You are amazing, Milla! Looking forward to hearing how that chat goes!
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I have finished 25 and am starting to get very nervous about the skype chat 
Stats:
Challenge 1 - 94% (again!)
Challenge 10 - 87%
Challenge 20 - 93%
Challenge 25 - 74%
I feel a lot more tired today… I got a headache already at challenge 6 
I know that feeling like I haven’t learned anything is normal and that as soon as I start talking it’ll be fine, but what if I actually can’t say anything?
It’s not going to happen!.. 
Those are remarkable stats - really remarkable. Do your chipmunks/make up your own sentences combo, and you’ll be ready…
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if what you were trying to do here was in any way possible - if someone had told me you’d hit stats like that, I would have found it very hard to believe. If you’re not happy with how the conversation ends up, have another one in a week from now, after revising 24 and 25 from Level 2 - it’ll be much easier when you’re less tired!
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Yeah, being too tired is what I was worried about… Thank you - I feel much better 
I’ll go do my chipmunks now!
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Uhm…
Good news and bad news
Good news: I managed to speak, and in total I spoke for about 20 minutes. And I didn’t feel like it was too much - I think I could have kept going
Bad news: The recording program didn’t work. Well, mostly. For some reason it couldn’t record both video and sound at the same time, so we chatted once with video - for 10 minutes - then realised there was no sound. I tried to find out what was wrong, but didn’t want to waste too much of Gaby’s time so gave up and decided to try it without video. Soo, we talked again with just audio, which felt a bit more awkward (mostly because of it being the second time but also because I like to talk with my hands a lot) 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5-F-fYJczgVMGxBOUt3V2o2ZWc/view?usp=drivesdk
(Aaa, that ‘hate hearing your own voice’ -thing is especially bad when you have to listen to yourself attempt to speak a new language)
I am very happy with how it went the first time and a bit less happy with how it went the second time. Overall still very happy
Muchas gracias, Gaby! Diolch o galon!
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I thought it went really well both times Milla!!
It was really impressive to hear you speak so confidently and fluently in such a short amount of time. Even though you are an Italian speaker, it didn’t sound to me like you were translating from Italian into Spanish at any time, and I hardly ever heard any Italian words in your speech.Your accent was very good too, it’s so wired to me thinking that you’ve learned the language through my recorded voice over two days and then spoke the language back to me over Skype
All in all it was a very enjoyable experience to see how someone can “soak” her brain in such a huge amount of material over two days and come out speaking so freshly and confidently. Da iawn ti, felicitaciones!!
Gaby
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What a pity about the recording - but thank you so much for trying again and for getting the audio - which is an absolutely fantastic achievement. It’s clear that you could go straight into a Spanish only Bootcamp and be absolutely fine - which is pretty breath-taking, to be honest.
Obviously, we have to factor in the similarities between Italian and Spanish - you clearly had something of a head start on that basis - but as I know from trying to go the other way round, they’re not similar enough to make it easy!
Gaby, diolch o waelod calon - so kind of you to give your time to this…
Milla, I’d love to see a detailed write-up of the whole experience - it would make absolutely fascinating reading…
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I agree And I feel like the two being so similar isn’t all good either. I’ll write more about that tomorrow, I guess
Tomorrow!
Diolch 
Buenas noches!
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Buenas noches!
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Mom just arranged me a quick chat with her friend who is a native speaker. I spoke Spanish for 10 minutes about a surprisingly wide range of subjects (music, computers, video games, Welsh, Italian…)
I also managed to ask him how long he thought I’d been learning… 4-5 months! Wow! 
Oh, and I’m pretty sure he spoke faster than the chipmunks…
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Congratulations on painting yourself Spanish in two days!
I guess you must be a bit tired today! But if you’re thinking of writing about it anyway, would you mind answering a couple more questions about your feelings at this point? (No hurry! )
How much more work would you still need (if any!) to feel happy about using basic everyday Spanish on a tourist visit to Spain? Say as the only Spanish speaker responsible for making arrangements for a group of friends. (I know that’s a personal question as much as a language one.)
As an experienced learner of this method,
What exactly would you do next, if you were aiming to continue learning Spanish to quite a high level? (Maybe you are…) Including being able to read and write a bit.
What would be the most important strategies?
(Do you think it would be different for someone who had less background knowledge of Spanish before starting?)
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I’m not sure how much detail you want, but I’m just gonna try to write as much as I can… Hopefully the text is somewhat coherent - I’m really exhausted today :sweat-smile:
Italian and Spanish -
Italian definitely helped me a lot with remembering new words, figuring out how to construct new sentences and, especially during the chat, guessing the meaning of words that I hadn’t heard before. A lot of the time I can just change Italian words a bit so they sound like Spanish. Tiempo, lentamente, rápidamente…
Surprisingly often, however, there were Spanish words that sounded almost exactly or exactly like Italian words but meant different things. For example, pronto, meaning “soon”, means “ready” in Italian. Saying “Lo más pronto posible” felt really wrong when prompted to say “as soon as possible”… Oh, and “to go out”, salir! Salire means “to rise” or “to climb”
And of course many words were completely different.
I also had some problems because of the similarity, though. I often had to stop to think about whether a word I was about to say was actually Spanish, and to make sure that I wasn’t just trying to get it from Italian when the actual Spanish word is different. I was having a lot of trouble getting decir right, as my Italian-speaking brain was telling me it should be dicer (which sounds a bit more like dire)
What was difficult -
Boredom! The most difficult thing was having to spend the entire day doing nothing but challenges. I’ve always found doing SSi challenges/lessons fun (which is why I started learning Welsh in the first place!), but after doing the first ~15 it starts to get a bit tedious… On both days, after about 20 lessons, I started to consider leaving the last 5 for the next day
I kept translating into Welsh first. Even at the end of the second day, I would sometimes just automatically say the sentence in Welsh in my head before starting to think of the Spanish. Also kept saying mwy instead of más (where it fit), and sometimes even rhywbeth instead of algo. I also noticed that lately I’ve been speaking a lot of Welsh without meaning to… I think I said “na” and “iawn” a few times during the chat with Gaby (not sure if it’s in the recording - it might have been before that).
Tiredness was a big problem on both days. On the first day I somehow managed to get re-energised by the end, feeling completely fine and awake in the evening, but I was feeling very tired halfway through. I think I started to get tired at around challenge 13 on the first day and challenge 10 on the second. I got a headache already at challenge 6 on the second day but was fine on the first day.
That head spinning feeling was very common pretty much all the time except for the mornings. Despite not being tired on the first evening my head felt super weird.
Aaand @netmouse 's questions -
I’m ready to go now! I don’t need to be able to speak much to be happy - I don’t speak my native langauges very well so I don’t really have a “first langauge” to compare new langauges to. Probably might help me to learn a few more nouns though!
Lots of listening, speaking and reading. I’d probably start with finding some Spanish movies or tv shows (or YouTube videos!) that interest me and just start watching them in addition to of course trying to speak Spanish with someone as often as possible. Then find something easy to read to start with - a children’s book or something I’ve read before - and use that as a gateway to all the interesting books. (while still doing the same amount of listening and speaking!) After reading for a while I think you can just sort of start writing. It’ll probably be very bad writing but it gets better with practice 
Oh, and change the langauge of as many things (Windows, phone, Facebook etc…) as possible to Spanish as soon as I feel like that wouldn’t cause me to break anything
Basically I’d just try to surround myself with the language as much as possible…
Yeah, sort of, but I’m planning on trying to reach that point fairly slowly
I’m not very interested in learning it very actively now - I’m too interested in Welsh to be willing to give Spanish the time that I’m currently spending on Welsh. I’m thinking of sort of just treating it as one of the langauges I speak from now on. I’ll probably watch Spanish movies/TV shows/YouTube videos and listen to Spanish music whenever I happen to find something nice instead of actively trying to look for stuff. I’ll try to find someone to regularly practice speaking with on Skype though
Not worrying about trying to understand everything when listening to or reading something. And enjoying it and doing it a lot! It’s amazing how much you can learn without realising. You can learn word lists by heart if you really want to, but that’s not the only way to learn new vocab (or the most effective, I think)
I think it would be more difficult, but I doubt the result would be very different. I really don’t know! I’d like to try to do this again with a language that is not related to one that I already speak… Saysomethingin… Mandarin? Mohawk? Polish? Māori? One day
Have I missed something? I’m happy to add if I have 
Okay, back to the hammock! I’m so tired…
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I heard (and loved hearing!) at least one ‘na’…
Fascinating input, Milla - diolch o GALON.
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Really interesting - muchos gracias!!
I’m really chuffed that you’d feel capable of organising stuff in Spanish after just two days! (Although I’m not sure how often there would be an advantage to doing it in two days, as opposed to taking a couple more not quite so battering ones! Except for setting world records of course!)
Hope you’re enjoying the hammock!
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It would be very slow organising, and it would involve a lot of guessing 
But I’d be happy enough doing it!
I am. It’s my favourite thing in the world right now
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Ciao Novem 
Oh. My. God! 
You did the first 18 lessons on the first day and the remaining 17 on the second…that’s absolutely badass and very, very impressiv! Honestly, I could never do that, my brain would reduce into a fluid state and slowly drop out of my nose. You’re amazing and I wish you all the luck and fun in the world for your study in Wales! 
What has inspired you to learn Welsh, if you don’t mind me asking? Do you have a special connection to Wales and its wonderful people?
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Moi Claudia!
Thank you so much 
I don’t have any connection to Wales and I’m not exactly sure why I started to learn Welsh, but I’m really glad I did. My reason for trying SSiW (which I had stumbled upon by accident) was a mix of “that actor in Game of Thrones speaks Welsh”, “SSiW introduction was really interesting” and “dragons”. I went in not really knowing anything about Wales - I didn’t even know that Cymraeg existed before seeing an interview with that actor speaking it! I just sort of kept going, then, as the lessons were fun
Maybe you would find it interesting to try an intensive day! You don’t have to do 18 - I think people often do 6-10 (?). You will be tired and in pain by the end, but it’s amazing how much you can learn in just one day. (and personally I think it’s really fun!)
Looking forward to reading more about your Welsh-learning journey on the forum soon
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Oh, yes, I can so relate to how you found your way to the Welsh language and Wales. The actor from Game of Thrones you’re talking about is Iwan Rheon, right? - I’ve just watched an interview with him on Youtube…and I could listen to him siarad Cymraeg forever! 
For me, it was Poldark…well, okay, he is from Cornwall, but as I learned, Welsh and Cornish are sister languages. First, I read Mr Graham’s books and enjoyed the series from the 1970s, and now, I’m a huge fan of the new drama with Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson. My fascination with Wales and Cornwall is the reason why dwi 'n trio dysgu Cymraeg a Kernewek at the same time.
Could you really remember the words and expression while doing 18 Challenges in a row? And were you stil able to remember them the next day? Now, I’m curious and inspired by your experience and would like to try doing…say 3 or 4 Challenges in a day…
It’s a struggle to overcome this obviously outdated believe that only repetition and repetition and repetition finally tows the words into the long - term memory (I mean repetition of the same, without adding something new until the old things are learned perfectly).
It’s a pleasure and an honour to converse with a Welsh - learning pro like you, mille, mille grazie for your reply! 
Yes, dragons are fantastic creatures, and Wales has the best flag in the universe 
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Hey Milla (we met at the SSiW birthday this year, and coincidentally caught the same train ;)… in case you couldn’t tell from my picture lol (the beard was/currently is much fuller)).
If you need Spanish practice, let me know. 
I’m looking forward to your results. I would love to try it myself (at least a Level 1 all-day sessions). I’m looking forward to hearing about all the details.
Best of luck, o, buena suerte!!
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I am just totally amazed at how talented you are at learning languages - not just that you put so much time and effort into the process, but also at your results. I struggle to get through one 30 minute challenge - really tired by the end. Most I have done is two in one day! Ali x
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