Maybe I am missing something but I cannot find this information anywhere? I would like to sign up and subscribe, but having done pimsleur before I would much rather have predefined lesson lengths that I can see so I can plan it. I also don’t know how many lessons I would be paying for, and what will ultimately be covered? In terms of tenses and grammar etc. I also have no idea what this belt system is or what it’s supposed to mean in relation to real levels. Is black belt supposed to be C2?? It also seems when I am in the app it’s just a single stream of content, I cannot select lessons or even see a list. Am I missing something? Another reason I ask is because I am pretty much good with present tense, I would like to skip forward a bit. Diolch
Answer from a customer and fellow learner not connected to SSi in any way:
No, of course blackbelt is not C2, no course in the world can do that. In my opinion, finishing blackbelt will leave you at B1, but (and this is important) with all the structure needed to reach B2 very quickly (weeks not months) if you start talking to people. C1 is a long-term project whatever method you use.
If you think that this counts against the course, you need to think again about what C2 actually means. C2 is not a realistic goal for most people unless you want to make the language a major part of your life: moving to the country, marrying a speaker, having a lifelong love affair with the language, that kind of thing.
I lived in Spain for 2 years, I could already understand most things and make myself understood when I arrived and I spoke Spanish every day as often as I could. I’m confident I reached a B2 level in that 2 years, I might even have reached a C1 at that time (I’ll never know, as 9 years after leaving Spain and not having any oppurtunities to speak it, I’m certainly not C1 now). But in spite of all my hard work and 2 years living in the country and even having already had a basic, communicative level before I arrived, I’m absolutely certain I got nowhere near C2.
If the language you want to study isn’t Welsh, you can just ignore the following. If you are studying Welsh, I hope it is helpful 
FWIW, I just completed the North Welsh course on the app and it took me 62 hours and 43 minutes. The content was very similar to the previous (pre-app) version of the course, which consisted of 3 levels of 25 lessons each. Each lesson was similar in length to a Pimsleur lesson, so a quick and dirty estimate might be that it could be comparable to 2 and a half levels of Pimsleur.
However, the philosophy and pedagogical approach is quite different to Pimsleur and I think you will be pleasantly surprised what is covered.
Then there is the old course. It is less fun and less pedagogically sophisticated, but it is useable and covers more vocabulary than the newer courses and some more advanced grammar (e.g. negative definites with “mo” and more short form verbs) and more formal grammar (e.g. “fy mod i” instead of “bof i”). It can be a bit drilly, but it does make certain structures stick (e.g. it fixed a problem I had with negative forms of ‘bod’). I used Audacity to mix it up and make it less drilly.
Finally, there is the advanced content. It consists of monologues, stories and interviews and at least one diary. I think it’s quite good overall and (if I have understood correctly) is meant to serve as a bridge to understanding Welsh in real life and in the media. If I have one criticism, I think the jump from the main course to the advanced content is a bit challenging and there should be more of a bridge between the 2; but it’s doable.
Certainly, completing all the courses plus the advanced content will take months and will take you much further than 5 levels of a Pimsleur course could ever dream of taking you. Even just the courses without the advanced content will take you further IMO.
Helo @lukas-golino,
The SaySomethingin app gives you one long learning stream, that builds on what you’ve learnt so far and uses spaced repetition to give revision and keep you able to recall what you’ve learnt as you learn new material. So it doesn’t have the concept of distinct lessons. Everything is designed to keep you moving forward towards conversational competence.
The belt system is just a way of showing that you’re making progress and giving you a feel for how far you’ve come and what is still ahead of you. It doesn’t relate to the European Framework, but you can be confident that you’ll have good conversational skills by the end.
If it’s the Welsh course you’re doing, we have regularly had learners attend week-long residential immersion sessions in the past well before they’ve reached the end of the available material, spending the entire week speaking only Welsh, so that could give you an idea of the level of competency you will reach.
You’re able to use the ‘Skip’ button to move ahead one Introduction item at a time, but if you feel ready to skip to the next belt colour, you can do that in ‘Account’ ‘My Languages’, and you can always move back a bit if you feel you’ve skipped too far. Your speed of learning is very much under your control.
It’s designed as a single stream, yes. If you want to skip ahead until it gets more challenging, that’s what the skip button is for. You can plan ahead to do X minutes a day, and it will remember where you are. The app also shows how far through each belt you are and I think an estimate of how long it will take you to reach the next belt.
You don’t say which language you’re trying to learn, but since you ended with “Diolch” I’ll assume it’s Welsh. There are older mp3 lessons you can download, each about 30 mins. Start with the “Challenges” although it sounds like you may want to skip through the earliest ones. There are 3 Levels, each with 25 challenges of roughly 30 mins each. The there is the Old Course, which is a similar format but a bit more rigid and drill based. There is a bit of overlap, but the older lessons use a few different grammar forms and vocabulary that is all useful. Again there are 3 courses/levels each with 25 half-hour-ish lessons, but additionally around 20 vocab files. There are lists of what is introduced in each lesson.
There are also some mp3 files for Spanish although not as many. If you choose a newer language such as Japanese or German, the app is the only option.
I think everyone would appreciate greater clarity as to how long it takes to complete the belts, and how they correspond to other standards of language level. But the main thing is, if you complete any SSI course, you will be able to have real conversations, and could conceivably move to a Welsh-speaking area and cope without any English because you will have all the tools and basic understanding to pick up more Welsh, filling in the gaps with whatever particular vocabulary you need in your own daily life.
That sounds very disappointing. I started Spanish with Babbel and got to C2 level in less than 4 months. That is my level for reading and comprehension but not speaking.
I got SaySomethingIn to help with speaking. If I don’t get to C2 very quickly it will not have been value for money.
@brian-36 Note that you have replied to a message written in July 2025. The Development team is constantly working on improving the app and adding new functionality, with a new release not far off.
Playing with social stuff (new app) - Welsh - SSi Forum
This is interesting - is your C2 level in Spanish reading and comprehension assessed by Babbel or by an external examiner?
Have you achieved C2 in another language learnt as an adult?
Martin’s overview is really perceptive, and I agree with it almost entirely (I think some people will be at B2 when they finish black belt, but some of my confidence there is from our latest work with listening content, which we’re rolling out for Welsh soon and which wasn’t available at all when Martin wrote this).
People have very different opinions on the line between C1 and C2. Many people would say that if other people can notice that you’re not a native speaker, you’re not at C2 - and on that basis I tend (if I’m forced to make the call) to describe myself as being on the boundary between C1 and C2 in Welsh - despite the fact that it’s been the language I’ve lived through for 25 years, and the language in which I’ve raised my first language Welsh speaking children.
I would expect that SSi will help improve your speaking skills rapidly - but if you find something that would work faster for you, we’d encourage you to switch. I would expect SSi to activate the majority of your reading vocabulary quickly - if you read as widely and quickly as a native Spanish speaker, I would imagine that you’ll be ready for conversations within your first ten hours or so with SSi.
For context, though, I just did a Babbel placement test, and it judged me as C1, which I’m definitely not - I’m a pretty clear B2 in Spanish. Which is a very enjoyable level for conversations, though 
Edited as I’m not sure what to say and reading it back, my initial post comes across a bit sarcastic.
You say this like it should be taken for granted. Do you understand what black belt is? it represents complete mastery of the art you are learning. Of course you have further dans, but black belt is the top of the martial art scale, as C2 is the top of the language scale. It’s precisely why I am asking what black belt is supposed to represent, because it surely cannot be C2…?
Of course, C2 and even C1 takes many many years of immersion in the language. Not just a course. I am aware of that. (Hence my original question)
When did I ever say that? I simply asked, what IS black belt? Because I of course highly doubt it would be remotely possible for a speaking-only podcast-style course to take someone to C2. (again, hence the entire point for me asking this question).
So ultimately black belt is never defined as anything other than black belt, then when someone comes along and asks “what level does black belt represent” you make it seem like it’s obvious, when actually these belts are not aligned to DELF at all and are kind of arbitrary. (Black belt being B1/B2 border is not the obvious place to put it if you ask me).
Aran’s response of “I think some people will be at B2” is all I was really asking for in my original post.
I admit I was a bit stuck in the pimsleur way of having fixed lesson times, but the stream can have benefits which were actually explained to me in the “breaks” throughout so I concede it’s fine to be a stream as is. Would be nice to be a bit more transparent with what is covered in each belt, have some relation to the DELF scale, and be allowed to skip entire belts or sections. (I ended up just doing it all again, which was fine).
That being said, if brian got to C2 with 4 months of Babbel his brain needs to be studied.
You can actually do this if you wish. Just go to Account, then My Languages and tap the little pencil until it changes to an X. Then tap the belt colour showing and you’ll be able to select another - further back to revise, or futher ahead to challenge yourself more.
This is really interesting… A bit tangential, but… I feel that C2 is really a “specialist” level of language. I would put myself at that level in English because I worked for so many years as an editor, and I do feel that I have a very good understanding of and instinct for how the language works and the nuances of different varieties, and how to manipulate the language for effect. I haven’t spoken as long as you, Aran, but I would call myself fully fluent (able to hold down quite a high-level Welsh-medium job, cope with government meetings and university lectures and the like through the medium of Welsh). But comparing to my understanding of C2 in English, I don’t think I would ever put myself at that level in Welsh - I would reserve it for our Comms team, journalists, editors, translators, authors, and those people who are just super damn eloquent when they speak.
I do know people who have learned the language who would fit into the C2 category, as well as people who have it as their first language who would not. But perhaps I’m being too demanding? I have chats about the CEFR from time to time as part of my role - I might follow up on this question if I get the opportunity. (One of the things on my to-do list is to get our internal record-keeping of Welsh skills aligned to the CEFR, so it’s sort of relevant…)
Of course, it’s also further complicated by how CEFR deals with different strands of language use - here’s a table from the Council of Europe which focuses on spoken production:
…which would rather leave me struggling to argue that I’m not C2 in Welsh! And I’m not sure how you’d be able to say you’re not C2 Welsh either, on that table - I think particularly in minoritised languages it’s common to have the sense you describe of natural/skilful/beautiful usage and to feel that second language speakers can never really quite qualify 
Of course, what CEFR can’t really (and doesn’t try to) get to grips with are situations where the range of fluent usage in a language has significant variations which are part of how a community assesses the ‘health’ of a language - so as you say, it’s not uncommon to meet first language Welsh speakers who use the language very rarely and as a result seem less confident, and it’s thoroughly normal to meet young speakers who have different patterns of Anglicisation (lyfio chdi!).
Entertainingly complicated stuff 
Ooh, interesting - thanks!