Yah, I believe you’re right. It just doesn’t get out of my tongue. “Oedd” seams so strange to me lately … 
Diolch.
And today’s 10/10 for the perfect answer goes to John… 
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As always. He has so much knowledge. I many times feel so tinny in the conversation as my vocabulary is so limited …
Owow … mae ffordd hir i fynd i fi… hir iawn …
As always, you can look at the people ahead of you and feel bad, or look at the people behind you and feel successful…
Or, even better, you can stop looking at other people, and just enjoy using Welsh…
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I should thank you for the oportunity to be right one time in a hundred.
we can practice that phrase on skype till you wish to try something else (it won’t be long).
Cheers J.P.
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Hehe … why I always think to read this as “til you die …”?
Now sirious things … Back to reality.
I just made the newest Challenge of the Southern Lefel 2 Cymraeg de and this was quite of the wakening from the beautiful and magnificent previous week.
Do I hear clapping hands - no not because I’d all of a sudden speak Cymraeg so magnificently well, but because I DIDN’T MEASURE THE WAY THROUGH IT! Yah, I literally forgot to do that and remembered I should do so when I almost finished the lesson., Despite not measuring the “progress” with percentage of right and wrong I actually got myself aware how basic Cymraeg I really use especially when talking in the past tense. There’s no “wedi” and no “esi”, “on i’n”, “gesi” (I don’t know how to spell this properly either) but obviously only “wnes i” exists for me. This might be because in Slovene we have basically only one past tense and many times even in English for me exists only “I have” or maybe “I did” sometimes …
I’m actually surprised how I managed to hold 4,5 hours long conversation almost totally in Cymraeg with such really, really basic knowledge. So much about Slovene welsh speaker who drops from speaker to learner, back to speaker, and learner (very basic one) again …
Don’t get wrong impression though! I’m not beating myself and actually think if people can understand me then it’s OK, but it’s far, far too little for anything else … I’d have to do better and more. Shortenings of all kinds are obviously not my friends (and I’m not theirs. - hehe).
So, yes, I’ve done the newest challenge and, as @Iestyn tends to remind us it is really challenging. I wonder, should I give another go with it tomorrow or should I just drop it and wait for another one to come out? But then … let’s see what tomorrow brings. Who knows, maybe I wake up and just realize I can’t speak anything else but Cymraeg.
We are still climbing the same ladder gyd y gilydd.
Cheers J.P.
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It’s not just you.
I have noticed a tendency in myself to use familiar forms, such as ‘wnes i’ or ‘dw i’ a lot, despite knowing better alternatives. Speaking lags behind listening, so we do what is most efficient, i.e. it requires less thought to say ‘wnes i clywed’, rather than ‘clywais i’. As long as what you say is understood and you can understand others, and have long conversations in Welsh, I don’t think you should be concerned about it. alternatives ways of saying things will come in time.
I’ve started on the Southern way, which is doing my head in. I think “Dwi eisiau mwynhau deud rhywbeth yn Cymraeg”, but try to say “Dwi moyn joio dweud rhywbeth yn Cymraeg” and deal with ‘dweud’ and even ‘Cymraeg’ being pronounced completely differently! I didn’t realise there was such real but subtle differences.
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… “and you can understand yourself …” -hehe.
Sorry I’m trying to stay in jolly mood and entertain myself so my thought was really like this, imagening me speaking and speaking no one understanding what I speak but me …
Now, siriously … I’m kind of releived it isn’t just me doing such simplification rather then going head first in alternatives. Well, I’ve got that lovely book @margaretnock brought me from Cymru and I have no doubt as I read it there will be a lot of oportunities to read/see all of them. So this might help too.
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Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
This stuff would be relevant if you were competing in a public speaking competition. For ordinary conversation, everyone uses their favourite structures!
Umm … well, to be honest, that’s what I had in mind writing this actually (a bit highflying from me though, but still …)
I can hear you!
Oh, I’m actually so happy …
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Not sure why, but I’ve never thought about this before. If in common gogleddol eisiau is used for want, then what is used for “need” - is angen used a lot? would a construction like this be used much? mae angen i ni.
Or would it be (ryd)yn ni’n angen? , rydym angen?
I’ll be listening out on the radio and on TV now, because I haven’t really picked up on this somehow.
The Northern course does indeed use ‘angen’ a lot for need. Yes, it did throw me a little when I heard ‘eisiau i fi’ to mean ‘need’ ! The Northern course also teaches ‘Rhaid i mi’ too.
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I’m used to everything now although angen still sounds a bit strange to my ears. I set myself to make repetition of first course and then I’ll go for northern one but will not only listen but learn aswell. This should do one thing: or confuse me a bit more or teach me some more … I’ll let the time to reveal what happens next.
I didn’t pick up on anything listening to Radio Cymru on the way home from work, but I think I am a selective listener and I tend to switch off when I hear some people speaking. I always thought angen was southern as well, but different sort of need somehow, but now I’m a bit confused.
Well, as much as I remember, angen is not taught in Southern courses/Levels but you’ll hear it a lot especially if you’d talk to more gogled people then de (what mostly happens to me)
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I suppose the simple answer is to listen to a bit of the northern course as many on here have done. I’m clearly a bit in the dark and do feel a little lost when reading some childrens books which are in this form as well. It is probably not an issue to people a bit more advanced than me and I’m sure I’ll get there, with a bit of effort.
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I agree with SSi staff on this - the less you worry, the better. I never woried about speaking with those who speak northern. I always said to myself: I’ll understand at least something eventually …
It all sticks at one particular moment anyway.
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Now …
I wasn’t at any bootcamp, not recently and not ever but the whole happenings of the past weeks seams like I would just return from one …
First @margaretnock visited me in Slovenia and we spoke quite amount of Cymraeg. Well, it was not under strict rule of “Paid siarad Saesneg!” but still I tried to find words in Cymraeg first and then after some struggling or when it was evident I really don’t understand something I resorted to English and so did Margaret, but only for that sentence, or part I just didn’t get at all and it was all back to Cymraeg again (when my husband was not around as I’ve already reported …) Then on I’ve met Simon Brooks in Ljubljana, listened to his reading and even spoke some words after that (what you could also read in todays newsletter (thank you @Deborah-SSi for putting this in. It was pleasant surprise) and in the topic itself). I didn’t work on the lessons too much lately though but I had some reading and listening to three things - a book Margaret gave to me, a listening practice and (some old) Growth Club content. I also still hold weekly chat with @brigitte and (it became quite regular now) (I’ll call it) Sunday evening group chat being it with @ramblingjohn or without him. So, more or less short(ish) activities on the plate every day for me.
And why it seams like I’d just come from the bootcamp? Because I’ve got some after effect too … I hear Cymraeg now even where it’s not spoken at all, mostly when driving on the bus where you can hear many other languages but Slovene. If it’s not English my ears become such as with rabbits when listen carefully as all of a sudden I think I’ve heard fraction of Cymraeg from somewhere … unfortunately only that I all of a sudden realize there was no Cymraeg spoken at all but even ONLY SLOVENE!
So, now with such side effects and slight improvement of my listening and speaking (but not much of understanding) skills I wonder what should I do next? I had a thought of online bootcamp, but happenings at my work turned everything around so this is not an option right now … I’d also not go too intensive for longer time at the moment as these same happenings at work make me (more mentally then physically) very tired.
For now I’ve started to read the “Pedair Cainc Y Mabinogi” which I’ve got from Margaret very sistematically, determing while reading what I really understand and what not and got the idea of slowly translating (yes, very slowly) the book into Slovene since I’ve seen it is (what I actually hardly believe) not translated into Slovene yet. It should be hard work but also kind of fun knowing I will finally get everything written there and understand it …
And I also tend to determine if here in Slovenia I’m really the only who speaks Cymraeg. I’ve got that Anthology of Modern Welsh Literature translated into Slovene that day I was in Ljubljana and have seen bunch of translators who translated the content of the book written there. They’re all important writters, translators, publishers and similar and I wonder really intensively: Did anyone of them translate from Cymraeg or did they all got English translation and translated from there …?
So, many challenges infront of me but really … where am I right now? That’s the question in deed.
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Is the book a translation of an already published book? I’m sure there will be a list of who the translators are and you might be able to do a bit of research on them. Or you could contact the publishers and ask them. There may be some information in the introduction about how it came to be translated into Slovene. 
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