Dw i 'di bod yn dysgu Cymraeg am tua mis…

Welsh
#1

Exactly a month, in fact, as I signed up on 22nd June, and I finished Level 1 (Northern) tonight.

The most important thing is that I have enjoyed it enormously – I have been more
enthused about this than any other course I’ve taken (several, in several languages). I am very good at getting bored with things, so the fact I’ve carried on this long is a real tribute to Aron and all concerned… Thank you very much!

But I know I went through the level very quickly – deliberately so, following the recommendation to plough on regardless – and I know I need to consolidate what I’ve learnt.

I did the first 3 lessons several times, then I found the recommendation on this forum to ‘chunk’ them, so did 4-10 in one go, then went back and did them again. I repeated 11-15 in one block in the same manner.

When I got to challenge 16, though, I started to feel confident that anything I missed in a particular lesson would be covered (and would seem routine) in the next challenge or two, so I ended up doing 16–25 one after each other, 2 or 3 per day.

I make loads – oodles – of daft mistakes and often don’t finish in time, but I feel I’ve absorbed a lot and I feel I usually know the right(-ish) answer, even if I can’t get it out in time.

My question is now how to consolidate what I’ve learnt into something more spontaneous, accurate and less execrable… Because I skipped through so many lessons so quickly, before I move on to Level 2, would you recommend:

  1. going back and do 16–25 again, or
  2. concentrating on just doing the ‘summary’ lesson 25 a few times, say until I can meet the old ‘80% correct within the time gap’ standard?

Many thanks again to Aron and the team, and to the helpful souls on the forum!

2 Likes
#2

It sounds as if you have done brilliantly so far, David! Llongyfarchiadau mawr iawn to you on getting started and ploughing through - fabulous! :grinning:

Keep reminding yourself that those mistakes are an essential part of the learning process and are actually really helping you.

I’m tagging @aran in this thread so he can possibly give you a bit more input. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#3

David, that’s a superb first month! Huge congratulations.

Consolidation is a very interesting process - it will be happening in the background without you even being aware of it, to some extent - I would strongly recommend that you push on with Level 2, and just revisit the last two or three challenges of Level 1 about once a month, until they feel too easy - you’ll also be revisiting some of that material as you progress through Level 2… :slight_smile:

1 Like
#4

Thank you, @CatrinLliarJones and @aran (and sorry for spelling your name wrong in the OP!)! It’s been very enjoyable.

One of the reasons I pushed on so quickly was to test the method ‘as is’, rather than my take on it, because I’ve done a lot of language learning in the past, and it’s fascinating to see a different method. I’ve been really impressed by how much I have retained (not always quickly enough, but it’s there…). Thanks!

I am certain I wouldn’t have made as much progress with a month of book learning (although I may have had a more systematic handle on the initial grammar and spelling…) and not just because I would never have spent as much time on it. (Walking the dog for an hour or more a day gets through a lot of Challenges…).

I think I have more understanding of the rhythm, pronunciation, idioms and thought processes – e.g that certain verbs are thought of in a different tense than in English – of Welsh, even at this preliminary level, than I would have had at this stage, and that’s really interesting.

I’ve spend the last couple of days going over Challenge 25 a few times, because I found I was tripping up a lot on the middle section (all those My mum said that she had rather my sister told me that I shouldn’t want to tell my brother that his father said he should stop…), and I think I’m getting the hang of it better now.

So, I shall move on to Level 2 straightaway – if you happen to be around the Duke’s Drive in Caer about 6am most mornings and you hear someone speaking broken Welsh interspersed with ‘Come back you stupid dog’, do say helo…

Thanks very much again!

2 Likes
#5

Don’t worry, I’m used to plenty of variations on my name… :wink:

Excellent decision - good luck with Level 2 - I’d always definitely encourage pressing on for an experienced learner, because you’ll navigate the emotional shoals much better.

We occasionally have Board meetings in Caer, so we might get to meet the dog one of these days… :slight_smile:

1 Like
#6

Toby (and I) will be delighted!

1 Like