I hope this is the right place on the forum to say ‘s’mae!’ and maybe find some friends who have also signed up for the 6 month Welsh Speaker course.
I am very eager to restart learning Welsh after a hiatus but could do with some encouragement as I don’t know if I have been over-ambitious diving into the 6 month challenge, especially as I have a little one on the way at the end of the year!
Doubts aside, I am so excited to have the opportunity to practise and improve and would love to keep in touch with others who would converse in Welsh/Wenglish with me - I look forward to hopefully getting to know some of you!!
Yes this is the right place to say hello - a very warm welcome to the forum!
I’m not a six-monther myself as it started just after i joined - so I did it the old fashioned way.
No I don’t think you are being over ambitious- it seems like a perfect opportunity to me! You have (at least) two things going on in your life it seems which you will look back on and never forget!
What a lovely time! The best of luck…and never forget the forum is here to help. I think the 6 month course has loads of structure around it as well.
Hi Sosban-fach and welcome to the forum and the fantastic SSiW family. I have just finished the 6th mth course this week, in fact, and am really buzzing with excitement and the sense of achievement. You’ll love it, but don’t expect an easy ride - learning a new language is always a challenge - and SSiW is like no other learning pattern - but the system works. My only advice would be “just trust in the system” and do what is asked of you - however unusual, crazy or bizarre it may seem. And believe me, it will! But that’s all part of the fun. And most importantly - don’t worry about anything. They are not so much lessons as games. And you have started doing exactly the right thing by coming on to the Forum - it is invaluable. To share your ups and downs your highs and lows, your fears and worries and questions, questions, questions. I wish you all the luck in the world and look forward to hearing how you enjoy your wonderful new adventure. Croeso!
Diolch am y croeso cynnes! Thank you also for the encouragement!
Not only am I starting an incredibly exciting course and getting back onto my Welsh language journey, but I am also now part of such a lovely community! I am very excited to be here - can you tell?
What a lovely, heartwarming welcome and how fantastic to hear from someone who has just finished the course as I am about to begin!! It is a very good sign to me to hear you say you’re buzzing after having completed it! Thank you for the advice and the encouragement.
I am slightly nervous because I’m wondering how I’ll cope keeping on top of the course when the baby arrives, as he should be almost 2 months old by the time the course is due to finish. I wonder if there is any scope for flexibility if I don’t manage to keep on top of the weekly tasks the first few weeks after he’s born, for example? Or, if the course is truly back to basics, whether it might be possible to accelerate at the early stages to catch up a bit of time I may need at the end? I really want to start my Welsh up again now so I can immerse my son (to the best of my ability!) in his native language!
oops! That’s two new participants on the 6mws course… there will be an infant born with a very good start in Welsh!
I was able to arrange a break in the course - and I’m sure had less good cause. Message @Deborah-SSi on the 6mws, perhaps closer to the time, if you want a bit of privacy to discuss this, at least it worked for me. Perhaps email admin@… etc to get an immediate stop
@sosban-fach hoping all goes swimmingly, so to speak, with all your new experiences and with renewing the Welsh you’ve got already. I feel sure you’ll be singing the praises of the 6mws course. I can’t speak about motherhood, never done it, but my siblings seem to be loving parenthood long term!
Thank you very much for that - how relieving to know there can be flexibility if necessary! I can rest assured and get stuck in now!
I love the idea of my son being part of the SSiW family! I hope I can do the 6 months course justice for him and just siarad Cymraeg! Thank you so much for the encouragement on the course and also on motherhood - there is definitely going to be a lot of learning in store for me…!
That’s really exciting a six month course baby, we will be able to learn a whole lot of new words to boot. I’m sure there will be no end of name suggestions.
When you start Level 2 the first few challenges are about children with phrases such as “are those your children” and “they look like a real handful”!!I. I think I’ve seen something on this forum about naming baby too if you search.
I finish the six month course this week and have thoroughly enjoyed it and echo all @andreaeynon says in her lovely post .
If you’re having a busy spell you can always bank a few lessons ahead as well as having a break.
Wishing you all the very best at this exciting time. Pob lwc Tricia
Helo a diolch yn fawr, Tricia! Wow, you are a lovely bunch aren’t you?! What a fabulous welcome! I am so glad to hear you have also had such a wonderful time on the 6 month course! How do you feel your Welsh is now?
Do you mean Level 2 on the Say Something course or is there a level 2 in the 6 month course? I would love to learn those sorts of phrases as I feel they might come in rather handy over the next couple of years! Baby name suggestions would be very welcome indeed! I have a beautiful Welsh girl’s name saved for one day (hopefully!) but my husband and I can’t seem to agree on a boy’s name for this little man!
The 6 Month course takes you through Levels 1 and 2 of the SSiW courses, so you’ll be into all that talk about children by the time you get to Month 4. It is possible to speed up or slow down as you need to. The best place to chat about it is in the 6mws Slack community, where you can ask general questions and get feedback from others going through the course. You can also email admin@saysomethingin.com and you’ll get specific answers there too, so lots of ways to get in touch and have your questions answered.
So exciting that you’re learning now and your baby will be born already with exposure to Welsh as he will have heard you speaking Welsh as you go through the challenges over the next comple of months! A great start!
Hello, Siân! It is a while now since I learned Welsh, and I haven’t any experience of the six-month course, and it’s even longer since I had a newborn (about 22 years!) but I do have a couple of thoughts.
When I did the SSiW course I found the thing that worked best was to put it onto my phone with earphones in and do the lessons while I was doing something else (e.g. cleaning, ironing, walking the dog).
When I had a baby, I found that I had a lot of time sitting around (e.g. breastfeeding) or doing household tasks (e.g. washing nappies).
That seems to me like a marriage made in heaven! (The only caveat, of course, is not to be doing something with earphones in when you need to be able to hear your baby…)
And as babies start to absorb the language right from the start, if you are saying your responses to the lessons out loud while he or she is feeding, for example, s/he will be getting the opportunity to start learning right from day 1. Win-win! And you can be practising speaking to the baby right from the start as they won’t care a jot if you get your mutations wrong or can’t remember whether it’s “ydw” or “naddo” or whatever.
Best of luck to you, and thank you for bringing a new Welsh-speaker (well, 2, counting you as well) into the world!
Thanks, Dee and thanks for your welcome over in Slack, too!
As I have done Level 1 of the SSiW course, perhaps I can get ahead recapping that and get stuck in on Level 2 a bit sooner to help with the pacing - baby is due 18/12/18 (nice timing with the children topic!).
Thank you for the pointers and the email address for admin - that is really useful.
Diolch am eich neges a syniad da! I am planning on using real nappies and breastfeeding, so you have an excellent suggestion there!
Thank you so much for the support. It is very uplifting to have so many people already being so encouraging and helpful - I can imagine that proves invaluable on the steeper learning curves!
Welcome to the forum Siân!
I’m towards the end of the 6-month course. You will find it great and, as some people have said, intensive and a real challenge. And it will probably require more effort - physically and mentally - towards the end.
As a father, I really, really think you should consider a break when the baby arrives. Nothing will be more important than the baby, and you’re going to have your hands full.
On the other hand, continuing the 6-month course may well be a welcome distraction to keep you sane.
Think about it carefully. I wish you and the future baby well. And pob lwc with your learning!
I’ve just had another thought. There are loads of activities available through the Cymraeg i Blant / Welsh for Kids scheme. There are actual groups where you can go with your baby (and where people will be everywhere on the spectrum from no Welsh at all to completely fluent), but I think they’ve also got online resources you can use (like songs you can sing with your baby). See: http://www.meithrin.cymru/cymraeg-for-kids/
I hear a lot of people talking about Cyw as well, which I think is the S4C kids programming - and I think they have videos of nursery rhymes etc that you can do with babies as well. Worth investigating? (Perhaps someone with younger children will be able to chip in with more up-to-date information?)
I’m aware I may be biting off way more than I can chew! If I can take a break and resume the course a bit later, or maybe even accelerate at the earlier stages (if I’m up to it!), while I have the luxury of time and energy that would be the ideal solution. I had thought I might even be able to swap to the 2 year course should completing the 6 months course prove way too much with a new baby.
Thank you for your input and well done on nearly having finished the course! Dal ati!
Siân
Diolch am y wybodaeth! I actually had the cylch meithrin website up in my browser! It turns out I used to teach violin at the Welsh primary school which holds our most local group and have fond memories of trying to teach my pupils their scales while the babies next door were singing ‘Tedi yn neidio, neidio, neidio…’ and ‘Hwyl fawr ffrindiau’. I think children’s TV is probably going to be a big thing in our lives very soon - I am sure it will prove very useful to me in my vocabulary acquisition!
Seems like you’re waaaay ahead of me on this one! Going to be a lot of fun, I’m sure. (I’m going to have to wait for any grandchildren to turn up before I can play along…)
Hi all - as I’ve now returned from my holidays I had planned to sign up for the 6month course but cannot find the link on the website now - am I too late or simply incompetent? (I’m hoping for the latter)
