I’d also like to repeat another earlier comment of mine, that we spend our first year or two in life listening, without any responsibilities to distract us. And hey, we learn our mother tongue without realising it.
It would seem to me that we need to spend as much time as possible listening to a second language that we wish to learn. Of course, we can’t take off a year to just listen whilst abandoning all responsibilities, but we can at least try to fit in as much listening as possible. For example, I do listening and speaking practice whilst doing the housework.
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Perhaps because the ‘SSI’ courses and listening practices focus on the core of the language, i.e. the most commonly used structures/vocab/fomulaic blocks, then we’re obviously going to hear this a lot in real life with speakers, on tv, radio, face to face etc so of course we’re going to be able to understand a fair portion of what’s being said if we follow this method. What you said makes good sense.
I’m actually surprised that the concept of double speed listening practice isn’t discussed much in the language learning community (at least not that I’m aware of). Conventional wisdom is simply to watch tv, films, listen to the radio etc in the target language and your ears and brains will eventually figure it all out. But listening at double speed is a very simple concept that works very effectively - it’s ironic that people sometimes overlook simple ideas like this.
I’m curious about the results of putting more time into listening practice each day. Do you think it would be beneficial to listen to the listening practices several times per day instead of just once?
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Yup, definitely - that’s exactly what we do on the intensives, where we rack up an hour a day, usually with a mixture of northern and southern listening exercises… 
I’m with you - I’ve been expecting accelerated listening to become ‘the obvious thing’ for a long old while now - and I still think it will one of these days…
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Polyglot conference discussed a lot of methods but (to my knowledge) not this one, which is a pity.
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After listening to Level 2 for a while, I went back and listened to Level 1 no 2. It didn’t seem to be speeded up at all. Every word was clear.
At Level 2, I’m still just picking up the odd phrase.
One thing really worries me about Level 2 no 1.
I hear “On i’n siarad gyda rhywun heddiw dweddodd wrtha’i bod hi’n moyn plant, ond dim nawr.” (“I was talking to someone today who told me that she wants children, but not now.”)
After that there is something about what she was doing last night.
“Dweddais i bod hi’n mynd i … neithiwr …so’ hi’n moyn plant.”
Then “Diolch yn fawr iawn. Dw i’n meddwl bod sy wedi bod yn siarad gyda mam i.” (“Thank you very much. I think that she has been talking with my mother.”) I’m not at all sure about the last bit.
Please - I have to know what she was doing last night.
Sue
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This is a very clear example and explanation. Thank you very much. I did understand how it worked before but the examples you give are excellent, especially the driving. It suddenly makes complete sense.
Thank you for taking the time to clarify how it works for us. Well done.
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You could try ppotplayer (free download) you can easily speed things up significantly and the pitch is altered automatically
I’d say there’s a fighting chance she was just going i’r dafarn… but maybe it was a variant… Don’t worry, you’ll get it eventually…
As someone else already reminded somewhere in the forum, there’s also VLC that allows you to speed audio (or video) up.
I found out that right now there’s no significant difference in my understanding between 1x and 1.3x.
So I’ve actually used it for second and third listen of advanced content to save a little time! 
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I’ve been trying to find the listening exercises, just to try out the speeded up stuff, but for some reason, presumably my own gross incompetence with the computer, I’ve been unable to find them. I can’t find any mention of the listening exercises as listening exercises. I’ve tried going to challenge 20, which I can find, but I can’t find any link from there to the listening exercises. Sorry to be pathetic, but can anyone point me in the right direction??
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Hi daimorgan, if you’re using a computer (smart phones or tablets are a bit different), the first one is here:
https://www.saysomethingin.com/welsh/level1/challenge5
You should see the challenge/lesson and, under it, “listening practice” (that you can listen or download).
Same at lesson 10, 15, 20, 25. Let us know if it worked!
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Thanks Gisella, and ouch! it’s fast. Anyway, it worked - I was trying to start at level 3, which presumably doesn’t have the speeded up stuff at all. I’ve been listening to Beca’s stuff, which is excellent, but I don’t have the technological nous to speed it up. Level 2, Challenge 20 sounds too difficult for me at this time of night, but I’m looking forward to giving it a go in the morning. Anyway it’s worked at a technical level - next step for me will be to see if I can make any sense of it. It’s obviously possible, from what others have said.Thanks again, and sorry to resort to the forum instead of rummaging a bit further.
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Please, don’t think for a second that you have to apologize for asking for help. We are here to help, and always happy and willing to do so!
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Yup, er, don’t start there - that’s 3x speed! Start with Level 1 Challenge 10 (the first accelerated one) - work through the Level 1 listening for a couple of weeks before moving on to the Level 2 ones.
If you use Beca’s stuff for now as is, we’re going to be adding accelerated versions later on…
Appologizing for “must do” thing??? No way!
When you’re stuck with something, we’re here to get you out the best way we can. Not always working but we’re trying hard. This isn’t just the forum, this is the community and community means to be here for each other in order to help each-other with the stuff which gathers us here - learning Welsh and many times beyond.
Good luck with listening exercises. Remember: They’re not here to understand in the first place but to put your brain to a bit of pressure in order for it to react faster in normal conversation where there quite often everything seams as if it woudl be at accelerated speed! Enjoy and if “chipmunks” makes you laugh, do so, purely out of joy!
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What a wonderful site this is - four responses in no time at all, including from the course creator himself! Well, it looks as though it may be too wet to work outside, so I should have a decent excuse to play this morning. Thanks all for such prompt and detailed support.
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I only just found out that the new listening practices had been added to Level 2 ( they weren’t there when I was doing the course). So I tuned in, thinking they would be triple speed, like the ones at the end of Level 1, but with extra vocabulary. But of course Aran couldn’t make it that easy for us 
I guess they must be at least quadruple speed? Anyway i listened to them a few times then went back and listened to the fifth practice from Level 1. And what do you know? Sounded almost like natural speech!
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And there’s your victory… 
All the Level 1 listening ones (after the very first) are at 2x speed - including the last one, it’s just got so much material in it it feels much harder - all the Level 2 ones are at 3x speed…
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So I presume all Level 3 will be 4x speed! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! This should be utterly interesting!
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Playing with the idea…