Pause button? Have to remember what the English was first before translating!

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Helo all,

i have read that you should try to avoid the pause button, however, I am only on the second task in the first week of the 6 month course and I struggle to remember what the English sentence was before Catrin comes in with the Welsh version.

For example, “I want to say something in Welsh but i can’t remember how to say it.” I am at the “Dw’ i isio dweud rhywbeth…” and the Catrin comes in! (Hope that’s spelled correctly!)

I can do the translation fairly well but need time to digest and remember what I need to translate so I use the pause button. Some of the sentences are relatively long.

Is there a transcript of the English sentences which I can work more quickly from?

Will be repeating the task anyway to see if I am quicker next time.

Any suggestions would be helpful, diolch.

#2

I feel your pain. I had this issue throughout the entire course. However I did end up being able to speak Welsh so persevere!
The golden SSiW rule: Don’t worry about it. What I did was just say what I thought the sentence was, especially on the longer sentences. What you really want to do is say in Welsh what your brain wants to say, rather than than concentrate on what exactly Aran or Iestyn said. SSiW works by getting your brain to say something in Welsh automatically without any forethought. Trust the system, the system works!

#3

Thanks Y_Ddraig_Las,

That’s a great explanation.

#5

I feel your pain too, am on Challenge 13 - so I got through to here somehow, gradually using the pause button less - I think doing the challenge more times without the pause, or not using it too much, is better than using it all the time and beating yourself up if you make a mistake. It gets easier - having said that I had to really hit pause half way through challenge 13, have a cup of tea and a lie down before going back to it. You will learn, as will I … good luck

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#6

Thanks william-george. I appreciate your reply and advice.

To give an update I re-did Challenge 1 and got through it without the pause button.

Then I re-started Challenge 2, with the above advice in mind, and managed to get through nearly all of it without the pause button. (I noted down the time I used it for recapping later.)

What I found myself doing was breaking it up into phrases instead of individual words, such as "fedra’ i ddim cofio… " instead “fedra y ddim” and “cofio” separately… that way there are fewer things to remember and it feels more natural.

Much happier and calmer now! :slight_smile:

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#7

Cant y cant - 100% agree!