Da iawn Richard! You WILL get there.
I’ll be up in the Blackpool area over the weekend of the 6/7 January and maybe a couple of days more than that. I’ll be in touch when I know for sure, and hopefully we can catch up for a cuppa.
Dee
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Your capacity to deal with this - with such brave determination - is perhaps your single greatest strength.
Keep on keeping on. The occasional inevitable gaps do NOT matter. 
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Annwyl Ffrindiau
I haven’t written anything for ages. Purely out of laziness. I am having treatment now for sleep apnoea and I have stopped falling off to sleep during the day and nodding off when I listen to the lessons. This has happened since I got my CPAP machine a few weeks ago.My memory is still shocking Is the course now on video and how do I down load it.
Now back to challenge 1.I went up to 15 and had to repeat everything from 10. I made some cards so any new words introduced I could repeat them.I do feel it is hard but your vide regarding high repetition learners and what you told me on the course camr back to me and this has now given me back my mojo in learning Welsh
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Not yet, but we’ll be starting to release video lessons over the course of this year… 
Great to hear you’re soldiering on - you’re definitely a Higher Repetition Learner, as you know - but sheer determination and massive repetition WILL gain slow and steady improvement for you…
I have just completed week 2 of 6month Saysomething in welsh course.At present I can manage it and it is beginning to sink in. It is giving me structure and the week’s challenges to complete.It is making me focus on what I need to do.Eash week will be challenging and the weekly conference course through hangon is useful. You get to see and hear different people who are around the world.I think I have my mojo back
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Richard your commitment to learning Welsh is remarkable. I look forward to speaking with you on the Slack 6MWS siarad Cymraeg group.
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I thought you did excellently on the Hangout, Richard - huge steps forward from where you were on the 10 dayer, so very, very promising…
I would like to thank everyone for the kind comments.This weeks tasks week 3 seemed daunting.Will I remember challenge 1 .Yes I remembered without using the pause button.I did this challenge after 5 following specific instructions in the email. Will keep you posted how I did later on in the week
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Superb! That’s a very encouraging step forward
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Hi Everyone
I have completed week 3 of the 6month course. It has been challenging but I feel proud that I managed to complete the 5min challenge.My only disappointment was yesterday when due to technical problems could not get involved in speeddating.I have come to London for a few days so was using a different computer.I am trying to work out how to upload my soundwave recording so watch this space.I recorded on audiocopy and I have problems loading it on soundcloud it keeps comimg up with an error perhaps IPhone does not like soundcloud
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You’re doing really excellently on the 6 Monther, Richard - hugely impressed
Llongyfarchiadau mawr iawn Richard!!!
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It was lovely to hear from Catrin giving me encouragement on my welsh journey and it really helped me to see how far I have come. I still get tongue tired and panic on hangout if more competent learners speak. I am in awe of them. Then I remind myself how far I have come. The odd welsh word pops up in my head at the least expected time. Pa mor hir appears to be the phrase this week.I try then to make a sentence with t6hat and succeed. Pa mor hir dw I wedi gadeal llundain, Pa mor hir dw I wedi byr yn blackpool, Pa mor hir wedi bod yn dysgu cymraeg, pa mor hir wedi bod yn briod . I am looking forward to this coming week.
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Hi Richard,
Just to let you know that you are not alone in that sense of panic when hearing more competent learners speak. I’m a bit all over the shop with my speaking abilities. I’ve not been doing badly recently and in a few 1-to-1 Skypes I’ve done recently I feel I’ve been doing quite well. Then the other evening I did a late-night chat with 2 of the more competent speakers via the new Slack website - not helped by the fact that I was staring into a blank screen with moving circles and one of them was on a phone with the sound fluctuating wildly - and I more-or-less went to pieces. They were not asking me anything particularly difficult but I just wasn’t picking it up, leading to a loss of confidence and a struggle even to be able to say basic things like ‘dw i’n’ and stuff! After that call I was almost on the point of jacking the whole thing in - but by the morning common sense prevailed once again, and “Don’t be so silly”.
It’s a funny business. When I was very much younger I studied French & German to A Level - this was the old days when 75% of it was grammar and literature and I was on the point of becoming fluent. But that’s now - I hesitate to say it - just over 50 years ago, and now well into retirement this language stuff doesn’t come easy. Plus all the mixed emotions about my Welsh background etc. But the only way to look at it is that SSIW has given me the opportunity to come THIS far - which I never thought I’d ever have (living as I do on Ynys Wyth - the Isle of Wight). And that’s what we must do, as you say, constantly reminding ourselves just how far we have already come.
I see you’re doing the 6-month intensive. I haven’t signed up as I had the opportunity to do the 5-day intensive last October which it’s based on I think, and that’s been a great boost. But it still doesn’t solve the fluctuating confidence-thing. Anyway, just to let you know that many of us are struggling in various ways.
Alan.
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That’s the spirit!
@alanp - hang on in there, Alan - it’s never a straightforward line upwards - but if you keep on giving your brain exposure to the language, it will keep on indexing - so keep it up! 
The fifth week has been completed and it is challenging. I still feel like a rabbit in the headlights and find I need to really think and dig deep for the words to come out and to find the sentences. But with luck and practice it will come.Am I the only one who enjoys the listening practice and this coming week the chipmunks will be active with double speed. The course has given me a structure that I need in order to learn welsh. I love the speeddate thank you Jessica . I tried to for the first time.There is a difference between the north and south but with practice we will all understand each other .Its mainly slightly different ways of saying things like efo (N) and gyda (S) both meaning with. . I love Conor’s enthusiasm for the language and am in awe of him. Once I got more confidence I will take up his offer Siarad CymraegI am signing off for this week. More updates sunday . Pasg Hapus i bawb
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Which is, I think, exactly the work you need to be doing - so WELL DONE for sticking at it!
No, you’re not the only one. Listening skills are vital and they can be done while you’re doing something else in the house.
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Week 7 of my journey. I cannot believe I am on week 7. Last week was tough. I froze on line during the hangup and rabbits in headlight syndrome came to mind… I felt numb and panic and thought god a welsh speaker different from Dee and Aran. Sorry Nia, Believe it or not I do suffer from a degree of social anxiety if I haven’t met someone before sorry I hid in the safety of YouTube where I could see the discussion. Later I realised I could have joint the discussion and talked about music and interests. Gretta gave me a helpful tip, which I will use.The course is called saysomethinginwelsh .It is better to saysomething than nothing at all. Last week was tough this week is even thougher.I am up for the challenge and the challenge is to dip my toe into some welsh speaking hangouts.
Dig deep in my motto. Dig deeper and become a gold miner’ with my welsh and dig something out even if I hit the rocks instead of the gold.There are some nuggets of gold which is welsh waiting to be dug out.As gold is precious so is the welsh language and its my golden opportunity to learn it(Excuse the pun)
Thank you to everyone for your support.
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Your sheer determination will always get you through occasional hiccups like this, Richard…