How many times should I do the first lesson?
I am not a linguist by any means!!!
I find languages very difficult, But I really want to learn Welsh .
I am half way through lesson one each time and I get head frazzled.
I am doing the lesson twice a day just repeating lesson one and I get another word or two each time I do the lesson and get a couple of minutes further each day before the brain frazzle and I just can’t get the sentences.
Does it get easier?
It probably doesn’t get much easier, and being frazzled is part of the process! BUT, you don’t need to keep repeating each lesson until you’re ‘perfect’ . It really isn’t how SSIW works. It probably feels scary, but it is suggested that you do the first five lessons, maybe repeating each once only. The important things in lesson one will come up again in lesson two, and so on. That’s how spaced repetition works. Then, if you want, go back to lesson one and see how easy it is. Honestly, much more will have stuck than you think.
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It’s really easy to get frustrated with your progress while learning any language, and Welsh is infamous for its ability to scare people. I am pretty familiar with the feeling you re shared: it’s very easy to get your head buzzing whole going through SSiW lessons, but the results of using this method for learning are truely remarkable, honestly.
What I can suggest is to go through the first five units over the week and then try to remember at least 4-5 phrases from the material.
If you still find that the method doesn’t seem to be working for you, that’s not a problem at all. If you go through language learners’ forums you will notice that different methods work with different efficiency for different people. If your problem might lie in the area of primary retention of unfamiliar vocabulary, I would suggest to check Now You Re Talking Welsh videos on YouTube (starting from the 1st episode, of course) and then come back to SSiW. Few levels on Duolingo or Memrise might help too.
Please, just bear in mind, that with learning languages there is no such a thing as innate ability and even if you had problems with languages in the past it was just because you have not found the method working for you yet.
Just keep going and you will surprise yourself with the results.
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Can you not remember a single word? Are they all brand new to you the next time around, or do you go ‘I knew that, I just couldn’t get it out quick enough, it was on the tip of my tongue’? That is 100% normal and usual.
There is no crime in using the pause button. It’s not advised, but until you get that magical thing called confidence don’t be afraid of it. But don’t aim for perfection, that isn’t the aim at all.
Pob lwc. Good luck.
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I just can’t pull them out of my brain before they are said, or I get hung up on a couple of words which I remember and completely forget to put others in the sentence.
I am the same with quizzes I always know the answer but I can’t ever get it out, when somebody else gives an answer in a quiz I can tell you ten other things related but I can’t answer the initial question. I am beginning to feel the same learning Welsh less the 10 other facts.
I am going to stick at it I have got through lesson 2 and got a few words in a few phrases. Going to re do it tomorrow but no more than one day to a lesson. Thanks
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Thankyou
I will keep going , I think I just need brain training and confidence and there’s very little just about either of those .
I will have a look for the things you recommend.i am not going to get hung up on one lesson but do a lesson a day I do practice at least twice a day with full attention then just stick it on my phone whilst I am doing jobs around the house and garden to get used to hearing welsh being said . I am in England at present(hopefully not much longer) so not a lot of welsh speaking around me to get me used to it.
Thanks again for the advice will look it all up.
So you do know them, just not very quickly. That’s more than you did before you started. Don’t beat yourself up, you’re doing better than anyone who says ‘I want to learn Welsh’, when in fact they want to be able to speak Welsh without putting any effort in. It isn’t easy, it is like walking on jelly, but you can do it.
Pob lwc!
Didn’t practice much today but got two lots of no2 in. second time, I got five minutes from the end, before I couldn’t remember the word for Welsh, let Alone anything else, was doing great before this.
Thanks so much, it’s actually been easier to do 2 than 1. I think it’s getting used to learning a language, stretching decayed muscles. Anyway just wanted to say thanks😀
@n-e-fawssett are you doing the whole lesson each time? It might be better for you to do them in shorter chunks, e.g. do 10 minutes, then have a break. Later come back and start from where you got to, doing the next 10 minutes. It sounds like your brain is reaching a sort of ‘overload’ point, and pushing yourself to keep going might just feel a bit demoralising. It’s quite common for people to need to break the challenges up initially, as your brain gets used to this kind of learning. It’s quite different to anything that most people have done for a while, if ever before!
Are you using the SSiW app, or just clicking on the inline player in the email? With the app for iOS or Android, it’s easier to stop then pick up again from where you got to, but if you’re using the inline player, click on the little download arrow to the left. That will let you save the audio file on your device as an mp3 and use it offline. Most standard mp3 playing software that comes installed in devices will also let you stop and start again from where you got to.
Take your time and you will get there! 
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And you’re still doing great!
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Thank you x
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What worked for me during level 1 was twice a day for a week. However sometime during level 1 I found my learning capacity increased so I did 2 lessons per week. After a while I stopped worrying about not getting some stuff because all the important words/concepts get repeated either in the following lessons or thrown in randomly much later on (and you get the delight of realising you have remembered them). No, it doesn’t get easier…it gets progressively more complex and mind boggling but I found my capacity to manage and learn increases with it. I have gone through Levels 1, 2 and 3 and am now going through level 2 of the old course (which is well worth doing) and many times I have just gone blank listening to a new lesson, thinking my brain (and my mouth muscles!) cannot possibly do this and shut down trying to repeat anything. Just sat and listened and, as if by magic, the next time I did it I have been able to grasp some of it and gradually each new word or concept finds “a place to land”. There is always one word or concept I will struggle with, but I don’t worry about it, it’ll come round again in a later lesson and often i get it the second time. You’ll be surprised and delighted when you realise not just your Welsh language capacity increases but your ability to learn it rapidly improves.
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I am on level 1 lesson 3 & my brain is definitely melting! I found the app by accident & thought “that might be fun” I couldn’t quite work out how it worked so just pressed challenge 1 & started. I repeated it 5 times before it went in. The second lesson was easier…the third is hard again & doesn’t seem to want to stick at all…I’ve listened to it 5 times & am debating whether to just move on to number 4 & hope the words must be in my head somewhere!
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I’ve tried learning Welsh twice before, both time in adult education classes, and it didn’t work for me. Little would go into my brain and what did wouldn’t stay very long so I gave up. That was some 15 years ago. Then, when lockdown arrived, I found SSiW and it has been a revelation, I am actually learning Welsh and it is sticking! I’ve had the same problems as you, the brain frazzle and, on about the third session of a lesson, the feeling that my brain was about to explode! Believe me it does get easier, that is the Welsh will start to stick and your confidence will start to grow. I get up a little earlier in the morning and settle down with a cup of tea to work through the lesson at one session. Lots of use of the Pause button (it is allowed!) and using the 15second step back button on the app when I’ve not understood what has been said. it took me ages to get through the first few lessons but the later ones feel a lot easier and Aran keeps jumping back to earlier work so you are being “refreshed” all the time.
Hang on in there! Try the other apps that have been suggested too, every little bit helps, and you’ll find your confidence and grasp of the language will grow and go from strength to strength, I know mine did.
Best of luck with your next lesson … and don’t forget the cup of tea!
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Please keep with it. I felt the same when I started about a year ago. I’ve recently completed level 3 (which I’ve read somewhere is the equivalent of an A level, tho don’t know if this is correct). I’m not fluent but know so much more and have so much more confidence in my Welsh speaking. My son has recently started so it’s great to be able to help him. I remember those first lessons so well tho and every lesson repeats parts of the previous lesson, so u will certainly become more competent and confident, so please don’t give up. A few months ago, I also started an online Zoom course too called Mynediad. Definitely worth doing alongside SSIW also. I’m off to Anglesey this weekend and am hoping to speak Welsh a lot. It’s getting less scary to try. Keep with it.
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Oh thankyou , I have always been the girl kicked out of languages at school due to being hopeless. Thay was many years ago and I think I am more keen to learn Welsh than French.
I am on 4 &5 today and it will take me into lesson 5&6 or6&7 by the end of next week at my current pace.
I am doing two lessons at a time but only moving foreward one lesson at a time, if that makes sense. I am practicing 5 days a week 1-3 times a day I am at the end of week two this weekend.
The reports on here of people flying through a level in a few days or one lesson a day are so intimidating and it does say dont repeat lessons 5 times for one word but just move on. I am lucky if each time I do a lesson I learn two words often nothing new sticks.
Its nice of you to reply with your experience and great that you are doing so well and still working at it.
I am with you , lesson 4 i found my mouth lips and teeth do not want to say the same thing and its worse than a childs tongue twister . Litteral tongue in knots.
5 pass its all pass .
I will get there, i felt similar with lesson one only two weeks ago , less the mouth tongue coordination issue, lesson one now seems easy.
Let me know how your going would be good to chat to someone at the same stage as me and maybe later in Cymrag
Well done
Totally going to stick with it. I was going to be moving to Wales before the world fell on its head . I will be better prepared now when i do go.