Hello everyone, i’m New to the forum and have signed up to the 6 minutes a day course, as this doesn’t start until tomorrow, I thought I would dip my toe in the water & download the app and try a few challenges. At the moment I’m finding that I have to use the pause button to give me time to think of the sentence, but on the longer sentences I’m finding by the time I’ve said some of it, I’ve forgotten what the English was. My brain is frazzled, I keep mixing up, I wanted, I want, I need and I still need. Help is this normal? I feel I need to re do the challenge to try & get it to stick, as I’m worried about moving on to new things without mastering the previous ones. Diolch yn fawr
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Welcome Vanessa, I’ve been here for almost 8 years and believe me, you could have cut and pasted that paragraph from the multitude of other people before you. All completely normal. 
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Helo a croeso first.
Further on … this is more than normal and I can firmly say that everyone on here at some point experienced this. I for example, even now, when I’ve done all material, am forgetting long sentences in English when I’m re-doing the last lesson of each Level/Course. If you’re doing northern version of the course I’ve found out (going through this material right now) that in this version the pause button is more urgent than optional thing so don’t worry about that. Keep pushing on and strive to not using pause button if you can but if you can’t do without it, use it and take as much time as you need to say the whole sentence. At least this is what @aran once advised to me to do since I’m very forgetful person.
Mixing is normal too. I have even more troubles with this as in my native language there is (generally used) only one past tense and I just even today sometimes can’t think clear about all those “i did”, “I have done”, “I was doing” and what’s more to it things even in English so my Welsh is mixy-wixy what concerns tenses also.
You don’t strive to perfection here and mistakes are not only allowed but priceless. From the mistakes we learn so the general advise here is that you just keep on going and if you really feel you must … only then go and repeate the challenge.
I bet you are doing just great despite you feel you don’t. The common feeling which will pass when you learn more and especially when you’ll get the courage and make your first if even short conversation knowing more and more material and vocabulary.
Dal ati! Keep at it!
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I recently finished level 3, and I still mix up things like “I wanted” and “I want”, etc…
I also found it very difficult at the start on the longer sentences. I “suffer” from an auditory and sequencing processing disorder - I have a difficult time processing sequences, and can generally only remember the latter parts of sentences. Over the course, I found it got a lot easier with practice, to the point where I’m translating the first part of the sentence while it’s still being spoken.
Don’t be afraid of redoing challenges either, but don’t just do the same challenge over and over until you feel confident with it. That’s not the way to do it. I found the 1-2-3-4-5 -> 1-2-3-4-5 pattern worked really well. I found that I might struggle with parts of each one, but then after (5), when I went back to (1) and do it again, I was quite easily getting at least 80% of it right.
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This was my strategy for coping with the challenges. Using the pause button didn’t help because it wasn’t a case of being unable to remember the Welsh but being unable to remember the English! But if you start saying the Welsh as soon as you’ve heard the first phrase, I’ve found you can still hear the rest of the sentence and then say that in the gap.
Other people may have other suggestions, but basically, don’t be afraid to experiment to find out what works for you.
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Welcome Vanessa, If you use the app, there’s a handy 15 second rewind button. very useful for re-listening to the English again.
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You’ve been given lots of good advice here on the forum but in addition have you joined the Slack group for the six minute and six month course. There are a lot of posts from other people on the structured courses who are in the same week as you. There are group video sessions two or three times a day in the week which give you a chance to ask questions and have a practice or just listen on YouTube. The workplace gives you lots of channels to seek advice and have direct conversations with other people on the course.
You can also join the Welsh Speaking Practice workplace on Slack which is open to anyone this again gives you various opportunities for speaking in Welsh.
Pob lwc with the course
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Hi Vanessa - trust you’re now feeling very normal!
One other thing - have you listened to the intro yet (comes before challenge 1)? If you haven’t, please do - as it will hopefully allay some of your worries and help you to get the best out of the course.
Welcome to the SSiW family 
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Hi… Tina here… I’m newish… I did 10 weeks & was getting quite good at remembering the words… but as you say the sentences started to get too long to remember from start to finish… I get all in a muddle too… I’ve actually stopped the course for a few weeks stupidly maybe… but I felt I was getting a bit over loaded & trying to rush things… I’ve had a month off but kept the payments up & am going to have some time off work soon & will do a little refresher course going from start to finish… Believe me Vanessa… there is a week when you REALLY do realise how much you have learnt… The comments made throughout the course are encouraging & I do think it’s a better way of learning than what I did at school where absolutely NOTHING stayed in my head… I moved to Wales last summer & am determined to get back on track & try a bit more often… Just DON’T PANIC I think that’s the way to go…
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It might be faster and more effective if you just do the last couple of challenges that you’d completed before - but either way, getting back in the saddle is one of the most important success markers of all… 
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Thank you for your advice… I’ll do that.
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Thank you to everyone that commented on my 1st post. It’s reassuring to learn that it’s a totally normal process of learning. Also thank you all for the tips, I especially like the one where you try to start saying the 1st bit in Welsh, I’ve tried this & it really does help you to remember the whole sentence in English. I have managed to almost master the I wants, I still want & I wanted so progress is being made, I’ve even surprised myself with the “ that I” that took some getting used to. It’s onwards & upwards now & I’m celebrating the mistakes as they make me strive to improve. Thank you for the support. Diolch yn fawr.
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Well done for starting. Like many of us who have and still do forget and use the pause button to allow the grey matter to catch up. My children are all in Welsh medium schools. What I have found help me is to do the task, then I like to have written the dialog down in my book. Then I practice on the kids trying to make sentences from all challenges put together.
It will sink in.
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Quite normal. Just hang in there. You whole personality is protesting which is not so bad. Is it? Learning Welsh is a life changing thing. I’m at challenge 18 now and beginning to surprise myself. Surprising others is too easy.
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I wouldn’t get too fused about trying to get everything perfectly correct. I’ve been through the first five challenges and listened to them all a few times. The listening exercise that follows is a real challenge for me. Nevertheless I’ve moved on to challenge 6 and i love it. The revision is progressive so you’ll get to practice all the phrases from the previous challenges in later ones. I’m really enjoying this course and I’m determined to get to the point where I can join in the online meeting (which is quite scary).
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