(HAHA! I believe he knows that. )
I know itās not it anybodys particular interest, but Iāll post this anyway.
Iāve just finished the next set of 7 lessons of Level 2 and so here is some statistics ā¦
- C8 = 34 %
- C9 = 32 %
- C10 = 25 %
- C11 = 34 %
- C12 = 52 %
- C13 = 43 % and
- C14 = 36 %
Overall impression C8-C14 = 37 % and overall Level 2 impression is 33 %.
However this isnāt partucilarly shown during Skype sessions as I found myself in a silence of the members of the chat group when I finished talking what is pure sign to me that people actually had to think very hard to understand what I wanted to say as they couldnāt quite understand me though. So a long way still to go and a lot of work still has to be done ā¦
Today Iāve also started going though the whole material again, this time no percentage mesuring. Iām happy with the beginning as Iāve said everything before Iestyn and Cat and the lesson was made 100 % correct.
Ja, ja ā¦ someting is wrong, isnāt it? Well, it was 1st Lesson of Course 1 anyway and I believe this one I should repeat with high rate even if Iād be awaken in the middle of the night.
And, no, itās not complaining itās just doing some (not too interesting though) report wiht the facts.
Waiting to the next set of lessons to come out. Will make them as they come and see what happens next.
Which might have been because you made mistakes, or it might have been because you used words/structures correctly that they didnāt understand - so it would be pointless trying to assess your Welsh on those grounds.
Meanwhile, I can tell you that your Welsh is understandable - and you know in your heart that those 50% or near marks for 12 and 13 in Level 2 is a huge, huge achievement, and a sign that you are continuing to progress successfully towards genuine conversational fluencyā¦
Well, I know this is it. Many times after Iāve told something I canāt understand even myself and I often ask āDid you understand me at all what I wanted to say.ā But then, of course it comes the time to clear things again more carefully, slowly and with some other words which come on my mind. Yah, many times I mix structures also and say the first what I should the last etc, etc. Iām aware of my mistakes itās just that silly moment āfirst act then thinkā instead of opposite way.
Bydda iān wella! Dwiān swr.
Diolch yn fawr iawn. Iām doing my best ā¦
No, you donāt, Tatjana - other learners are allowed to be uncertain too, you know! When I speak to a group of learners, there will often be āer, not sure we understood thatā pauses - itās entirely normal. Some of the pauses you get will be because you werenāt clear, but some will be because your fellow learners didnāt understand something that would have been clear to a fluent speakerā¦
I couldnāt agree more. My speaking partner is a native speaker, so you really canāt get more fluent or correct than that, and sometimes after he speaks to me I just stare at him because I simply donāt know the words he is saying, and Iām afraid to be annoying if I start asking to translate every single word.
Yup and it goes oposite way too - thatās what I thought. I sometimes speak so confusing that at the end my thoughts are āUmmm ā¦ what did I say at all?ā
But, again, what weāre talking here about is not coming from my frustration but simple fact. Iāll get along with that if others can bear my mixy wixy thingy said quite often ā¦
Iām happy and I donāt complain, just say.
And, yes, @stella, just to let you know that you were highly missed by all on group Skype chat last time we did it. So I hope I hear you soon again.
I donāt find what you say confusing at all, I understand you very well almost every single time you say something. Maybe someone doesnāt understand you because of the God-De differences, maybe they are not familiar with the words youāre using yet, itās not all about how well you speak.
Thank you:) I made up for missing our group chat by having a three-hour Welsh-Russian conversation yesterday, it was lots of fun and at the end speaking English seemed very strange to meā¦
As ever the SSiW advice of ādonāt worry about itā. We are all learners, so are not quite up to fully understanding at spoken speed, actually it is useful if someone says roughly the same thing several times as then I am more likely to able to pick up an understanding of what you are saying. Quite often I was thinking of how to reply in Welsh, itās challenging as you are thinkign both about the language and the conversation, so we are doing two things at the same time. When anyone speaks for an extended period of time, there is a tendency to think about part of what someone said and then miss the next thing they say. The thing is we do understand you, but our own understanding isnāt perfect.
What I am finding with the Skype sessions and listening to the radio is ānot to worryā about understanding every word and phrase, but listen to the gist and gain some understanding of the whole sentence. for example I was listening to an interview with a musician on the radio, I would hear the word āeinā or āniā and instead of concentrating on how they use the structure instead to just go 'oh they are talking about āweā as in the band and allow myself to pick up the gist of what they were saying, such as where the music was recorded.
And then comes the music ā¦
Yesterday, writing on Skype to @Y_Ddraig_Las I all of a sudden relized I totally forgot to use negative structures. Itās for quite some time like they wouldnāt exist at all. I mean ā¦ just look at those sentences! Theyāre horrible.
Mae fe ddim yn dod wnaeth fo sgwynny ar y fforwm. ā¦ ā¦ Mae fe ddim yn dod wnaeth fo sgwynny ar y fforwm.
I wonder if poor āDraigā understood at all what I wanted to say ā¦
And I recall this is happening for quite a long time. I can say everythign when doing lesson but when I talk or write, it all vanishes away like it would never exist.
They may have not been perfect, but I understood what you meant, which is the main thing!
Yeah, just one slight catch here to stop you beating yourself up, Tatjana - which is that LOTS of first language speakers use very casual negatives exactly like thatā¦
Oh, thank you @aran! Releiving thing. Well I donāt beat myself but Iāve just realized what Iām actuall ydoing, probably as it sounds more neutral to me (apart from forgetting negatives almost entirely when I speak in conversations).
More then frustrating I actually found this finding interesting though and actually posted it to get some feedback if maybe some more people tend to do so.
Iāve re-done Lesson 9 of course 1 today and just realized how hard it was for me doing it for the 1st and 2nd time to switch from āhiā and āfeā to āciā or ācathā when there was needed to say āMaeār hen ci ddim yn moyn cysguā¦ā or similar sentences. Now, they just flow out of my mouth like totally normal thing.
Yah, how times change and knowledge is just here one day ā¦
Just a bit of update on my (yah) progress (not much of it but OK) and a question ā¦
With my re-doing the lessons Iāve come to Lesson 15 of old course. Yup, Iām doing it easy way now. Iāve discovered that I still have kind of (tinny) problem with saying possessives as in āMaeār llaeth gyda hen gaeth.ā My brains just seam to have slight problem with switching from āpersonā to be on the first place to the thing they possess. As long as hereās āfeā or āhiā itās quite natural and OK, but when talking about particular being, like ācaethā, āciā and similar having (possessing) something I have to put more effort to go with that. āllaethā seams obviously to be less important then ācaethā. - hehe
But besides that I caught myself trying to put sentnce in the present tense in pasive rather then active form (not taking into considderation we didnāt learn pasives at all) and since the Cymraeg word to add is missing trying to force german one into the sentence (for who knows what reason), hereās one more issue rising up.
I use āMaeān rhaid i fiā quite many times but I many times am tryint to use it when using past tense, never being sure if this is possible at all. Then I say sentence in present tense despite it should be in the past according to what I want to tell.
Is there any way to put the āMaeān rhaid i fiā form into the past at all or my atempts are totalyl wrong? (Yah, inventing, inventing ā¦ )
[size=11]I know, I know ā¦ I said I wonāt discuss grammar anymore, but this one I just need to know.[/size]
Thank you.
My gess āoedd rhaid i miā
Cheers J.P.