Anyone been on any and how did you find them? The only one I’ve been on was at the University of Glamorgan summer school a few years ago. The teaching was good but the only negative was that most people doing Welsh seemed to be local so weren’t staying on campus. Therefore there weren’t many to practice with outside lesson time.
I did an intensive August at Aberystwyth 2 years in a row - that was what turned me into a Welsh speaker (well, that and moving to Porthmadog). It was pretty much the luck of the draw what kind of a group you got, in terms of attitude and commitment and also just how many were staying on campus. I was lucky both years, and we had a riot of a time… 
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I did a 4 week Aberystwyth Wlpan Awst course many years ago and found it well-run, congenial and effective. I think it would have been more effective if I had chosen to live in because the gains of the day were partially lost in the English-speaking evenings. In Aber there were sufficient residential participants to sustain a mini Welsh community. (I haven’t checked on the 2019 offerings, though)
One of the friends I made on this course went on to do a Welsh degree and is now a full time Welsh tutor. It puts my efforts in the shade. 
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Now, doesn’t that sound like an interesting change of pace?
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- Nant Gwrtheryn on the Llyn Peninsula run week-long courses through the year: http://nantgwrtheyrn.cymru/.
- Aberystwyth run a 4 week-long summer course, although you can do sub-sets of it: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/learn-welsh/. I was there for a week last year, and really enjoyed meeting a wide variety of people.
- Cardiff Uni do summer courses at all levels, and of course you then have all the social and tourist opportunities that Cardiff offers: https://welshforadults.cardiff.ac.uk/
- Lampeter does a 1-week course in April and July; I went on the July one a couple of years ago, and it was very popular, and they organised great social and educational activities each evening. https://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/courses/welsh-learners/intensive-courses-for-welsh-learners/
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If anyone ends up on an Aber course, you’re more than welcome to pop around for a bit of food and Welsh chat at Chez Nicky et Lara if you are so inclined!
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The problem of short sessions is when you come from another country ten days would be a good timing, but:travelling for just 5 or 6 days days course (supposed to be one week, but not in reality) ) it’s not worth it. And if you think “I’ll stay one week more”, then you’ll repeat the same course, because after only 5 days you have not learnt enough to change level, so once again ti’s not worth it.
That’s why for my part I would choose Aberyistwyth, because during all the weeks long there is a progressive learning (and of course, you can only stay for one, two or three weeks). And the price :is not so expensive compared to some summer courses (but I don’t know Cardiff, maybe same type of price).
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I think Cardiff is only £80-90 for two weeks so fairly cheap. Obviously the cost of accommodation will add considerably to that, although I think you can stay in student halls during the summer.
Just checked out the Lampeter course. £250 for five days so not cheap. Accommodation, if you decided to stay at the uni, adds another £230 on top of that.
Really, Cardiff is not expensive then !!!
Let’s see what I’ll be abble to say in a few months (and above all, what my bank will allow me to take off of my purse !) 
But really, it’s not expensive (of course you have to add a certain number of things, but anyway)
I guess Cardiff has its pros and cons. On the plus side it’s a fantastic city to visit with plenty going on in the evenings. On the downside, it’s not the most Welsh city in terms of hearing the language so you’d probably have to work a bit harder to use what you’ve learnt. I was down there for four days recently and didn’t hear any Welsh in the city centre apart from pre-recorded announcements at the train station, museum etc. You’d hope, though, that those during the summer course would probably socialise outside the classroom to practice a bit more.
Here’s the link to the Aberystwyth course. Starts from £195 for one week. Anyone know why Cardiff is so cheap compared to the other uni courses? Just curious. Seems like quite a gap between their course and the others.
I’ve hesitated about responding to this thread, but I feel someone should add a note of caution. I attended the Aberystwyth summer course last year, and I hated it. It’s true that I lived at home, so I missed most of the evening and weekend social events, which must be really valuable for people coming from parts of the world where there’s no chance to practise Welsh informally. But I found the course exactly the same as evening classes - heavily grammar-based, with structures taught in a way that things you could previously get right most of the time became impossible after you’d been given three pages of rules and exceptions. Not enough speaking - some tutors wasted lots of time asking questions to individuals rather than getting everyone to talk in pairs or groups. Some good practice in reading and writing skills - it wasn’t the fault of the course that I had less interest in those, as I just wanted to able to communicate with people where I live. In Aberystwyth, you get a different tutor each week, so obviously some will suit students more than others. But they all felt they had to follow the wretched coursebook.
I was bitterly disappointed, because I had worked out that the intensive course would involve more hours than a whole year of weekly lessons, and I expected to experience a step change in confidence and fluency. I didn’t. Having experienced the joys of absorbing Welsh with SSiW, the experience brought back memories of failing to learn languages at school.
If I compare a month’s summer course with a week’s immersive Bootcamp, there’s no contest. The Bootcamp turned me into a Welsh speaker, and the summer course briefly turned me off Welsh altogether.
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Everyone would like to speak perfectly but being too rigid in teaching instead of encouraging people to get out there and speak is a bit of a mistake. I know my Welsh is a bit rough and ready but at least a fluent speaker can understand what I’m on about. Banging on about perfect structures, which for many learners are going to be soul-destroying and give the impression that you’ll never ‘get there’, seems self-defeating.
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I think it’s good that Stuart should hear such widely different reactions to the Aber course. “Different strokes for different folks”
I’d probably do Cardiff actually because it’s my old uni city and I’ve got a soft spot for chip alley etc.
I wonder if some uni teachers on these courses feel that it’s just expected of them to operate in “academic mode”, and if they don’t, people will feel they aren’t getting their money’s worth?
It reminds me of a story told to us by a family friend who happens to be a judge(! - we don’t really move in those sort of circles, and he’s a very approachable sort of chap… ).
Anyway, he was telling us about some well-known long-term crim who was coming up before him. I’m not sure if this was some experiment, or if it had just become normal for that particular type of court, but he was not wearing a wig, and perhaps not even a gown.
“'ere what’s all this then?” said the crim.
“I want a proper judge with a wig and all the trimmings!”.
Got to please the customer, you see!
Anyway, so maybe these uni teachers think they have to wear the metaphorical wig and gown…or at least, teach as though they were wearing them.
Regarding Cardiff, I guess that it’s heavily subsidised as are many of the S Wales Welsh courses, although, still more expensive than SSiW . The entire evening class scheme that I attended, back in the 90’s was free to me. Although, admittedly, I did attend the 2nd year through a work-based incentive.
Regarding the academic nature, I think that there are some conversation based courses, but imagine that its all relative, compared to what we are now used to, here.
A friend of mine is attending a Welsh degree course (through the medium of Welsh), but he and plenty of tutors attend the Saturday coffee mornings that I go to, I suspect to let their hair down with some coffee Welsh.
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