Firstly a big thanks to everyone involved in SSiW! It has helped me go from literally no Welsh knowledge at all - right up to having the confidence and skills to be able to run a YouTube channel and a blog in the medium of Welsh within just over a month!
There are no doubt lots of people like me who have finished Level 2 (New) of SSiW.
I never did the old courses as I’ve only started learning since the new courses were published.
Now I’ve run out of material, would you recommend me to go back over the old courses - if so, should I start at the beginning or is there an appropriate place to start?
Any advice from fellow Level 2 graduates would be great
Congratulations on finishing Level 2! If you are running a YouTube Channel and blog in Welsh, I’m not sure how much more you need (that is pretty amazing!). As a fellow Level 2 graduate and one who also did the Courses, I would say you could probably find some benefit from going through them. Course 1 will probably be too elementary for you, but starting with the vocabulary lessons might be useful. Course 2 may be more useful, but will also have a lot of familiar material. There is some really useful vocabulary in Course 2 that you may or may not have come across. Course 3 will probably be most useful, but it can also be a bit painful (on a good day I’d call it a deep dive into the short forms and on a bad day I’d call it a slog through short form hell!). My recommendation is to listen to it in the background and see how much is new. When you come to new material, just pause and start following along. That’s my free advice (for what it’s worth!).
Hello! I’ll start off by saying I’ve just found your YouTube channel and I’m really impressed by your Welsh skills and your courage. I would never have the guts to do that. Ardderchog
I finished the levels about two months ago, but had already done the old courses before starting the levels. I don’t really feel like I’m in a great position to give advice - I have no idea what I’m doing - but I’ll try anyway.
The levels were definitely better than the courses for me, but the courses do introduce a lot of Vocab that the levels don’t. I have found the extra Vocab that I got from doing both to be pretty useful when trying to understand people, radio and TV. I like what @jasoncrow suggested.
How often are you speaking Welsh with people? I’m sure you would be more than fine without the old courses if you have someone to talk to regularly.
Hi Nicky I have also done both courses ( new ones first and old ones after ) I definitely found the old courses useful as they clarified things I was still unsure of after doing level 1 and 2. The new and old courses compliment each other very well and you will learn lots of new stuff on the old course . I personally would recommend starting from the very beginning of the old course (although you will find the first few lessons very easy ) as I went straight to old course 2 after the levels and found I struggled slightly because there were bits I had missed from skipping course 1 so ended up going back and starting at the beginning .
I don’t get a ton of opportunities to practice sadly - or at least not as much as I’d like to, although I do a lot of listening (and watching practice) via S4C and Radio Cymru.
Thanks again for your advice. I would like to improve my vocab, so that I pick up things that are not used/introduced in Levels 1&2.
Is that because of a lack of time or people? If people, I’d be happy to practise through Skype if you can and want to, of course. I don’t get a ton of opportunities to speak Welsh either
The only thing you really need to do is run through the last two or three challenges of Level 2 every now and again - but running through the old courses will give you some extra stuff, if you fancy doing it - and it won’t be long now until we have the first set of new material available for Level 3…
It’s definitely worth having a look at the old course; all the way from the beginning. There’s a fair bit of vocabulary in the old courses that isn’t in the new levels - especially in the vocab lessons - and there are a few different ways of saying things that are used. Course 3 might be a little bit of a slog, due to how some of the patterns are introduced, but it also has a lot of useful vocabulary.
Here you go. Sorry I didn’t post it initially. I didn’t want to blatantly advertise etc.
There are mistakes etc but the majority is right. It gives me a chance to use Welsh and hell if turns one or two people on to learning Welsh also it will have done its job
Watched the first one that Pete2 linked to, thought was very good. Well done mate. Trying to get rid of the kids to bed then I can watch some more.
As for what to do, I’d defenitely recommend doing all the old stuff. Not only does it have different material, if nothing else it’ll keep you busy until the new lessons are out
I did lesson “pewdar ar bymtheg” (19) as Iestyn would say of the old Course 2 yesterday and the gaps between the English and the Welsh are just long enough to say the answer with literally no time for any thinking at all. It really is a race and quite funny as well. There is another one in course 2, where I think the gap must be less than 2 seconds and you have to say the answer at double speed to have any chance of getting anything in - a nice game to play, if you brain isn’t already mashed after a hard day…
A bigger thanks to you, Iestyn and everyone involved in creating SSiW. I just listened to the app whilst walking around Porth (admittedly I’m getting a bit of a reputation as the guy who walks around the town centre mumbling Welsh phrases to himself) and in the bath!
loved the bit on your blog where you said you talked Welsh in Bont Faen. I would have loved to have seen the faces on some of the people there. Going there to get up the noses of the locals was one of my favourite parts of growing up as a teenager.
