It’s almost exactly one year and 11 months since I started SSiW. I finished Course 3 today! I did use the pause button (liberally, because otherwise I would have gone mad) but I only did each lesson once. I’m still having trouble mixing up the past and the future sometimes, forgetting which word I need entirely, and gweld and gweud occasionally still pop out in place of each other. I know I really need to go back through it again at some point - especially the last two lessons. Lesson 25 was challenging! But I’m satisfied that I understand it well enough for now, so I’m going to leave it and move on to doing the Levels. One thing I will say, Course 3 has really helped with comprehension - listening and reading. Very pleased about that!
I definitely felt a bit emotional when I reached the end, both happy and sad - glad I have more material to cover in the Levels!
Diolch yn fawr iawn iawn iawn to @aran, @CatrinLliarJones, @Iestyn and Cat. What an amazing ride the last two years have been. I never knew learning a language would be so much fun!
Ymlaen - onward to Level 1 - promising myself that I will neither repeat a lesson nor use the pause button.
I think I might go make a little cake to celebrate!
In terms of cognitive effort, I’d say that’s more than some degree courses I’ve witnessed…
Llongyfarchiadau mawr. Now we just need to make sure you get into enough conversations to realise that you honestly genuinely are in fact a Welsh speaker…
Oh, that’s excellent to hear! That’s my real issue at the moment - I’m getting better and better at speaking, but I’m still missing maybe 80% of what I hear on BBC Radio Cymru.
This morning on my way to work I listened to part of a Beti a’i Phobol podcast I had first listened to about six months ago (guessing, something like that time frame, anyway.) It was an interview with Lowri Morgan. I was amazed at how much more of it I understood than before! I’m still far from getting everything, but I could follow some pretty big chunks of it. Not every detail, there are certainly parts I don’t understand, but enough to follow most of the main flow. That made me happy! And it made me realize that my comprehension actually has gotten better, when I didn’t really think I was making all that much progress in that regard.
I am reading Ffenestri at the moment, and it’s full of short forms, and so having the Course 3 material has made it possible
Do you know what - that happens to me in English sometimes. And sometimes we’ll be watching something in Welsh at home, and I’ll ask my (mamiaith Welsh) partner what someone just said, and she will say ‘I don’t know - I didn’t catch it.’ So don’t think this means you haven’t ‘arrived’ as a Welsh speaker. Yes, you will go on to be able to understand more and more, but I don’t think that anyone ever understands absolutely 100%.
Edited, because I forgot to say: Llongyfarchiadau!!
I’ve a long way to go…there’s still lots I’m missing. But I do understand what you are saying - it happens to me in English, too. And, sort of related, I was having a laugh with someone just recently over having misunderstood song lyrics in English for years, because I heard them as something completely different than they really are!
Thanks for your congratulations and encouragement, they are appreciated!
That’s a good point, @sarapeacock. I hadn’t really thought about it that way. You’re right. That’s one reason I’m not a huge fan of talking on the phone vs. Skyping, because I seem to understand people better (I’m talking about in English, now) when I can see their lips move. I don’t have a hearing problem, it’s just something I’ve noticed about myself forever.
Maybe I should be watching more S4C than listening to BBC Radio Cymru?
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