are a relatively new addition…and it is those that I struggle to translate and understand with just 2 listens. I dont use the pause at all. It turns out though today that I did (more or less) get most of what was said, so I will move on!
One thing I do struggle with is the part of a lesson when you mix it up a bit, and ‘I’m’ in the present, ‘he’s’ in the past and then ‘we’ are in the future. I DO know it, but on those mix ups I just dont seem capable of producing it. Anyone else struggle with that?
It’s common for people to struggle with this, and to feel that they’re not doing very well, but it’s a well-proven approach to learning - you might find this short video about it interesting:
Fascinating. I am normal then! That has really reassured me, diolch! I’m taking this advice seriously and so, having only listened to lesson 21 once, and found the 2nd part of it extremely difficult, I’ve decided to crack on with 22. Nearly done the first course. WOW!
Excellent, well done! The second part of all of the last few lessons will always feel very difficult, because they’re going over everything else you’ve done, so it’s as tough as it gets - but push on through to finish 26, and then move on to the vocab lessons (unless you’d like to switch tracks to the newer, better Level 1) and just revisit lessons 25 and 26 once each after a fortnight, then after a month, then after two months (and then you should be done)
What alchemy is this?! I pushed on Aran as you suggested, finding lessons 24 and 25 quite hard but just had 2 listens. Started the vocab, and was finding it a real struggle on the first listen. It wasnt the numbers or months that were difficult; there were sentences with the odd new word in that I didnt know and hadnt been introduced, and I struggled to get to grips with how to begin a sentence with ‘the’ or ‘there’…i was so frustrated but carried on although I hadn’t produced half of it correctly…through vocab 1,2,3. I was rubbish on them all, and felt like giving up and starting Level 1. I then had a day off and just left it because my head was mashed. Then weirdly today I played all 3 and I was 80% better. Just ‘got it’. Im amazed. It’s like my brain has gone away and processed it while I wasnt even thinking about it! BRILLIANT!
Update: I’ve started the vocab about colours today (9) so almost ready to begin Course 2. Can’t wait! I’ve found the vocab units quite hard, and progress did slow down a little as I felt I really did need to do some extra listening to the units to make it go in… (sorry Aran! ) but got there in the end. An amusing example of my obsession with Cymraeg… I always do lessons when walking my Jack Russell, Bill, and was fiddling around putting my earphones on as I was walking down some concrete steps en route to a field… when I missed a step and fell down! After quickly checking that nobody was nearby, I allowed myself a short howl of pain… but then made up many sentences with ‘disgyn I lawr’ (which I LOVE the sound of, although did not envisage it would apply to me when I covered it back in lesson 11! ). It’s official… siarad Cymraeg makes you feel better!
Yay!! Started Course 2 today! Can’t believe I’m being described as ‘intermediate’ and not ‘beginner’… I was so chuffed to find I only needed to do Vocab 10 once, without pausing and pretty much nailed it! Dw i’n hapus iawn!
Oh happy day! I wanted to report that so far I am LOVING Course 2. Diolch yn fawr iawn Aran. Ive just got into Lesson 5 and it’s all going swimmingly… which is apt as im learning nofio’n gyflym!
HELP!! I’ve hit a bit of a brick wall. I had my lovely week on Ynys Mon last week, but unfortunately did no work on my lessons whilst away as I normally do lessons whilst walking my dog, but could not because I was walking with somebody who isn’t a learner. I came back very eager to crack on but I’m really struggling with Course 2 (northern) lesson 13/14. I’m not quite ‘getting’ the use of sydd. At first I thought it meant ‘who’ or ‘who does’ something… but then we have ‘pwy’ which is ‘who’. I’m even more floundering in lesson 14 when we get ‘pwy wnaeth’ or sometimes just ‘wnaeth’? I can’t get my head round it. Any advice??
Unfortunately, ‘who’ is one of those English words that just doesn’t map very well to Welsh.
You’ve got two choices here - you can worry about this, and put the brakes on until you have a fully controlled grammatical understanding of what’s happening…
Or you can press on, accept that ‘who’ is going to be a bit of a headache for you for a while, and give your brain the exposure it needs to figure out the patterns for itself.
I strongly recommend that you press on
[And remember, if you get to the end of Course 2, and you’re still muddled about ‘who’, you can always revisit the issue ]
Thanks so much for your prompt reply Aran. That has really reassured me a lot. I always trust your advice implicitly, ESPECIALLY because you are not a first language Cymraeg speaker. You were a learner once yet have achieved a fabulous level of fluency which is so inspiring. I know that you know how to get us there! I shall press on.
Back on track. Have just finished 17. I’m finding now that I have quite a struggle on my first AND second run through due to the sheer amount of patterns and ways to say things that I have covered. When doing that part of the lesson that mixes it up, I don’t bother with the pause button, but I often can’t bring the right tense to mind before Catrin kicks in. Or, with supreme effort I get the beginning but haven’t worked out the end bit in time. However, I am understanding the construction when I hear it, certainly by the 2nd run through. By the 3rd attempt it’s more or less gone in. So, I have definitely slowed down a bit now but with perseverance it seems to go in. I’m realising though that no matter HOW difficult it appears on the first encounter with new structures and words it really is a case of just exposure, exposure, exposure…I’ve been SO impressed with how this system works. The great thing now I find is that no matter how difficult it gets I have learned that if you press on, as always advised by Aran, it really does come together. Yes, it is EXTREMELY clunky (!) but the words are there and I know that if I do an hour every single day I can only get better. I’m 52 in October…I know that when I’m back in Wales at 53 I shall have so much more to say. I never would have believed that I could get this far. I’m so thrilled.
This is the most important single thing you need to understand about language acquisition, so well done! Once this clicks, everything else really is just a matter of time. Oh, and by the way, if you’re finding that stuff has ‘more or less gone in’ by the 3rd run through (you can probably guess what I’m going to say here!) - yes, that means you don’t need the 3rd run through. [In fact, it’s very unlikely you need the 2nd, but if that’s your comfort level, that’s okay].
Reading stuff like that is what keeps us going. Diolch o galon i ti
Today I had a very productive day, and I thought I would share it in the hope that it could be a good idea for newer learners. I arrived at the woods where I walk my dog, to find I had forgotten my earphones for my Welsh session. I was really annoyed with myself as I simply can’t walk Bill without Catrin and Aran any more (!). Anyhow, I was thinking I should make up my own sentences, which is something we are encouraged to do and I have done sporadically…but I suddenly thought about what my biggest hurdle is currently. It is getting the right tenses when sentences are mixed in the 2nd half of lessons. So I decided to go through all the patterns for I, you, he, she, we, you (pl) and them.
Present, past and future. For an hour and ten mins. That was this morning.
I have just taken Bill now for 30 mins walk and went through lesson 18, that I had just listened to one time previously and I’m pleased to report I had far less trouble with the tenses! Great stuff. I recommend this if you ever struggle with how to start your sentences!
