Just to say, I’ve finished level 3 of the new course for SSIW (brilliant by the way, thank you) and thought I’d just try doing the old course before moving on to the advanced. So so glad I did, have learnt so much, and it’s filling in some of the understanding holes that I still have. I read on the FAQ that you plan to “retire” the old course- please don’t! I’m still using it and am getting so much from it.
Anyway thanks for all your hard work, such an amazing course, the whole thing is the best thing I’ve ever learnt for trying to use a language.
Yes there is a lot of good stuff (and a lot of hard work no doubt) in the Old Course which personally I think is very complimentary to the new one.
Retiring it would be a major loss - it’s even a bit of a shame that it’s designated ‘the Old Course’, as I’m sure a lot of people never give it a look as a result…
…I think the speaking and listening exercises are particularly good…a great little workout if you are feeling a bit rusty!
I can only echo the remarks made here. I find the “old course” very useful and I would say please do not retire it. Maybe you could rename it as the “alternative” or better still the “original” course as I’m sure that many people would still find it useful.
Please don’t retire the “old course”! I enjoy it just as much as the “new course” and learn new things and different things to express myself, which is great!
I can just feel my brain buzzing with excitement, shelving new information here and connecting knowledge from the “new course” there.
I tried the old course once and…didn’t like it at all.
So I’m really glad they did the new one (Levels/Challenges), cause I’m not sure I would have ever finished the old version.
But I’ve heard a whole lot of learners who liked and like the old Course so I hope they just leave it there (maybe one day I’ll even appreciate it myself!)
I did the old course and it suited me down to the ground. I later did the new course and it was great too, but I have a feeling I wouldn’t have thrived as I did if I had started with it. I can’t be sure of course, but I do hope the old course will stay available.
I used to bounce back and forth between the new and old courses. When I got really frustrated with one, I’d pick up where I left off with the other and was so pleased I already knew half the new words. I still go back to the old course from time to time to refresh. So please please keep it around!
I really enjoyed the old course partly because it was the only one available at the time. I’ve never had a legitimate occasion to say “I kick the old dog at the wall”, though. I sometimes look at Oscar, my son’s lovely old lab, and he looks back at me with his soulful eyes and accept that I never will.
Yes, I’m a fan. I joined SSiW before the new material was fully completed, so I hung around for a while by going through the original/Old course and also both “dialects”. There’s plenty to learn there, and if you have already finished the slightly more student-friendly Challenges, you will cover the Old ground quickly.
Having said that, If I was coming from the Challenges, today, I’d probably go on to the advanced content course and the Slack Welsh Speaking Practice (WSP) in the first instance. Unless of course, I happened to be locked-in somewhere
I’m half way through Level 3 of the Old Course. I’m glad I did the New Course first, but like others, I am finding the Old Course material very useful and would encourage others to use it to expand their understanding of the language and to gain more useful practice. As someone suggested, maybe renaming it might be a good idea.
I completed the New Course first and then went on to complete the Old Course. For me, I found the old course much more useful and structured and it definitely help me make sense of everything and become a more polished speaker…but i think if I hadn’t done the new course first I would have struggled with the pace.
I still listen to lessons from both courses on a regular basis and usually hear something I hadn’t noticed the first time around.
Interesting - I did the old course first, then the new, and I wondered how on earth I would have got on with the new course had I done it first! I guess I enjoyed the structure and the way patterns were presented in the old course. But doing the new course afterwards certainly improved my fluency.
I’m currently going through the old course after finishing level 3 of the new one. While I think the new course generally has a better structure (much less repetitive), there’s extremely useful material on the old course.
Just a few lessons in, I have a much clearer idea of how to say yes and no in various contexts, which is something I felt was strikingly lacking from the new course.
I have to totally agree with @alan-charlesworth and others in this thread. I’ve posted before that, in my opinion, the new levels and the old courses complement each other.
