I’ve finished the “Classic Challenges” and am considering starting the “Old Course” before moving on to the “Advanced Content” (or an entirely different resource).
Has anyone taken a similar approach, and if so, did you find it helpful?
I assume the “Old Courses” contain extra vocabulary, idioms, and grammar, but I’m unsure whether they’re much different from the “Classic Challenges.” I don’t want to spend time on them if they overlap too much. That said, I don’t think reinforcing what I’ve already learned would be a bad thing.
As you can tell from my rambling above, I’d appreciate some advice from those with more experience!
Very much so – in fact I’d say the New Course followed by the Old Course makes SSIW into the complete course.
That’s because the Old course takes a more thorough approach to exploring each of the grammar features you’re taught. For example, instead of the New Course approach of using a construct a few times as they come up, the Old Course spends lessons focused on one or two points.
For example, the New Course introduces you to mutation gradually over many challenges without ever explaining it – you’re expected just to assimilate it as you go on. The Old Course has several lessons dealing just with mutation.
The same with the inflected tenses: in the New Course you occasionally hear ‘a i’ or ‘wela ich di’ as part of a phrase, but the Old Course a run of challenges dealing with the short future in all its persons.
The New Course teaches you to be confident speaking in a wider range of circumstances, so it’s great as a starter: the Old Course is excellent for reinforcing (and understanding) what you’ve learnt, far beyond anything in the New Course.
I really hope SSIW keep the Old Course around, because though I’ve not tried AutoMagic, it’s supposed to be mainly the New Course, so the same need for the reinforcement that the Old Course provides will always be there.
Amazing. I didn’t know that the “old course” had an entirely different approach, I have been longing for more detailed explanations of the grammatical concepts.
Thank you for taking the time to provide such a well constructed and thoughtful response
I think it works very well for that – but don’t forget, it’s still not a traditional grammar course, so that there isn’t a huge amount of detailed explanation about the grammar, but it focuses far longer on a single grammar point and covers all the aspects. It’s much more thorough. It’s not really an entirely different approach – more that the New Course an evolution of the Old Course, focused much more tightly on acquiring conversation competence at the expense of everything else.
For example, I’m on Old Course L3 C9 or so (second time around), and almost the entire lesson is on the future of dod in the singular. You’re not really given a grammatical explanation of the tense, but you are given almost 30 minutes of practice with ‘do i, doi di, daw o, daw hi’ (they do the plurals in the next couple of challenges, I assume).
I think if you did the Old Course first, you’d probably find it a bit slow going and limited – the New Course is much better at getting you confident understanding and speaking in a wider range of circumstances, which is of course why they introduced it. But I found the Old Course excellent as a reinforcer afterwards.
I did the Old Course when I’d done L1&L2 of the Challenges and was waiting for L3 to get finished. To start off with I think I just did alternate lessons - say, all the odd-numbered ones - in order to cover the material more quickly. That provided the right balance of familiar/unfamiliar/reinforcement for me, personally - and then I did the whole of Course 3.
I started learning Welsh with the new course.
Then I tried the old one, and found it boring, with so many repetitions and explanations.
But I know a lot of learners, and read comments of even more, who really loved it and found it very helpful for the reasons @David_B already mentioned, and also because it includes more words, which can in fact enrich your vocabulary.
Definitely worth a try.
And while we’re here I’d strongly suggest to also check the advanced material - that’s really great!
I started learning Welsh the ‘traditional’ way by physically going to classes, when SSIW may not even have been a twinkle in @aran and @Iestyn’s eyes and a couple of years later heard about this new fangled way of learning at almost exactly the time I couldn’t go to classes because of a broken leg. No classes, no work, but I could sit at a laptop.
So I only ever did the ‘old’ course. And when I could walk and work again, I went back to classes, and carried on with SSIW. And I went to Bwtcamp. Several times. And did exams. And started an SSIW conversation group that ran for several years until covid killed it off. And then I stopped going to classes because they were boring and even hired a private tutor, again until covid
And I know that actually physically going to classes appears to be as rare as hen’s teeth nowadays, and other people seem to offer bootcamp like experiences, but I really think that the ‘old’, original course is fantastic and absolutely good enough. Now I can’t compare it to all the new stuff because I wouldn’t, couldn’t approach it with an empty mind, but I still sing the praises of SSIW to anyone who will listen, and even those who won’t.
I’m not sure where to post this so I’m staring here. The old SSiW Android app is broken since the new version arrived but the new version is a much lower level of Welsh that the old course and imho quite boring and definitely not challenging if you’ve already got to the more advanced challenges on the old courses. Does anyone know how to get to the old courses in the new app?
