Time to come out of the shadows a little and give credit where it is due, celebrate success so far and reflect ruefully on many years spent in the linguistic wilderness.
Like quite a few other people I have met (I suspect this may include many on here, too) I have wanted to learn Welsh for almost longer than I can remember. When I was a small child I went on holidays to Pen Llŷn and was aware from an early age of a fair bit of Welsh ancestry on both parental sides of the family, but sadly far enough in the past that my parents were not in a position to teach me any Welsh beyond the odd word and phrase. I did, however, get introduced to (hopefully) fairly correct pronunciation, in particular LL and CH. I remember the dear old lady (quite probably a Great-Grandma) Mrs. Jones who owned the cottage where we stayed and I remember feeling frustrated that whilst I could count to ten yn Y Gymraeg from an early age, I could not understand what Mrs. Jones or anyone else were saying.
As an older child I made a couple of attempts at learning, using “Teach Yourself” books: The older “Teach Yourself Welsh” which was rather formal and the more modern “Teach Yourself Living Welsh”. Clearly they must have done me some good as I can remember patterns I learned back then and I became able to “get the gist” when reading from a book, magazine or newspaper. But I still got totally lost attempting to listen to real world conversations. Reading is, as I found out the hard way, no substitute for listening and speaking.
For a few intervening decades, I contented myself (living in England) with the odd fantasy about “eventually” going to Welsh classes, but never getting around to it. I had tried French classes (after doing French at school) and was frustrated about the process being too mechanical. I could translate in my head but not think in French. A similar feeling applied to my book-learned Welsh.
More recently (last decade or so) I started having dreams where I was talking to people (sometimes an Audience) in Welsh. Scary it was, but it also felt “so right”. I put the dreams “to bed” (sorry, weak pun) and thought not much more of them, until recently.
With the advent of the Internet I found some useful short-course materials here and there and “topped up” my still very limited Welsh a bit. I also started listening to Radio Cymru and watching S4C when I could, but did not understand much at all. One thing I did enjoy, but could not take much further at that stage, was going into Welsh cafes and Fish and Chip shops to order “Paned o De” or “Pysgodyn a Sglodion”. It felt good, but, being rehearsed, was really not going anywhere fast.
Just before Christmas (five-and-a-bit months back) I had been going to take a leap and move house to Cymru, I was looking for courses but was impatient about the long wait till Autumn. I was also still skeptical after my French experience. I did not want to just “talk Welsh” - I wanted to think in Welsh. Google was my friend here and after a short search for courses and materials, I stumbled on SSiW. I decided to “give it a go” and after about three weeks I had finished Course 1. Before I even finished Course 1 I realised this was actually working so I jumped in and subscribed. The house I wanted to rent fell through (I had too many cats!) but by then there was no stopping me. I found the new Level 1, did that in another 3 weeks or so (a lesson or sometimes two, occasionally three, each day) and then paused a while in February.
After a forced house move (landlord wanted his house back) but sadly not to Cymru at this point I took a brief break but then felt I “had to do more” before “daring to show my face” at the Manchester SSiW meeting in March. Hence I dived into Course 2 and completed it in a few weeks.
The March meeting in Manchester was both (initially) scary (for a few minutes) and inspiring. People were talking in Welsh and I felt worried I would be tongue-tied, which I realise of course is completely natural. But I could also understand quite a lot of what they were saying. By the end of the meeting I was sad that it was over and sadder that I would have to wait a month until the next one.
Aran is, of course, quite right about using Welsh in the Wild being the way to go. People can go to Bootcamp after Course 1, so I did not strictly need Course 2 to start chatting. I had found myself in the middle of the ability range at my first meeting, quite a postive feeling,
But I could not wait. When I read about Saith Seren in Wrecsam I felt I just had to check the place out with a weekly chat session in a friendly pub atmosphere. I went there just after Easter and was gutted shortly after to find it was to close. Of course it didn’t close, thanks to lots of you on this Forum and some other supporters, too. I have continued to go almost every week (from Wigan, 50 miles away, but well worth it).
I have also continued with SSiW, doing the Vocab units for Courses 1 and 2 and I am working through Course 3 (though I intend to “jump backward” to the new Level 2 also). But now I feel I have grown wings (cue Red Bull advert …) and can communicate most of what I want to say yn Y Gymraeg, five short months after discovering SSiW, even if I do still feel my Welsh is a bit clumsy (again, probably normal).
Diolch o Galon to Aran and Catrin for making this possible and to those of you reading this for your patience reading such a long monologue.
P.S.
The “icing on the cake” was when I decided this week that “once a week” at Wrecsam was no longer enough so I went to the Sesiwn Sgwrs at the Clywd Theatr Cymru at Yr Wyddgrug (Mold).
I amazed myself by introducing myself entirely yn Y Gymraeg and the teacher appeared suitably impressed. After a few words of what I felt was over-generous praise I got the ‘R’ word used about me. Yes, Rhugl !!! Of course (for anyone not already familiar) Rhugl means “Fluent” and Yn amlwg, dw i ddim yn rhugl hyd yn hyn (clearly, I am not fluent yet). But I am starting to feel that I can think in Welsh (without thinking about the English words at the same time). And that feels good 
When I meet people who have done a few years of traditional classes but are less confident than I now feel, I have to tread carefully. I will talk up the very real benefits of the SSiW method whenever I can but I need also to avoid aggressively deflating the emotional investment balloons of those who have put a lot of effort into their class work.
Diolch o Galon unwaith eto, Aran a Catrin. Gobeithio eich cyfarfod chi yn fuan, efallai ar wythnos yr Eisteddfod.
