This course is fantastic. Now that I’m using Welsh everyday, the vocab and patterns are coming back. I’m being keen and getting through around two lessons of level one a day. I find the lessons really useful, I’m just wondering if I’m going too quickly? Whilst I use the pause button more with unfamiliar vocab, when it’s words I already know it’s much easier, though so useful putting them into sentences and using them. Sometimes the contractions mess with what I have learned more formally, I am so appreciative of having the lady and Arun for pronunciations. What are the experiences of others returning to learning the language?
I really can’t imagine @aran telling anyone that they are going too quickly! Some people have done really intensive weekends, doing 6-8 lessons a day, fuelled by paracetamol (for headaches, I imagine) and, I expect, alcohol!
Are you planning on coming to bootcamp?
2 Likes
For @aran (as @margaretnock says) is never quick enough. - hehe as long as you’re not frustrated with what doesn’t go in so quickly. So, well done! If you feel like going with more then full speed then just go with the flow and do it!
Da iawn ti ac pob lwc! 
2 Likes
I used to do one or two lessons a day, and thought I was going fast … then these people started doing the intensive weekends and, well, put me to shame.
Sounds like you’re doing brilliantly - ‘dal ati’, say I!
2 Likes
It seems to me that you are doing what I should do, but keep getting distracted!! When I started with SSiW, I shot along like you, remembering and finding I knew it all, just not some of the contractions. And finding use of ‘ti’ strange!
I got a bit tangled in de and gogledd, because I learned some of each!! Some lessons, I switched to North and found ‘home’, only to switch back later!! Some things confused me because I am so ancient that new words have come into use around me and old ones have gone!! “Hwyl fawr ‘telewele’, sob sob!” 
Then I found the forum and, of course, what I really wanted was a hiraeth cure and all these lovely people discussing everything from eiseddfodau to buzzards… well, how could I resist!!! Now, I hardly get to listen to an actual Challenge at all!!!
Dal ati!! Da iawn iawn!!!
@aran Can you think of a cure for being addicted to the Forum???
4 Likes
How about a public commitment that you’re not allowed to post on the forum until you’ve done one lesson that day?.. 
The most I’m aware of anyone doing in a day so far is 15 lessons - so no, you’re not going too quickly! The one thing I’d encourage you to add to the mix, in fact, would be to cut back on the pause button as much as you can bear (even if that means increasing your ‘mistake’ count - mistakes are good!)…
1 Like
I love this expression, although I don’t know exactly why.
Hmmmm … this cure wouldn’t work for me. (I’d often need one too). Fortunately I have about an hour time on the bus and I at least listen to something. Ayayay …
I know, it’s having to kind of ignore what my memory says. My past lessons were based on chi forms rather than ti forms. I have only realised this week that I was taught Southern Welsh at school, but my last evening classes were Northern, because our teacher was from the North. I lived in Aberystwyth for 6 years, which is mainly Southern, but I’m told is a dialect of it’s own. It’s having to trust the course, and be confident that all will become clear eventually!
1 Like
Actually, i have cut down on my pause button use and I am seeing the benefits. However sometimes I just need a pause for breath/ sip my cup of tea/ a moment to feel less confused. The lessons are intense, that is a good thing.
3 Likes
Sure, that’s entirely reasonable. The emotional journey is important - I’ve seen extremely successful learners need to pause a bit because they hit their tolerance limits for mistakes. The key is to minimise usage as much as possible, to keep your brain on tip-toes…
1 Like
I dunno, what with no pauses, 15 lessons per day, and Bootcamps, maybe it should be renamed:
SASomething in Welsh…
(dim ond Joc oedd o… 
)
7 Likes
I keep meaning to do that, but, like @tatjana says…it isn’t easy!! However, I hereby make a public commitment that, starting tomorrow, I will do at least part of a challenge before coming on the Forum, even if I have a pic I’m really keen to post!!
To @Y_Ddraig_Las Are you doing gogledd neu de? I wouldn’t model my accent on @Iestyn’s (Sorry Iestyn) unless you want everyone to think you are from one of the valleys of the east!!
I may well be wrong, but I suspect Aber picks up a bit of everything. It is very academic with Library, Uni etc. People come there from all over (even Gower!)!! Heaven knows what accent is current among Cymru Cymraeg in Cardiff!!
1 Like
All sorts! But there is a Cardiff accent, which has its own charms
1 Like
Oh I know Caerdiffian of old! I just couldn’t imagine it in Cymraeg!!! I suppose a bit like @Iestyn, but I think of his as more like Newport!!
1 Like
The only thing I can pinpoint at the moment is that they say the ‘wy’ sound (e.g. hwyl, disgwyl, darfangwyd) so that it sounds like ‘oi’ (hoil, disgoil, darfangoid). Took me a bit of getting used to…
1 Like
Hmmm … I’m thinking about what should my commitment be then … something like: “I must not go to sleep before doing a lesson” …
What it helps if I then sleep on a chair not knowing what I’ve listened to and even less what I’m talking along with doing lesson. - hehe. And forum is sooooooo temptive … 
But … I tend to think in Cymraeg these days a lot and I found myself today I almost answered in Cymraeg to my colleague’s question “how to say this in English?” … I have form dialogues in my head quiet often …
And … about the accent … I don’t believe I tend to copy any at all. Those who talk with me or who talked to me at one point would be better judgement of this but I believe my accent is more that of Slovenian one then any other being gog neu de …
1 Like
That’s an excellent goal - a lot of habit formation research shows that a small commitment is easier to maintain AND likely to lead to doing more (you get started, you carry on for longer than you planned). People report good results with things like ‘putting my running shoes by the door before I go to sleep’ instead of ‘running every morning’, for example…
2 Likes
As part of my new years resolutions I started using an app called Habitica, where you can put in good habits you want to gain, bad ones you want to lose (or cut down on!), daily tasks and to do lists. Then if you do a good habit or daily task or tick something off your to do list then you earn experience points and earn “gold” which you can spend on rewards like a ten minute break or a new outfit for your character.
If you do a bad habit or don’t do your daily task one day you lose health points!
For example my good habits are “Bring lunch to work”, “take the Stairs in the office”, “eat 5 fruit and veg a day” and “do the washing up the same day you make it dirty”. My bad habits are “Eat unhealthy Office Snacks” and “take the lift in the office”, and my dailies are “At least 5 mins Welsh Listening” and “5 minutes stretching”.
I find it a great motivator and now I have a gold dragon!
It also gives me a notification at the end of the day if I haven’t checked off my dailies yet.
BTW, I am in no way affiliated with Habitica, just sharing what helps me!
2 Likes
Hmmm … I hope this doesn’t include dieing if you’re too bad habited and don’t do things as you supposed to do them …
Ummmm … I’m dead already then. - LOL.
OK, OK, it’s not actually that bad but the day can easily be too short and unpredictiv …
If you “die” you go back a level. You don’t lose health for not doing the good habits, but you do lose it for doing bad habits or not doing the dailies. But when I’m deciding between the stairs and the lift, it’s a good prompt for me not to let my little character down! It works for me anyway 
2 Likes