Importance of lesson 14 level 1

just finished lesson 14 and I’ve got splitting headache literally! Genuine question - how important is the second half of lesson 14 for being able to do lesson 15? I need to move on to 15 as I can’t bear the thought of re-doing 14 again yet. Sorry if it sounds dramatic but I’m being serious :grin:- can I push on or would you wait a bit and re-do second part of 14 first?

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14 is notoriously fiendish, but the following ones are not so bad, so try moving on - you can always revisit 14 in the future once you’ve got a few more done if you want (and if you can face it! :wink: ). any new things that first appeared in 14 will be repeated later on, so you won’t have missed them completely, and while they might catch you out to begin with, you’ll be able to pick them up as they pop up again.

thanks for that - I took the plunge and went on to 15 - a lot of it is repeating things from earlier on but as soon as it got onto the more recent things the wheels well and truly fell off the cart! I gave up around 5 minutes from the end as I was in such a mess my mind went totally blank and the Welsh meant “double dutch” to me at that point! I’ll have to go back and re-do the last couple of lessons but I’ll take a break for a day or two. Such a shame as I’d been enjoying it up until lesson 14 - I’m in a bit of despair now! Still- will battle on.

Don’t beat yourself up about it - here are just a couple of threads (of many!) that prove you’re not the only one! Having a read through them could be useful.
You could try using the pause button as much as you want on the really tricky ones like 14, and then go back to not relying on it as much when things calm down again on later challenges.

Hi Catherine ,

This just popped up because one of those anguished posts was from me. As a fellow lesson 14 casualty please accept my sympathies!

Several people (including Aran) advised me just to press on & I can confirm that it worked for me. Not sure how but the confusion slowly resolved itself as I went through the remaining lessons.

I’m now (very slowly) working through level 3.

Dal ati!

Phil

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Yep, that one’s famously tough. BUT it’s also really useful. I found that it got me over a hump of dealing with longer sentences. The challenges do get easier again soon.

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diolch everyone who replied to my “cries of anguish!” Yes it certainly is a stinker! What certainly hasn’t helped is that I’ve been taking 2 supplements that help people with M.E. concentrate more- and they were really helping - until that is I decided to do one of my “take a break from all supplements and vitamins” for 2 weeks- and bang- off came the wheels as lesson 14 coincided with that break! It has had a benefit in the way that at least now I can really see how much they’ve helped me concentrate. I restarted them today! won’t kick in immediately but hopefully I can take a running charge at lesson 14 again very soon and send it flying! I fell asleep in front of the tv this morning and even though I’m itching to get back on here today I know it would be very unwise as I’m half-asleep! But rest assured my determination has not been affected- I’ll conquer lesson 14 yet! Thanks again for sharing those messages- they did help! :grinning:

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It can help to do the Challenges in smaller doses when you hit one like this. Do it until you feel your brain starting to fog and little Welsh is coming out, then take a break and do something completely different - a gentle stroll in the fresh air, or just sit outside and listen to the birds. Something to relax you and give your brain a rest.

Then, when you’re ready, try continuing on from where you’d reached. Coming at it fresh like that can make a difference, but as others have said, don’t beat yourself up if the second half of Challenge 14 is eluding you for now. Push on, especially as I’ve mentioned above, and it will come in time. You’re doing amazingly well to have come as far as you have. Think how much Welsh you know now compared to when you started. Never lose sight of that!

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thanks for the replies! Rhywbeth diddorol iawn happened last night - I had a thought - with my M.E. I do have mild aphasia - eg 2 examples of genuine daily oopsies - "can you pass my - not my knife, the other thing (fork) "can you reach the dry ice for me please? (grated cheese!!) so I wondered if this issue could affect my recall verbally on here - instead of saying the sentences I wrote them down and not only did I get them right but I even went on to make up sentences of my own! I know we’re not meant to write things down but as I’m learning how to spell everything for the postcard group it may help me to get it into my brain. The difficulty with my aphasia is from mind to mouth- but putting it down on paper in between interrupts that. I find I am picking up conversational Welsh too from Duolingo and that is writing it down on screen first- yet I can say the things in conversation afterwards. I guess I need to do whatever works for me - as long as I can speak the Welsh I think it doesn’t matter how I get there as long as I do!
I have gone through lesson 15 but I found there’s a lot from 14 that I had to know to get through it - still gave me chance to get revision of earlier things though. So I’m now inching my way through 14 again rather than attempting half lessons at a time. I find I prefer doing that- like you said better to do it in smaller doses! :grinning:

Yes, this!
There is no course on earth (Welsh or otherwise!) that is “one size fits all” and what works for some will not work for others. Flexibility is the key, so if you find a way of ‘tweaking’ a method so that it works for you, just keep doing that - there’s always more than one way to reach a summit!

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an example of having an “M.E.” day! "rhywun wedi gofyn i fi dweud rhywbeth wrthot ti - ond dw i wedi anghofio “pwy” a “beth!” Hope that makes sense- it’s me making up a sentence with what I’ve learnt! :grinning: anyone with M.E. will understand!
(those who haven’t got to challenge 14 yet -) hopefully it said "Someone has asked me to tell you something but I have forgotten “who” and “what!”

oh my goodness I’ve just done 14 again and I’ve GOT IT!
oh WOW!
:smiling_face:

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:partying_face: :partying_face: :partying_face:

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Well done! And good news: the course will probably never get as difficult as that again!

(I did run into another tough one in L2, but that seemed to be a ‘me thing’ rather than a famously tough one like L1 C14).

thanks - I think Challenge 14 should have a health and safety warning!! :grin: :grinning:

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