Dw i newydd orffen y cwrs 3 (I've just finished course 3)

(English Below)

Wel te, oeth hynnu’n hwyl. Diolch i chi, Aran, Iestyn, Cat a Catrin am gwneud y cwrs ma. Dw i’n mynd i ailwneud y gwers pump ar ugain pob wythnos am fis neu ddau, ac wedyn pob mis er mwyn ymarfer, a dw i’n mynd i wneud y cwrs newydd (wel, pan fydd na gwersi newydd :wink: ), ond dau flwydden yn ôl, byddwn i byth yn credi byddwn i’n siarad iaith arall fel dw i’n gallu nawr. Diolch o galon i chi.

Well then, that was fun. Thank you, Aran, Iestyn, Cat and Catrin for making this course. I’m going to redo lesson twenty five every week for a month or two, and then every month for a year or so just to practice, and I’m going to do the new course (well, when there are new lessons :wink: ), but two years ago I would never have believed I would speak another language the way I can now. Thank you.

:llongyf:

Da iawn a longyfarchiadau Mawrion mawr Chris! Dwi’n bron wedi cwpla gyda’r trydydd cwrs fy Hunan. Bydd Gwers 23 yr un nesaf I fi, ond ma fe’n mor neis i ddarllen am rhywun sy wedi bod yn llwyddianus fel chi… Dalwch ati!

Oops, forgot the translation ( congrats, basically)!

Ah, it’s fine, it happens sometimes. I’m currently thinking of doing the Canolradd course offered at my University - if nothing else, it’ll improve my vocabulary, and hopefully it’ll help me to understand more formal Welsh when I hear it spoken or see it written down.

Llongyfarchiadau mawr iawn iawn - that sounds like a remarkably successful two years…:seren:

Yep. Bearing in mind that I took a pretty big break midway through, I’m quite happy with that. Bootcamp certainly made the biggest difference of all - that was what transitioned me from thinking in English and trying to translate to thinking in Welsh in the first place - but even if you didn’t have Bootcamp, every other language course I’d encountered before finding this site focused on learning sentences by rote and spending more time reading and writing than actually speaking. If Rosetta Stone had a Welsh course, and had I gone with that (as I had tried with other languages in the past), there’s no way I’d have been ready for bootcamp inside 18 months - and that’s assuming I didn’t just give up in disgust long before (which, as I’m sure you can guess, was the result of previous efforts).

So thanks again, Aran, for introducing me to the incredible high that is successfully learning to speak a new language. Time to start another (how can only two languages be enough for anyone?). Anyone know of a course similar to this for Cantonese? At least I have plenty of films for listening practice :wink: .

Congrats on your well-earned achievement, mate - da iawn ti :slight_smile:

SSiW has unleashed a monster. I quite agree, how can you possibly stick to two languages after this?

Feedback like this is such an inspiration I can’t begin to put it into words.

Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to share you experiences and your success, Chris - it means an enormous amount to us.

We’ll try and have some Cantonese stuff ready next year or the year after!..:wink:

problem with SSi :
You not only want to learn more languages, you’re also completely spoiled by this way of learning. You compare every other course with the SSi way to teach and you don’t want to go to traditional courses and evening-classes.

The closest I’ve come across to the SSI approach is Michel Thomas, followed by Pimsleur; the latter of which has a basic (30 lesson) Cantonese course. There is of course the CantoneseClass101 course, which is even free, but I feel a little dubious as to some of their claims…

I have significant issues with Pimsleur because of their use of spam runs (yes, definitely genuine spam runs, they’re sending spam to mail addresses that don’t exist and have never existed on my server)

Sorry, that’s derailing the thread slightly. Congrats, Chris. I’m hoping to get there eventually :slight_smile:

It’s fine. Good thing to know though - I prefer to avoid companies who send spam…

Ah, never mind - CantoneseClass101 isn’t free any more - just the first three lessons of each level. That’s fine - I’ll just have to find a different course. Pity the Michel Thomas company doesn’t do one; I’m told their existing non-European courses are pretty decent.

while SSiW is Actually And Absolutely The Best Language Course Ever, don’t spend too long trying to find “the perfect course” for Cantonese, Chris - in lieu of SSiC, you can at least find a, dare I say it? course book that will give you a structure to work through, so you always have something to carry on with, and there is one component of SSi you can replicate already, which is focusing on speaking practice - particularly with Cantonese, you’ll have no problem finding someone online to do a language exchange with :slight_smile:

(it’ll be nowhere near as good as finding a perfectly structured audio based speaking intensive course like SSi, but I think as long as you add speaking practice to whatever you do, you’ll be on your way.)

I can always take a look at the FSI course - it uses both a book and a fair bit of audio practice. I think part of the problem I’ve found in a lot of course books is the amount of going back over old material you end up having to revise, because very little seems to build on anything else you’ve learned.

Llongyfarchiadau Chris! A great achievement! :slight_smile: