I think we should have a whip-round to get Geraint to skin a rabbit while sailing on the sea…
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We had a great time last year working on the story bag sketch - (Ian, Deb and Anne). Ian’s punch lines were priceless.
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Have just caught up with all the posts on the Bootcamp - it’s great to hear all the banter. It sounds like you had a very busy but enjoyable week.
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@Gruntius Yeah, sorry about last night. I went to the local U3A chat group in the morning and found, as you say, that there was more confidence there than previously. Trouble was that i’m not always very accurate and so the group leader had a busy time putting me right. The bootcamp effect out of control!
Having been to that, I completely forgot it was Saith Seren night until it was too late to make it worthwhile to travel up. Hopefully I’ll get my act together by next week
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Hi @pollypolly , let me know when you’re coming to Mach and we can arrange a meetup, or a day trip to Pwllheli 
. I’m away for a few days in the middle of the month - doing a calligraphy course on Ynys Môn, but other than that…
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argghggghgghgghghhhggh. In a chat group?!
I know of no better way to stop people speaking a language than correcting them all the time…
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I perhaps overstated it @aran, but, not to worry, my increased confidence, post bootcamp, meant i was not at all put out. Her comment was that I have reached the stage where a little fine tuning might be appropriate and I was happy to accept. On balance, I think I’d rather be told if there’s something I should be aware of, and we have good rapport. However, I take your point that such an approach could be counter-productive
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Ah, that sounds a little more like it - you’re certainly a good enough Welsh speaker now for you not to need to be worrying about ‘correct’ usage except for academic interest 
18th to 25th June, and yes, will be delighted to meet up.
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By far the biggest takeaway for me from this year’s bootcamp is the people I met whilst there - I’ve made some new friends, strengthened friendships with existing ones, and made some new memories that I’ll look back on fondly (and not all of them associated with food either 
) It was also lovely to revisit some familiar places, but experience them in a different way 
It was very different to last year, but I won’t bore @aran with my feedback on that score again 
I don’t think I feel that much more confident re: speaking Welsh as a result of this year’s bootcamp, but that’s largely because that door got unlocked (or should I say kicked down?) last time round 
Where I think I’ve improved this year is in how much more Welsh I can understand when listening to it - @wondersheep is watching something in Welsh as I type and, rather than noise with the odd word thrown in, it feels more like listening to something in English. In other words, I can understand enough of what’s going on to get the gist without having to stop and pay attention and thus feel much less annoyed by having to listen to it
Have to give @robscully and @samholland their dues - Rob was so much confident this time round than last year (to the extent that I found myself thinking of him as ‘Uncle’ to @gruntius’s ‘Dad’ ), whilst Sam blossomed during the week we were there.
I’ll be honest, I was ready to leave - a week in a bubble (even one with a hot tub full of 'em inside ) was, again, long enough for me. But I’m glad I went and I didn’t cry
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I’d add late night Skype-ing with @atomic_newt to the list of highlights - was lovely to catch up, but also lovely to just chat and have a giggle with a bunch of friends with “oh, we’re speaking Welsh now” taking a back seat because it all just felt so natural
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I find self-assessment in language learning absolutely fascinating. Both Catrin and I were genuinely startled how much more expressive and communicative your Welsh was this year - really, seriously impressed - it was a huge leap forward, definitely one of the most dramatic we’ve seen.
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Awwwwww - thanks @aran 
I think part of this may have been down to me being more expressive and communicative in general due to not being quite as terrified/stressed about the whole thing. But still… very lovely of you to say so, thank you
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It would be very interesting to run a whole battery of neurological imaging tests on you…
But until we can afford that (and arrange the kidnap and the cheesecakes), yes, it will certainly have been a combination of factors - but it was very, very striking, so I’m about as sure as I can be that you’ve under-estimated your own improvement in speech…
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Haha! I can save you the effort: tap, choir tunes, other tunes, dessert, Disney, David Mitchell, and about a million story ideas all battling it out for supremacy
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So, is it really just over a week since we all started to siarad Saesneg again? After we finished the week, I went off to a mental week of work and now that I’ve stopped, I realize I’m (like @wondersheep) missing everyone, and missing Pen Llyn.
On the plus side, I went to a Festival No 6 meeting at Portmeirion straight after leaving the bwthyn and surprised both Peter (the tenant farmer) and Huw (the council licensing officer) by talking to them extensively yn Gymraeg, whilst still managing to think and speak in English with the English people in the meeting. Then I went to see my friends Simon and Kathy in Bermo (Barmouth) and did the same thing in the pub! I sat at the table and (with help from gwydrad neu ddau…) spoke only in Welsh to Si (who is a 1st language speaker from Dinas Mawddwy), whilst speaking English to his wife Kathy (from Canada) and their friend (from Skelmersdale). My proudest moment was walking back to their house when Si said to me that he had really enjoyed himself and that talking to me seemed much more natural than his usual excruciating experiences of talking to welsh learners 
From yr wythnos bwtcamp itself, I loved seeing first time bootcampers progress so rapidly from quiet to confident. Everyone really, but one in particular stood out-
@samholland 's reaction at the end of the week when @aran started speaking English again in the kitchen was a mirror image of mine last year, when I started the week terrified of not knowing any Welsh and finished it with my brain unable to comprehend the concept of speaking English!
It was great to not be as terrified myself this year and feel relaxed with friends from last year. Although I still often find it hard to get the right words out to start talking (and to reply to others), I did feel much more comfortable with speaking in general to the extent that I would suddenly realize that I had been talking for ages, without noticing - one of my favourite experiences of the week (with apologies to @gruntius, who had to run away on a rescue mission with Aran!), was relaxing in front of The Anglesey pub in Caernarfon just talking with everyone and being “yr ail Dad” to explain the absence of Geraint and Aran. It was only when Geraint returned with the minibus to get us (diolch tad ) that I realized I had been chatting for over an hour and a half yn Gymraeg, my false starts and searching for words forgotten…
Diolch o galon am @Cath2’s quote
Praise indeed for me I’m not sure I was quite that confident really (and certainly still struggled to know what to say in every situation), but I did surprise myself sometimes - last year, us newbies were paired up with “mentors” who had been before and sometimes this year I felt like @ianblandford must have done with me in 2015 - answering questions, finding new words and explaining things for others. That was a very rewarding experience for me!
@Cath2 herself just seemed such a natural speaker (especially compared to last year :-p )
I agree with @bryanroberts too, about the trip to the pub. It was remarkable (and I think Aran commented on this at the time) that we all were out in the wild talking so vociferously (!) yn Gymraeg so early in the week (enough to drown out the opera sebon saesneg ar y teledu…). A great laugh.
As ever, I think everyone brought something to the week - stories, cake, laughs, strength in the face of chipmunks…
and I learned to play the drums better than Ringo Starr (according to @wondersheep). Diolch Kev!
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It also goes without saying (although here I am saying it… ) that @gruntius was the (death metal) rock to anchor everyone throughout the week - Driver, mentor, knowing the places to go and the things to say when others struggled, such a natural sounding speaker of the language and able to be both practical and daft (essential bootcamp qualities!). Diolch tad [eto]
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Awesome post. Delighted that the Cymraeg/English meeting went so well… 
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Well, I have another meeting on the 18th. Lets see if I can actually remember how to speak then…
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