Thanks Stu.
I agree. The errors usually come when old/young is at the back end of a long sentence. I generally have no problems remembering the whole sentence but I do sometimes forget whether I was dealing with an old or young person. I’m pretty sure the mistakes only come because of the length of the sentences and the speed with which they have to be translated especially when I do not allow the pause button to be an option.
I’m glad I’m not alone in this. 
Well, it’s pointless to moan (no progress again but rather step backwards) but I’ll say it anyway …
It seams like I stuck in every Course or Level I do in the middle of it and can’t go any further. I’ve got stucked in Course 1 and hardly came thorugh the material (I forgot 3/4 of all learnt already), I’ve got stucked in the middle of Level 1 and rather started Course 2. Vocab lessons with Course 1 were killers and I don’t know 90 % of what I’ve learnt anymore and now here we go again, got stucked again in the middle of Course 2. It’s obvious that everything I learn slips through my brains and drops who knows where, lost for eternity …
I won’t cry for help as it obviously is no help for me at all. I will also refrain from further moaning either. This writing is only to drop burden off my soul and nothing more. (so you can ignore the whole thing).
Sorry,I might be stupid, but I don’t see the point/difference inbetween “sid yn” and “pwy sid yn” (“pwy si’n” (or how it should be written as shortening)). Both is who according to my knowledge so why the different “style” of it?
Yah, yah, I’m at that “unlucky for some” 13th Lesson of Course 2 …
Heia Tatjana,
Pwy sy’n…? is a question “Who is…?” with Pwy? meaning Who?
sydd yn / sy’n also appears in sentences such as Dw i’n nabod rhywun sy’n gallu siarad Cymraeg - “I know someone who/that can speak Welsh.” Note that this translation is just the English rendering of the Welsh, not a word for word one. The sy’n here is fulfilling a grammatical function that I will not pretend to be able to explain. Go with it, and it will all become very natural with practise! (Where have you heard that before ;-))
Hwyl,
Stu
Well done Stu, you wrote what i had been pondering how to put into words as an answer.
Am i right in thinking if i wrote :Dw i’n gwybod un ci sydd yn (sy’n) gallu (medru) siarad cymraeg".
the sy’n gallu could also be translated as “which is able”.
Cheers J.P.
Tell us more about this “ci” 
I have a fortune I never translate word for word. Such translation brings you nowhere at the end. At least this I’ve learnt with learning languages …
I understand this part, but what confuses me is this for example.
“Maen nhw’n gwybod pwy sy’n byhafio yn da.”
This is affirmative sentence and not question.
Dwi’n nabod un ci sydd yn gallu canu. !
Bringing this topic to the top of the forum again you might expect something positive being written newly, but you’d be disappointed so if you’re not in the mood to read moanings of mine (again) you better stop reading here.
Diolch.
For all the rest …
I’ve gone through the 1st daily speaking practice (southern) for the whole course 1 just some minutes ago but what I actually found out is that I CAN’T SAY almost ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. In the whole pack of sentences I managed to form only about 2 or 3 so this makes me questioning myself: Is there any point to continue learning at all? What would you do being in my position, being aware you have practically zero chances to practice with real people in real life and you probably will never have any?
I can actually only cry upon myself (and I did) because I remember times when there was no problem to learn a language no matter how little practice I could get, bearing in mind that in time I’ve learnt all those languages I know (English, Italian, German, Serbo-Croatian) there was no Skype to practice or it was unaccessable to us (at least to me).
I know I’ve put this question (even in this thread maybe) many times but this last knwledge of how uncapable I am to remember things (obviously) made me really think, wonder and cry.
And … as always … you don’t need to give any answer if you’re already tired of my moaning. I’ll undertand.
All learning has its ups and downs of course, Tatjana, it is rarely a straight path to the end. I’d wager that you will have a better experience in a few days time - certainly if you can’t remember anything at all at the moment 
.
As to the question if there is any point in continuing your learning journey, only you can answer that, but remember that there are many opportunities to use your spoken Welsh via social media (Skype, Hangout to name the obvious). And you’re lucky that you live relatively close to Wales 
How did you learn your other languages? Is it possible that the method you use for your Welsh now is so different that you merely think you can’t remember things - possibly because you don’t get to rely on visual clues? I can tell you from personal experience that you will remember things in the long run!
Well, @louis thank you for the answer, but this “long run” seams already too long to me. 3 years (or even more) and there’s nothing to be shown regarding speaking … can’t imagine how much longer run I really need. I’m furstrated with the fact that many of you are learning only for a year or even less and you speak far better then me (I can bet on this and I won’t loose that one). I admit I don’t practice via any social media right now because my computer is pure junk and I don’t do many of the stuff the others do but still here should be some progress to be shown, but there’s none.
Umm … well … but if you have a dream as I had this night, in which I talked more then fluently in Cymraeg and it was even with famous person, this just has to be a kind of sign, hasn’t it?
Oh, and @louis visual clues don’t mean much to me as I don’t see well. Actually I’m generally very pleased with SSi way exactly for this reasno. They don’t offer learning by the images and visualization. I’ve gone through such process and found out I many times can’t even see what is on the picture and don’t recognize what picture “wants to say” actually. If SSi would decide to go this way (way of visual learning) I wouldn’t be here at all unfortunately.
Hi @tatjana I have been trying to learn Welsh for quite a while. My profile on the forum says I joined January 2013 but I thought it had been longer. My spoken Welsh is still not good at all. I started with the original course one got to lesson eight or nine but that was after having stopped several times gone back a few lessons moved forward a little stop again and repeat. Then when the new challenge course came out it seemed to click better with me and I am now just about to start challenge 18. However I still can’t hold a conversation with someone my mind goes blank and I get scared that what I can say has no relevance. Oddly all this comes when I live in Wales and I am able to attend a monthly group of Welsh speakers and learners.
I do know that with practice and belief in myself that I can do it and one day eventually I will manage more than bore da when I see someone I know before the brain freezes up and goes into panic mode thinking he’s not going to want to know I like this book or that film and I saw a few friends which is what I’ve just been learning and not at all relevant to a chance meeting.
By the sounds of it you have mastered other languages so you can master Welsh, Skype or similar would of course be beneficial but belief in yourself is a good start.
Thank you @theresacorbett for your encouraging words, but sad thing is I’ve gone though much more material then you describe here you did.
I’ve made whole old Course 1 and all vocabs + Bonus 6 lesson, I’ve gone through Level 1 all the way to Challenge 15 where I stopped and rather went back to old Courses, this time to Course 2. At the moment I’m at Lesson 15 but I see it goes harder and harder (I can’t expect it would be easier and easier of course). I have to say that comming to the Lesson 15 of old Course 2 I would probably go through Level 1 more easily now as in Course 2 a lot of things you start in Level 1 with are explained much slower and easier way (at least for me more understandable one). So, you see, I didn’t go through so little of material. I also did listening practice of Level 1 after Challenge 5 and then I took listening practice after Challenge 10 Northern as for southern course there are no double speed listening pracitces yet.
Of course all this time repetition of Course 1 was needed, not one but two times and stucking at Challenge 10 in new Level 1 pushing forward anyway all to the Challenge 15, going back to Challenge 10 again and pushing forward again did no good to me.
I have to say I never did any vocabulary lists or something like that though, but I created Anki flash cards instead and studied them occassionally (when I thought words slipped out of my mind). It helped a bit but not much.
But what really made me writing previous post was the fact that I couldn’t do anything in Daily speaking practice 1 from Course 1 which I should be prety comfortable with now already. I still have a problem with long sentences structures and speaking practice 1 for Course 1 (whole course) this week is mostly consisted with long structures. There are maybe 3 or 4 short sentences all the rest are long ones and that’s why I practically couldn’t say anything at all.
However I believe I am not able to speak at all. Having 3 (or so) practices over Skype my conversation about an hour long was (if I count in minutes) maybe about 5 or so minutes in Cymraeg (not in whole but in parts), all the rest it was English. If I would be asked (as in bootcamp) no other then Cymraeg is allowed there would probably be silence from me. I can think in Cymraeg what is prety interesting. I can make conversation in my head but when comes to say a word my head becomes blank or words from other languages come to my mind.
I’m not afraid to talk though and my brain doesn’t panic but there is simply a bla(n)ck hole which obviously consumes all knowledge I have (or had if you want). The interesting thing is this never happened with any other language I’ve learnt what frustrates me even more. And in other languages I didn’t have any live practices except for occassional talk to the people, what happened maybe once or twice a year and still happens so rearly or even never at all. For example I speak English maybe once a year normally only now I speak more as I do those Skype conversations but I still speak quite fluently although with strange accent (at least native speakers say that I actually talk quite strangly)
Yah, yah, when I learnt all other languages I was way younger then I’m now but hearing so much about it’s not actually important for learning languages how old you are this shouldn’t be the case.
I only have one person to practice via Skype with now, all the rest (only one another person) I let go and gave up conversing with as I still believe I’m time eater and I can’t expect from people to waste their valuable time with me ending talking English at the end. I believe I’m too demanding what concerns time toward other people to ask anyone to deal with me on any messenger, Skype, Hangout or whatever … But that’s another story already.
It’s time for me to stop moaning but I just have to admit I’ve lost momentum and am at the very edge to stop learinig and let everything go although I know deep in my mind I wouldn’t want to do so and would regret it later. However I can’t help myself anymore. Any idea how could I gain this momentum back?
For any idea I’ll be more then happy.
Unfortunatelly I can’t chat via Skype at the moment and it will probably be so for a while as my computer “died” and I am on real pice of junk right now until I buy something new so at the moment this is not an option.
Why I don’t go and buy something? When I’ll buy new pice of machinery it should be STRONG not even to perform Skype and video chats but to be able to render 3D scenes and animations I’ve created in 3D modeling programs reasonably fast so that’s the reason for waiting.
Diolch yn fawr iawn.
Heia Tatjana,
Losing momentum is very easy to do, and can be hard to regain - I know, I’ve been there. For me, getting it back was about setting myself small, easy goals (to start with) - remember a particular phrase or structure or verb(s) or whatever, write a sentence in Welsh, post a message on FB in Welsh, anything else you can think of, as long as its doable and not ambitious (yet). Ticking off these small, easy goals on a regular basis shows that you can progress, no matter how slowly. Gradually, you can begin to stretch yourself more and more with your mini-goals - but I mean gradually, not suddenly setting a goal of holding a 30 minute conversation entirely in Welsh (at least, not just yet). The main thing is to stop beating yourself up. As a lone learner far from Cymru, it was always going to be a big challenge to learn Welsh; you have to accept that - celebrate what you can do and smile about what you find hard or think you can’t do. This goal-setting thing is really important (I believe) in overcoming loss of drive, learning plateaux and other obstacles to progress. As you build on your baby-step goals, the momentum will build as well, until you find yourself moving ahead naturally - at least until you hit the next barrier .
You know you can learn languages, as you have several under your belt. Stop being a perfectionist (hard I know). Be determined. Set small, incremental and easy goals to start with. Dal ati.
Hwyl,
Stu
Back to the basics said one musician this morning to me when I asked him what should I do to regain the momentum. (He knows I’m learning Cymraeg). Could this be an option?
Diolch.
And thank you @essenbee for your kind reply. Will try to do so.
I think that this wouldn’t be the optimal learning experience, but if you want to try ‘back to basics’ to make you feel better about how much you’ve learned, you could go back to the very first lesson of Course 1. If you manage it better than you did the very first time you did it (which you certainly will), you’re winning.
Yah. It might not be an option as I’ve done this already twice. It was approximately the saeme every time (or I am not able to measure my own progress or failure anymore, who knows).
Gee … I don’t know myself being so frustrated and willing to quit in my life and reading posts here from people who are older then me, this surely couldn’t be related to getting older. …
I really don’t think so, Tatjana. Disappointment with progress, uncrossable bridges, even setbacks happen at any age and possible depend more on how critical you are of yourself than how you are actually doing. You’ve had some very sound advice in this thread and I’d just like to add something from my own experience.
I’ve been helping and motivating my neighbour (approaching her 80s) to learn Welsh along with me for some time now and she often feels deflated and dissatisfied with her progress. My advice to her then is unconventional. Give up, I say! I immediately add, however, that she should only give up until she feels rested and remotivated. I let her know that I make my best progress when I’m having fun.
Although none of us know you and your circumstances, I would add my voice to the general consensus and suggest you stop beating yourself up about your progress. Ti’n gwneud yn gwych - dal ati. 