Question from Helen Gwyn Jones currently doing Level one (and loving it!)

[helen-gwyn-jones]

Question from Helen Gwyn Jones currently doing Level one (and loving it!)

[Deborah-SSi]

Moved your question here @helen-gwyn-jones so that more people will see it and answer

[helen-gwyn-jones]

Diolch yn fawr, Dee! I was so eager to do the task that I must have posted it in the wrong place. Thanks for making me green!!!

[julie-17]

[Deborah-SSi]

You’ve jumped a few badge colours here, @julie-17, but with such a comprehensive and well-spoken answer, you definitely deserve the blue one and the swim sounds amazing!

[julie-17]

Diolch yn fawr iawn, Dee.
(I look forward to learning what the badges are about!) 󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Aha! Just spotted an explanation from Aran, thanks.

[helen-gwyn-jones]

Nice answer, Julie, diolch. Still trying to make out some of the words which are new to me…

[julie-17]

I’ve written it out here for you:
Wythnos diwetha, ar ddydd Iau, codes i yn gynnar (Last week, on Thursday, i got up early)
a mynd i nofio mewn rhaeadr ger Beddgelert. (and went to swim in a waterfall near Beddgelert.)
Roedd yn ardderchog! (It was excellent!)
Dydd Gwener, nes i fy ngwaith cartref Gymraeg (Friday, I did my Welsh homework)
ar y cyfrifiadur (on the computer)

Because I used “codes i” for “I got up”, that particular tense allows the rest of the verbs in the sentence to be just written as the (easy) infinitive, even though they mean something in the past tense, so mynd is OK for that reason, for 'went". That’s as far as I understand it anyway, so i think I could say: “Codes i yn gynnar, gwrando ar y radio, gyrru i Gaer ag yfed peint o gwrw go iawn.” (I got up early, listened to the radio, drove to Chester and drank a pint of real ale."

[AlanP]

How long have you been learning, @julie-17? You are doing extremely well with your Welsh!

[helen-gwyn-jones]

What I was thinking, Alan!

[helen-gwyn-jones]

Thanks so much, Julie. This is really, really helpful!

I’m doing Southern Welsh so things are slightly different but I can get past most of that. But still you’ve taught me so many new words. I only knew dihuno for wake up - now I can get up! There’s a programme called Codi Pac. So does this mean you can use codi for get up yourself or pick up something else? (ie can it be reflexive too?)

I got cartref but not ngwaith and had heard cyfrifiadur but couldn’t remember what it meant!

@aran knows what he’s doing getting us to do these tasks…;0)

[julie-17]

On and off over two years, because I started in Llanrwst with the De-suggestopedia method from Popeth Cymraeg, which was good, but folded for lack of numbers, then I went to a group in Llandudno which folded after two weeks, for lack of numbers, then I did nothing for a while, just tried bits at home, from books, then the government said that each county could only offer one method, and Conwy couldn’t do De-Suggestopedia method any more, so I had to drive from Colwyn Bay into Denbighshire and joined a group in Denbigh. Then one in Prestatyn, where the teacher was great with lots of laughter and singing, but she has now retired too. I’ve been spending hours driving there and back each time, so it’s a lot of time and petrol so now I am going to just learn at home with SSiW. I like learning through songs and actions, and I like to remember whole phrases, such as “cyn i mi anghofio…” or “yn y goedwig” especially when it fixes a mutation in my mind. I also did attend a U3a group in Llandudno, which was good fun for learning everyday stuff, and we sometimes had the brilliant Howard Edwards who is a brilliant linguist and the things he taught really stuck well in my head, for example “Mae gynna i gar” so that I find it quite difficult to make myself say ‘Mae gen i gar’ and it was Howard who explained that stuff about the verbs in the list, which is really useful because you can just start every story with "Codes i… " and then add on lots of things which you also did, just in the infinitive, without having to think about what they are in that past tense. (Is it the predicate tense?)
I do speak French fairly fluently too and I think it helps to have a grasp of more than one language already. I have worked on learning Welsh songs to perform, too. But as Aran says, Mae dal rhaid i mi ymarfer siarad Cymraeg!

[helen-gwyn-jones]

Well done for persevering. It’s not always easy is it? I guess I’ve only been trying to learn properly since February when I started the Old Course on SSiW. I’ve now taken advantage of the 10th anniversary offer to do the 6 month course for the price of the slower course. I would probably still be going at the same pace as I am now by myself but I think the added incentives and tasks they throw in do help a lot. I’d say the newer Levels are also much better designed to get you talking and even a grammar nerd like me is trying to leave the books behind for a while and just go with it!

[AlanP]

Thank you @julie-17 for such an excellent, in-depth account of your varied learning experiences. My own Welsh learning was proceeding at such a snail’s pace that it was almost non-existent till I attended a 5-day intensive at Llandysul in Oct 2017 (four of us in a house with Dee coming in as tutor), where we went through all 25 challenges of Level 1, and it was from that time that I started speaking Welsh. Living as I do on Ynys Wyth (Isle of Wight), I’m not likely to bump into too many Welsh speakers in the street(!), but luckily Welsh Speaking Practice was set up on Slack early last year and I’ve had many opportunities to chat to folks on there, a few on a regular basis. Have you tried it yet? You can either join hangouts on there or chat to people on a 1-to-1 basis, and you don’t even have to leave your own home!

I expect @helen-gwyn-jones that where you’re doing the 6-month course there will be a lot of encouragement for you to join in introductory chats/hangouts on the part of Slack specifically devoted to the course. But as far as I’m aware the whole Welsh Speaking Practice site opens up to you, and I know many doing the 6-month course often do come on there to practise their sentences at an early stage. Pob lwc!