I am incredibly slow learning. It is taking me about 8 days to work through one lesson at around 20 minutes a day. I go back about 5 mins and then go forward about 5 mins and the rest of the time is pausing and practicing. Once i get to end I have tried to restart the lesson and do without using pause but i just cannot get my brain to work fast enough to get phrases in before they are said. If i keep going over and over the same lesson (am on lesson 4) i get bored and disheartened but the end of lesson says shouldnât move on until can do about 80 % without using pause. Any one else as slow as me and any helpful tactics, please?
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Donât worry, there are lots who experience the same thing!
here are a couple of things to think about -
The 80% is old advice and doesnât have to be strictly held to. Itâs ok to repeat the lesson maybe a couple of times, but donât go over and over it thinking you havenât got enough right - as you say, this is boring and disheartening and doesnât do any good. Move on anyway - you can always come back to the bits you were stuck on at a later date if you wish, but the material is repeated elsewhere in the course anyway, and often comes to mind easier then.
Using the pause is fine, but itâs easy to get too reliant on it, which is why itâs better to try and do without it. Having said that, everyone is different and itâs recognised that some will need the pause button more than others.
You donât have to get every sentence 100% correct - this is not a âlearn-by-roteâ method, instead, it gives you blocks to build with. As I said before, everything is repeated at various intervals and throughout the course, and over time the brain comes to recognise the basic blocks and gets used to varying the vocab within them.
If you come across a word and you just canât remember what it should be, itâs ok to throw in any word that comes to mind rather than to stop and spend time trying to remember that specific word. if you do this and itâs the wrong word, donât worry! Itâs important not to think of this as a mistake - it will actually help reinforce what the correct word should have been once you hear the sentence again.
Best tips of all - 1) embrace mistakes, mistakes are good, they are things we learn from, 2) keep it fun - this is your journey, itâs not a competition to reach the finish line and 3) there are always people here on the forum whoâve been through exactly the same feelings and weâre all here to help, support, and encourage you. Youâve got this!
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Thank you. This is really helpful advice. I get too caught up in trying to get things ârightâ which is not how children learn languages so easily! I do enjoy SSIW and can see how i am learning structures and words to substitute and build up creatively.
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I share some of your concerns. I tend to break each lesson in two and so do each three times during 7 days.
I also have a complete blank with some words/phrases that I share with the dog when walking but do the test and they disappear from my memory.
My big problem when replying without using the pause button is I have forgotten some of the English sentence I have been asked to translate.
There is a lesson coming up which repeats Lesson 1 and I was very pleased how much I had retained.
IforJ
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Yes - I often cannot retain the English we are being asked to translate, let alone translate it quickly. Still, persevering even though i have to break each lesson down into about 6 chunks and keep going over!
Iâve been doing SSiW for about 2 years now and if I struggle (which I still do at times) Iâll use pause button, I tend to do the same lesson over a week but sometimes Iâll split it in half and do half in morning and half in evening, donât worry about making mistakes as theyâre part of the learning process, also if you canât remember a certain structure donât worry as it gets repeated very often, also donât be hard on yourself as your just starting out
Thanks Stephen. The support is appreciated.
I donât do it as much as I did when I started out, but I would put the audio files into a podcatcher that allowed me to speed up or slow down the audio. The first time through I would slow the audio down to 75% of full speed so I didnât need to fiddle so much with the pause button (especially when I was listening while commuting or doing other household chores). Then Iâd speed it up a bit each time until I was able to do 1.10 or 1.25x speed at which point the pauses werenât long enough to get a word in edgewise. At this point I move on to the next. Be careful here though as on some of the longer sentences at the ends of some lessons, if you play them too slowly, youâll forget what the beginning of the sentence was by the time they get to the end.
Based on a trick in my daughterâs dual immersion Japanese class which used the word âwakanaiâ (Japanese for âI donât knowâ), I also formed the practice of saying âddim gwybodâ in place of words I couldnât immediately remember so that I could focus on the ones I did know instead of getting too tripped up on the ones I didnât. Eventually on repetition and revision they would slowly seep into my brain. Fortunately the kind and patient instructors on the tape never made fun of me or judged me for my mistakes and that made it much easier to eventually pick things up.
Sticking with it has become quite fun and it definitely gets easier with time. pob lwc!
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Great advice. Many thanks.
@jo-king have you given the new AutoMagic Beta a try? Itâs available under âLearnâ on the website, and it might help with some of the issues, e.g. it displays the English prompt as written text and you can stop when youâve had enough. It then carries on from that point the next time you use it.
This is genius! I canât tell you how many times I have just stood there with my mouth gaping like a goldfish, unable to remember the word but not able to move past it.
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I love the idea of replacing dim gwybod for the missing word you donât know thatâs a life saver. Iâve just started the classes again and Iâm fine at the minute as Iâm going over old stuff. But i know there will come a time were i find it harder to cope with this will be handy for then lol thankyou for the tip xxx
I remember hearing of someone who said ârhywbeth rhywbethâ (something something) in the places that they couldnât remember the Welsh. Anything like that is a good idea as it keeps the Welsh flowing.
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Iâm always forgetting what a whatsit is called (in English as well as Welsh) so I just use thingy instead.
When I first started the Zoom sessions I asked you for the appropriate Welsh word and Iâve used it ever since.
Felly, diolch am y beâ tiân galw⌠
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