I think it’s worth remembering that people used to have to carry these things around, just to make sense of traditional numbering systems:
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@robbruce people used to have to carry these things around
Nah, not me. I was schooled in Scotland and everyone in my school was a wiz at mental arithmetic. 
I do remember being able to buy a “rowie” (an Aberdeen morning roll made with lethal amounts of salt and lard) for 3 farthings, though. 
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I think I vaguely remember the table book but I don’t ever recall anyone using one. I do recall shopkeepers using pencil and low quality paper to calculate stuff, though. My family still require me to calculate cooking times, you know, stuff like 20minutes for each pound plus an additional 20 minutes for cooking a chicken.
Edit: We learnt our tables up to 12x as usual plus 14x and 16x which still occasionally come in handy.
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Well, just over 3 years after I started this thread, here I am again, really taking the plunge this time…
After starting SSiW back in September 2018, I got through Level 1 Challenge 1 OK, started Challenge 2, baulked, and decided to carry on with my Kernewek instead, as it was just too hard trying to learn two closely related languages at once. Then in 2019, work got a bit busy so I put Kernewek on hold as well. Then the next year, the pandemic hit, and then a lot of challenges at my workplace, so learning other languages went out the window entirely… 
To get to the point… the short of it is that I’ve recently moved from just outside London to Greater Manchester, and to a new workplace where I’m much happier and more settled than I was before. And now that I’ve discovered that North Wales is less than an hour’s drive from where I live, and I’m currently on holiday for a week in the Conwy area and quickly finding that this country is even more wonderful and fascinating than I thought… well, I shall have to come here a LOT more often, and it would be churlish of me to spend time in Cymru and not speak Cymraeg, wouldn’t it??
So I have now completed Level 1 Challenge 2 — which wasn’t as difficult as I thought after all — and today, at the excellent Palas Print bookshop in Caernarfon, I heard the customers in front of me speaking Welsh to the gentleman behind the counter. So as I was buying a couple more books on Welsh history and the Welsh language, I managed my first shy sentence in Cymraeg: “Dw i’n trio dysgu Cymraeg.” He was impressed, but as I couldn’t understand his reply, we didn’t get any further!! But we had a laugh and I did also manage “Hwyl” and “Diolch” as I left. 
Many thanks again to Aran and Catrin for such an effective and entertaining way of learning the language! I expect to have many more adventures in Cymru — ac yn y Gymraeg!! 
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Da iawn i ti Courtenay. Chons da ha meur ras rag dha gampollasow a-dro dhe gernewek dres an bledhynnyow.
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Meur ras / diolch yn fawr, Davyth! I will still keep up my Kernewek when I can — I have every intention of doing the rest of the official Kesva exams in the future (I’ve only done Grade 1 so far). But Kembra (Cymru) is now much closer to me geographically than Kernow and has so many more opportunities for me to use the native language, so that’s what I want to focus on just for now.
I used the same line (“Dw i’n trio dysgu Cymraeg”) today in the gift shop in Portmeirion, having noticed that the two ladies behind the counter were speaking Welsh to each other when they weren’t serving customers. They also said “Da iawn!”, but again, I couldn’t yet take the conversation further. At least it’s a start. I did also say “Diolch” and “Hwyl” and then “Be seeing you” (in-joke for fans of the cult classic series The Prisoner, which was filmed there) — the latter got a groan out of them!
I’m heading back to Pow Sows (pyth yw “England” yn y Gymraeg? I can never remember) tomorrow, but I’m taking plenty of Welsh souvenirs — including a few handy language books — with me, and I can tell it won’t be long before I visit again…
(Ha Kembra Bys Vykken, yn Kernewek.)
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England is Lloegr in Cymraeg, Courtenay. You should find Cymraeg a lot easier because you have another Brythonic language under your belt. You shouldn’t find mutations much of a problem (and they’re only really important for his and hers anyway), and auxiliary verbs are used even more than in Cornish. Adjectives usually follow the noun, but there are separate masculine, feminine and plural forms for some which take a bit of getting used to. Noun plurals are a bit random, but there are so many similarities that you won’t have any problem. I’m sure you’ll really enjoy learning the language. Are there any conversation groups in your area?
Your answers to some of the queries about SSiC have been a lot of help to people. I’ve chatted to several people who encountered the same problems and had the same questions, and then saw your answers. I started on SSiC in August last year, passed First Grade this year and am now trying Fourth Grade. I’m enjoying using the language so much. Arranging opportunities to practise is so important though.
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That’s it! I knew it was something starting with “ll” and I just couldn’t remember it. How did it get that name, rather than something obviously related to Angles or Saxons — do you know?
Having another Brythonic language (partly) under my belt is usually a big help but not always… so far in SSiW, I’m mostly keeping up with the new words, but because my “default” second language is still Cornish, I sometimes inadvertently throw in a Cornish word when I’m searching my memory for the Welsh one!! The ones I most often come out with are “praktisya” for “ymarfer” and “lemmyn” for “rwan” — I’m not quite sure why. Unfortunately they’re not words a Cymraeg speaker is likely to recognise, so I’ll need to be on the alert once I do start speaking Cymraeg to others, or they’ll wonder where on earth I’ve been learning the language… 
I haven’t yet looked to see if there are any conversation groups in my area. I now live in Sale, on the Cheshire side of Greater Manchester, so it’s less than an hour’s drive to the border. Does anyone here know if there are Welsh-speaking groups in the Manchester area, or along the North Wales coast (which is where I’ve mainly been exploring so far)? I’m guessing they will mainly be online at the moment — COVID restrictions in Wales are stronger than in England at present — but it would be good to practise the language and make some new friends.
I’m glad to hear some of my SSiC answers have been helpful! There’s often so little action in the Cornish discussion forum here that it’s hard to tell how many people are interested at all. Being in Cymru and seeing and hearing the language everywhere is like seeing Kernow as it could have been… and maybe as it could be…
I seem to remember “Logres” being used for King Arthur’s realm in stories.
Sue
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