Can anyone tell me does level 2 get any better? I’m on week 3 and as somebody who doesnt have children nor will have any connections with people in Wales who will want to talk about their children I’m not enjoying it so far and am committing some useless phrases to memory that I’ll never say for example ‘they grow up so fast don’t they’ and ‘they can be a real handful’ . I’m getting really fed up with level 2 and finding it hard to pick up, which is turning me off the course, I found this at times during level 1, but finding it moreso now - when do we start learning useful things such as ordering items in shops, asking for directions, or I’d even take talking about the weather over children? Yes my Welsh has improved a lot, but level one was very repatative at times. Do I have to put up with much more about talking about imaginary children? Sorry to bring a downer on the forum, I’m just struggling a little with this level.
When the context doesn’t fit in with your interests or lifestyle, yes, it can be tough going, but the way to look at it is that “committing phrases to memory” isn’t actually how this course works. It uses spaced repetition to give you vocabulary and constructions as building blocks that you can eventually apply to other sentences and recognise when you hear them. I don’t have children either, and I’m more likely to use “they can be a real handful” with someone walking dogs! 
I understand what you mean, I can relate a little not having children but you are learning useful words that you can use to say other things e.g. I was talking about gardening, in level two you learn the word ‘tufi’ (might be wrong spelling) grow so I could say I was growing things. If you want to learn the weather etc you could find that online, the dysgu cymraeg website give access to the course materials they use.
The beauty of this course if you don’t have to sit and revise things, it’s organic and you can talk about more than the weather. I learnt all that at school but couldn’t actually talk anything less than robotically.
I’m doing level 3 and the pace really picks up there hardly any repetition makes me miss level 2. So keep going, maybe make up your own sentences with those words. Or remember times you’ve been in a busy shop and the children disgwyl fel llan llaw gôr iawn (i love that saying).
It can be tough at times but if you have ever been to a night class to.learn Welsh you will know how much more interesting SSIW is and the speed of learning is quite remarkable too. @siaronjames is completely right in saying that you are building structures of sentence so much that the subject matter becomes almost irrelevant. I have heard the sentence ‘they can be a real handful’ a number of times on TV and once in a pub yet no children had been mentioned. The kray twins, Swansea city football fans and someones older brothers were the topic.
The repeating of phrases is essential (if somewhat tiresome at times) in the learning process but quickly disappears after a handful of lessons as new topics are introduced. Level 3 will bring you everything you are hoping for and more. Hold tight and hopefully see you on the otherside.
It can be frustrating learning about things you may never talk about but what it does really help with is learning how the language hangs together, if you know what I mean. About patterns of speech, idioms and phrases. You might not necessarily use those exact words, in that order, but at some point you’ll hear “llond llaw”, “go iawn”, “tyfu i fyny” or yn gyflym iawn and those will trigger your memory. The repetition is what sticks it in your memory. What’s quite a good exercise to do is to go back to very early lessons and try to remember how you struggled with things that probably just pop up without too much effort now. Don’t give up!!! It’s worth it!!! 
When I was learning Scottish Gaelic a lot of the early vocabulary and stories were based on crofting (sheep, cows, chickens,…). I just took it in stride and realized that although the farm specific vocabulary was not completely necessary at such an early stage of my learning (and maybe never) but I was learning sentence structures and practicing the sounds of Gaelic. So when things come up in the Welsh about things that aren’t completely relevant to my life, I just keep going knowing that I am learning how to create sentences and practicing the different Welsh sounds. Besides I love saying “Maen nhw’n edrych fel llond llaw go iawn” because of all the cool Welsh sounds not found in English.
If it is any encouragement, tea, coffee, milk and sugar make an appearance a few lessons further on.
I know what you mean! I’ve just got to challenge 5 of level 2. I don’t have children, and am unlikely to talk about anyone else’s. Some of the content is more generally applicable (being able to refer to ‘them’ and ‘those’ will undoubtedly be useful) but some of the phrases are very children-specific - e.g. “that’s children for you!” As a non-parent I have no need to ever say that! It has been a bit frustrating, so I can sympathise.
I’d reiterate what others have said, though, that the course isn’t a phrasebook. It’s not teaching us sentences to use - it’s teaching us how to use the language, and giving us practice sentences as examples. It doesn’t really matter if the practice sentences won’t be useful themselves, because it’s understanding how to assemble a sentence that’s important, and that’s what we’re taking away from it.
I’m with you, Cymraeg Thom. I do have children and grandchildren so the content was fine. I really liked “she’s a real handful” because one of my granddaughters is! However, i have found level two much more challenging. I need two weeks to get through the sentences and I also need the words in front of me to have any hope of remembering them. It helps me to break each sentence down into chunks at first but i have a feeling it’s a memory problem more than a Welsh problem! I tell myself they are Challenges, not Lessons but don’t give up. I’m on challenge 12 and I thin it has beun to get easier.
Hey thanks for the feedback everyone, it’s been really helpful to see that i’m not alone and things might get easier. I am finding that some things are getting a bit easier, but like droppedastitch says sometimes I also think it might be a memory problem! I’ll get to the end of the sentence that they’ve said and I’ve forgotten.
One other thing I have noticed is that there are a lot of words that kind of mean a very similar thing that I keep getting confused with taught relatively closely to each other in the course . i.e digon (enough) and gormod (too much) I can remember the welsh words, but just keep getting them the wrong way around as they kind of mean the same thing in the context they are being used in the course. Anyway, i’m just moaning now! I’ll keep cracking on with the course
Thom
I’ve always had that problem with ‘deud’ and ‘siarad’ since way back in early level 1. Easily done!
Perhaps it’s because I’m deaf I am still muddling up hear and listen - a sort of freudian muddle. And that word ‘dal’ which we learned at the very beginning is my pet hate! What a word. Still, catch, tall, pay, among others as well as good old dal atti and howabout dal dwr. (Waterproof, in case you need it at the moment.)
Ah yeah me too - and also ‘Gwilio’ and "edrich’ for watch/see.
Hi,
I’m also working hard 
on the second level of the course, there is some ups and downs for everybody, for some people it might be in the first part, and a little bit later for others.
That’s the way it goes !
Hold on
O kiañ emaon me ivez evit mestroniañ an eil live. Tud zo o dez muioc’h a boan abred a-walc’h pa vez luzietoc’h an deskiñ evit tud all diwezhatoc’h.
Mod-se 'mañ an traoù !.
Dalc’h mat !
Totally agree with you! There’s far too much on children in one huge block, 3 lessons if I recall. It got so bad I actually gave up SSIW at that point. The enjoyment had gone. So came back and went on Automagic, thought at least I won’t have to go through the children section again! Wrong, have been ploughing through it grizzling and sighing! To put it into context despite wrestling with some tricky sentences I really looked forward to SSIW time, but currently all I’ve done is sigh and hope this children topic moves onto something else soon. I’ve got to “hedfan heibio” so hope I’m nearly out of the fog! I get what some replies are trying to say but if you don’t have children you are in a completely different world , I’ve seen a video interview where someone also gave up SSIW at that point. It’s just the sheer length that the subject goes on for. Well I’m not giving up again, I am determined! Maybe add in some sentences for us non children folk? Eg “they look like a real handful, rather you than me!” Or " they look very lively, a bit noisy aren’t they?" Or “no I don’t have children but I do have 2 cats and a hamster!” Ok I’m joking, but you get my point 
Oh ok so I do actually have 2 cats and a hamster!!
It’s the structures that are important in that section, and it just happens that they were easy to practise using children as the topic. What if you substitute cath for ‘girl’ and bochdew for boy? They’re the same grammatical gender, so you will be practising the structures while using vocab that’s more relevant to you.
With the SaySomethingin App, you can always press SKIP to move along a little faster as well if you find a section gets too repetitive and easy.
I don’t get the problem TBH. One of the hardest things to do in learning a language is to get native speakers to talk to you and not switch to English when you are still less than fluent and you don’t have to have children (I don’t) to understand that giving people the opportunity to talk about their children is a very powerful way to do that
Similarly, there was a lot about gossip and pubs in level 1 when I was doing it (although that has changed in the new app). I don’t drink, I don’t go to pubs and I’m not all that interested in gossiping; but it’s easy to see why these topics would be good to have in your toolkit if you want to get into conversations.
No course can be perfectly tailored to the interests of everyone, because everyone has different interests and it’s not realistic to expect that. Until AI advances a bit further or you hire a private tutor who can tailor content specifically to you and your interests, then clearly, it has to be YOUR job to fill in vocabulary of specific interest to you. Get yourself a phrase book or something. It’s the course’s job to give you the tools to express your ideas in a grammatical way with understandable pronunciation and to provide you with some vocabulary that will help you get into conversations.
Edit: to be clear, I’m just a customer and have no connection to SSi.
Martin, they ask for feedback so those of us who find that section problematic are simply letting them know and why it we find it a problem. I have loads of phrase books and did substitute a different word for some of it but it only worked for so long. SSIW provides a fantastic platform for learning and I think well worth every penny. But like I said they ask for feedback , it might irk some but we are entitled to say if we have a problem with something we’re paying for and they do want our feedback . That said there is something that I feel strongly about and it’s the right of people to have different opinions , to agree to disagree. We have different views and that is absolutely ok 