Have you spread the word about SSiW today? Diolch! (and sorry!)

What a superb turn of phrase! And diolch o galon i ti, Bryan - hugely, hugely appreciate all you do… :star2: :stars: :star:

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This works with the AirBNB hosts eager to improve their Welsh too. Back in Cardydd last year, I’ve “stacked” SSiW business card right on the kitchen table along with some apples (I couldn’t carry on the plane) and a Bye note (yn Cymraeg) in hope my host finds SSiW and starts improoving.

So SSiW all the way! (around the Globe)!

And yes, since my host has heard I’m learning Cymraeg and I’m actually not Cymres at all she took me by surprise, writing her “bye” note totally in Cymraeg! It was awesome to see she actually has put an effort and write down the whole little letter in Welsh to me. I have to thank her one day in that other thread too. :slight_smile:

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I’ve installed SSiW on a fair few people’s phones under duress and told everyone what a superb method of language learning it is.

My wife tells everyone who will listen it’s the greatest thing since sliced bara, especially after her years of struggling with Michel Thomas and Pimsleurs and the like!

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This morning I recommended SSiW to my cousin in Surrey and emailed her a link to the website. About five years ago she drew up a bucket list and learning Welsh was included amongst some rather more exotic objectives. I said I’d be interested too and another cousin recommended Nant Gwtheryn, but at the time we never took it any further. I hope she goes ahead this time!

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More exotic than Welsh?!

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Depends on your point of view! I don’t remember the full list, but visiting Macca Picchu and owning a Morgan (not at the same time and neither yet accomplished) were included. Let’s hope she’ll persevere with the Welsh and find it as exciting as I have.

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Now that’s a whole new level of actually forcing the language down people’s throats/smartphones - I salute you, sir!

I’m always particularly delighted and grateful to people who see the differences between what we do and what Michel Thomas did - we get so, so many people saying ‘Oh, this is like Michel Thomas, isn’t it?’ which always gets my teeth grinding…:wink: Tell her I’ll light a candle in gratitude for her… :slight_smile:

Diolch o galon, John! Does she know how far you’ve come since then? :slight_smile:

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RE: Michel Thomas.

Yep, Lara hated it. I only really used it when I got back into French about 12 years ago. Nowadays I’d only really recommend it to someone who is going to spend the weekend in France, knows absolutely nothing about the language and needs to know the utter basics in a couple of days and doesn’t really want to know anything after that.

It’s unfortunately showing it’s age - as no-one has spoke like him in Paris for about 50 years!

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I made that mistake originally. Now I definitely see and understand the difference.

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I’m immediately a big fan of hers…:wink:

To be fair, I think his beginners Spanish one is good - and he’s obviously strong on the importance of forcing production in the target language. I think he’s weak on spaced repetition and interleaving, though, and the perma-present ‘weak learner’ always drives me up the wall… as do the explanatory rambles…:wink:

I’ve sometimes wondered if giving the first 6 lessons away on a USB stick might be a way of spreading the word. No idea of the cost or practicalities of that though.

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We spent a while looking for print-on-demand versions of stuff like that - everything I found was really pricey, unfortunately…

What about zipping up the first 10 lessons or so into a neat little .zip file, putting it online somewhere and producing a QR code that people can print off loads of.

I’d always have a few in my wallet, that way instead of grabbing their phones and installing it by duress - I can just give them that :slight_smile:

Would be great at learners events/Eisteddfods and the such.

Ah now talk me through that a little bit. Funny black and white pictures of some kind, yes? With a secret purpose?

My Chinese sister in law, and lots of other Chinese people, uses them to pay for things.
Take a picture if the code.
Phone does it’s abracadabra.
A screen is generated, I presume it includes the bil.
You press something, an agreement to pay?
Money is taken from your linked bank account.
Looks like magic to me.

People use it to pay their bill in a restaurant, thus not having to find a waiter. The code is on your table. Something (magic) links your order to the code on your table.

People use it to buy goods from vending machines.

When I go to the gym I can take a picture of the code on my machine and something (Bluetooth?) means the machine recognises it’s me and records my workout.

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A little QR code which when scanned by a mobile phone takes you directly to a URL :slight_smile:

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Margaret’s explanation of the magickery involved was probably easier for me to understand…:wink:

Okay, right - so kind of like a digital business card… hmmm… and can you get people to build one for you? Or are there sites that can create them?

Here’s one I made earlier!

Scan that in and it takes you to the SSiW homepage!

Can make them free here http://www.qrstuff.com/

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Awesome. Right, I really need to this.

[That means I’m going to forget about it during the Easter holidays - I realise with a sinking inevitability. Please shout at me about it again in a fortnight or so!]

Whilst making a complaint to Tesco about the lack of Welsh on their “Welsh Language” options on the Self-Service tills since a recent software update all but killed them - I managed to somehow promote SSiW!

Hopefully he’ll end up here and it’ll all be a lovely little story :slight_smile:

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