You haven’t missed one - it should be 18 - my bad! 
And it’s up early, because I’m going to Sweden for the weekend! (Get me eh…!)
So, this week - it’s a south walian!! 
Topics to look out for - farming, catering and being a hotelier, history, rambling. Enjoy! See you all next week! (I’m not going to attempt the Swedish flag as I’m getting no luck with my flag emojiness these days…!)
5 Likes
Partly due to the very busy run up to the holidays in December, and then because I was so sick afterwards, I am terribly behind on the Sgyrsiau…you needn’t make it worse by adding numbers! 
Yay for this one being South Walian 
Have fun in Sweden!
4 Likes
On this one, I felt like I went from understanding quite a bit at the start, to less, then less, and by the end almost none! 
2 Likes
That’s the first time I’ve heard “moyn” used to mean “fetch”. I wonder where that meaning comes from? 
4 Likes
I was starting to listen less and less to these interviews because they’d gone mainly incomprehensible to me. The difference between those and this is as night and day. This one felt like a chat at our conversation group.
5 Likes
Hi @dave_5,
How encouraging - that must be a great feeling!
It feels like there are a lot of things that have to line up to understand on a first listen.
At a headline level I reckon you need to be able to tune into the dialect, it not be too quick and you need to catch a break with the vocab for the area of interest/ job of the person (… on top of the general Welsh graft / knowledge of course!).
At the moment I am finding after I have filled in the gaps by going through the transcript and go back and listen a second time, I understand very well what is said. This in itself is very pleasing…but what I catch the first time is highly variable - some good, some not so good!
This week was a medium-to-good for me…another brick in the wall!
I’ve found your story very inspiring - thank you !
Rich
2 Likes
I will say that these sgwrs items are having the desired effect, though.
Some of the interviews on the radio are so much easier to follow now, as are real-life chats with first language speakers. I now only have to ask about the occasional term, whereas before the Advanced Content items, some of the real-life stuff was almost impenetrable.
4 Likes
Oh yes definitely. There are moments when I am driving along in the car where I suddenly realise what I am listening to.
The first listen - and it’s progress is an interesting thing though isn’t it.
Rich
4 Likes
Have you finished Level 3, Dave? Were you doing the listen->transcript->listen->translation->listen pattern?
My main insight this time is that my lack of understanding is mostly based on lack of vocabulary: this is the accent I know best (and like best - sorry, other accents! 
). It’s very easy to detect sounds and words but… I don’t know or don’t remember what they mean! 
In fact, despite being the clearest ever, at first listen I didn’t catch much more than in previous ones: a general idea of the topics, and just a few details of the stories here and there.
However, this is the first time I try the [listen -> read translation -> listen] sequence, and I enjoy it way more than the standard one because there’s a big difference between first and second listen, it’s way more satisfying, and way easier to keep my attention focused on listening (instead of having to try and start again every time I noticed I hadn’t heard anything of the last few minutes and so on).
Funny misunderstanding of the week: Burroughs instead of barrows! 
p.s. @beca-brown, just wondering if there’s a chance to meet her and her friends even just for a coffee and a few minutes chat while they’re here to walk around the Italian Lakes!
3 Likes
I was. And in the earlier weeks I was listening to them more than that too.
I don’t doubt that some of it is a problem of my own motivation: I remember I had to abandon the one that sounded like it had been recorded in a school canteen during the lunch hour and it was definitely harder to pick up the next ones after that.
I was talking to a first language South Walian the other day and he was suggesting that he has trouble listening to Gogs in full flow. I’m sure he was overegging it slightly for the sake of me as a learner, but I’m also sure there was some truth in it.
I know you believe that if I’m only understanding 5% of what’s going on then that gives me a glorious 95% space for learning in, but my own experience doesn’t let me subscribe to that view.
Hi @dave_5,
… It seems from this weeks experience that with the stars aligned on the ‘dialect, speed and specialist vocabulary’ that you’ve scrambled onto the ledge - the next level - able to understand a complete sgwrs straight away.
I can’t say that at the moment but after being through the transcript (ie on a second listen) I am close…
…how did you get on with the others after having been through the transcript?
I find the gog accent at pace very tough (to be honest when Beca gets going I find her amongst the most difficult - it’s a good job she’s only asking the questions 
) although Geraint from Caerfyrddin in our Leeds group would give Beca a run for her money!
Rich
3 Likes
Don’t tell Beca …but I agree with you on this! 
I’m not completely sure I understand what “give a run for his/her money” means That the guy in your group is almost as tough to understand as she is? From Carfyrddin? I can’t believe it now! 
3 Likes
Yep - that’s what it means - spot on - it sort of means if there was a competition, they would be evenly matched.
With the January meeting in Leeds I had been going for year…it was a great meeting because there was a group of us who spoke solid Welsh for a couple of hours.
I nearly posted it in the breakthroughs to be honest because I had quite long exchanges with Geraint and understood every word (there is no doubt it was a milestone for me). He has a very thick accent and none of his words have a start or ending - they are somehow part of the previous word!!
He is a very kind and patient man! He has put up with me for a year.
…but all these little things do feel like progress - it’s a good feeling. One of these days…you never know…
Rich
3 Likes
I can certainly ask!!!
2 Likes
Whatever you do, don’t do that! You are my bench mark!
I’ve decided when I understand you in full flow - I’m going to declare that I’ve made it… 
Rich
3 Likes
‘Moyn’ is from ‘mofyn’ or ‘ymofyn’ I think, which is to ask for/want something, as you know. When she used it as ‘to fetch’ I thought that might fox some of you, but it is used like that. I think it’s a dialect thing, but I don’t know why. I’ll ask a Hwntw!
3 Likes
Perhaps because the subject matter became more niche?
1 Like
Thanks!
As for your way of talking, I appreciate the thought, but again I agree with Rich: don’t change it!
4 Likes