First time contributor

I am currently doing level 1 South challenge 8. I have not posted before so this is a test really. No reply required thank you.

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Just a reply to let you know your test well and truly succeeded :slight_smile: Welcome to the forum!

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Welcome! Croeso! As you see, we notice new posts, but some of us are not good at doing what they say!!!

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Welcome to the forum, Stephen… :slight_smile:

Thank you all for your welcome.

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Welcome to forum! :slight_smile:

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Lovely to see you here, Stephen - I hope you’re enjoying the course!

Take your time to look around - there’s loads of interesting and useful stuff on the forum, and we love answering questions, as you will notice almost straight away.

And et us know how you’re getting on.

All the best,

Iestyn

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Iestyn,

Thank you. I think that I’m doing OK. I normally have to do each Challenge twice to ensure that I get more than 80% of it correct and I invariably get confused with the extremely long sentences. I do however, finish the challenges feeling like a wet dish cloth!!!

Stephen

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That sounds like you’re doing the challenges exactly right! If I were you, I’d take the rpessure off yourself as well, and not worry about the 80% (and certainly not about the long sentences - try remembering what the sentence is in English, and you’ll see why you sometimes struggle with the Welsh!).

If you want to experiment with only doing each challenge once, and not worrying about the 80%, it’s worth a try, because a) you’ll be amazed at what sticks and b) you’ll be practising all the material in the next few lessons anyway.

But the important thing is that you keep doing what works, and what you are doing is obviously working, because you’re at challenge 8, which is great progress.

Da iawn.

Iestyn

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That’s actually a very good point. I often find myself translating those long sentences in perfectly acceptable Welsh (I hope!), only to find that I’ve somewhere lost the thread. For example, ending with a “…that she said to me” instead of “…that I said to the dog” or whatever. Have to keep reminding myself that I’m here to learn Welsh, not how to be a parrot!

That is actually a really good sign, because it shows you realxing with the language and saying what’s been pinged in your head by the sentence, rather than just translating parrot fashion, as you say.

Two really important things to remember about the exercises:

  1. We are teaching you to speak Welsh. You will not have someone with you telling you in English what to say for you to translate in a real conversation - our monthly membership fee doesn’t quite cover that personal a service! So you will be saying what comes into your head. So, if that is what is happening in the exercises, then you are not “making a mistake”, you are speaking Welsh. Of course, we are trying to get you to practice specific patterns and vocab, so it’s better if mostly you say what we’ve asked, but if you go off on your own tangent, that is fine. This is a conversation, not an exam!

  2. Making mistakes (or innovations, as we call them on Bootcamp) is a natural part of speaking. If you want to speak perfect Welsh, then you will need to spend as much time on it as you have spent on your English, and still accept that it will only be as good as your English which is almost definitely not perfect. So, part of the beauty of SSiW is that you make lots of mistakes during the lessons, and get used to making mistakes, and carrying on regardless. You get used to asying things that aren;t perfect, but convey your meaning, or saying stuff that is nonsense, and just moving on. That is going to happen in real conversations as well, so get used to it in the lessons, and you will have much more relaxed conversations.

In other words, saying Welsh that isn;t what you hear back during the challenges is part of the process. It is not “wrong”. You don;t get a red mark and get sent to the headteacher if you say too many things differently. You are meant to get stuff wrong, to prepare you for real life.

Tattoo that on your eyeballs, so that you never forget it!

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Iestyn,

Worded beautifully!

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Iestyn,

Thanks for that, I’ll give it a shot.

Stephen

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Hello this is my first time on the forum too . I’m doing level 1 and reached challenge 20 . My sister and I started the course together which I think gives you a lot of motivation to keep going (sisterly competitiveness ) !! . I think it helps as we FaceTime each other am scwrs bach from time to time and it’s amazing how much more confident we are now than when we started . We’re both surprised at how much Welsh we’re able to remember. I think it’s a brilliant course .
Goodluck

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Croeso @stephenowenthomas and @Gilli and pob lwc :smile:

My advice, follow @Iestyn’s advice :smile:

Keep us all updated on how it goes. It’s great to hear progress reports!!

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That sounds brilliant, Gilli - the best way… sorry, the only way to really get confidence is to use your Welsh, and having a little sisterly competition over it, but helping each other as well, sounds like the ultimate combination. It’s not surprising that you feel that you’re coming along well - I bet you’re absolutely flying!

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