Hello, everyone! My name is Sasha Quickstar (Sasha is fine ) and I live in Sacramento, California in the United States. I found out about SSiW on the DuoLingo forum some time back and did my first challenge about two and a half weeks ago. I have been on a journey of self-discovery after my birth-motherās adoption records were unsealed following her passing three years ago - we were both adopted and she never knew where we came from, therefore neither did I. Now, after forty years, I can begin to learn about my origins and start to feel some connection to my past. Finding Welsh ancestry in my genetic genealogy research led me here to you all.
I am absolutely dumbfounded at how much I have learned in such a short time, even though I feel like I am plodding along rather slowly due to my desire for perfection (Iām doing much better with that now @aran) as well as the short-term memory issues related to complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Nonetheless, I am making progress, however slowly! I have completed Challenges 1 - 9 in Level 1, and I am in the process of repeating 5 - 9 (without the pause button! ) to aid me in retaining what I have learned before moving on to Challenge 10. In fact, I feel like I have made a LOT of progress in just those few lessons! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the amazing course, and also for making Level 1 free to learn. I am so very grateful.
While I am on the subject of gratitude, I also want to express how much it has meant to me that everyone in this forum has been so kind, welcoming, and helpful. It has been a difficult year and a half for me, during which time I have had to make the tough choice between having hurtful friends that were little better than enemies, or having none at all. I went with the latter, and it has been mostly me and my cat ever since - and my little twin nieces who are five years old now, when I am fortunate enough to see them. It has been lonely to say the least, and it was really hard for me to open up and talk to people, even in the relative safety of an online forum such as this. You all have been so wonderful and you have renewed so much of my faith in humanity.
I donāt have words to express just how much it has meant to me and Iām afraid my eyes might āleak,ā so I will just repeat: Thank you and diolch! I hope all of you have a wonderful end to 2018 and a beautiful and hope-filled New Year!
Croeso Sasha-Lathrop. Youāve made great strides in such a short period of time! And I agree this forum and itās members are amazing and incredibly helpful. These people are the primary reason for my continuing passion in the language. Itās great fun to watch tv shows in Cymraeg and understand whatās being saidā¦wellā¦at this point, I understand about 20%-30% but Itās a great learning opportunity to hear conversations and let my Welsh-ear hear conversations at normal speed.
Like you, Iāve spent a lot of time talking to my pet; in this case my dog. He knows wait = aros and come here = dere fan hyn. My biggest challenge is finding someone to speak with. I was lucky that Delaware has a Welsh Society that I joined and we speak to one another each week. I did find a Welsh-American Society of North California http://wasnc.org. I couldnāt find a group in Sacramento, sorry.
Wow! Thank you so much for finding that! Most of it seems to be San Francisco Bay Area, but that is only a couple hours drive from here. Hopefully next year my health will improve and then my income will hopefully improve along with it so I can start trying to go to some of their events!
My cat isā¦ well heās a cat so itās a lot harder to tell when he understands, but I am convinced he loves to be praised with a simple āDa iawn Buddy!ā when he does something extra special. Heās been learning to give me snuggles and nose boops (kitty kisses) when he wants to go for a walk on his leash and harness rather than yowling around the house, so he getās a LOT of praise from his mama!
Sasha, it sounds youāre doing great with the challenges!
And hey, thanks for being part of the forum - you write a lot of interesting things and I really enjoyed talking to you (with posts, but thatās communication too as far as I can tell)!
At this point Iāve only learnt how to wish a joyful X-Mas in Welsh, so Iāll stick to English until someone else enlighten us with their wisdom!
Happy and joyful, and welshful (!) New Year to you!
Awww, thanks! I agree, this is definitely communication and I have enjoyed talking with you and reading your posts as well! Keep up the good work on your Welsh learning quest!
Thank you! I have a good feeling about this yearās Welsh learning challenge with all of you on my side.
Well done! And keep on pulling your perfectionism towards āembracing the perfection of making lots of mistakesāā¦
Iām sorry youāve had such a tough year - but extremely pleased that youāve found this lovely community, and that itās been a positive place for youā¦
Thanks! The funny thing is, as an ESL/EFL teacher I give the very same advice to my students, knowing perfectly well what a tall order that can be!
I went for my first walk today where I spent around 5 minutes talking to my cat in Welsh and looking at the world around me naming everything I could yn Gymraeg. I praised my cat because he was being so sweet and good-tempered on his leash: āDa iawn Buddy! Dw iān meddyl bod tiān gwneud yn dda iawn! Diolch yn fawr Bubba!ā
When taking a cat on a leash, I have found it best to set boundaries then go pretty much wherever they want to go so I would say to him āBle wyt tiān moyn mynd? Dw iān moyn mynd gyda ti!ā
I gave a leaf in the grass a little nudge with the toe of my sneaker and said ādail.ā I watched the bird singing in the trees and said āBore da, aderyn!ā
The whole experience made my right eye leak for real this time, and my left one too a little bit because It made me feel so happy. Thanks to everyone who has helped me reach this point so quickly and with such a joyful heart!
That sounds as though you are definitely full speed ahead now
And itās worth noting that what you said to the cat (and indeed the bird!) was exactly the same as a Welsh speaker might have said - so for those lovely little moments, you already were a Welsh speakerā¦
Well, Iāve done it! Iāve finished Level 1! I can hardly believe how much Iāve learned. Dwiān hapus, hapus iawn gyda faint dw i wedi dysgu yn barod! Diolch yn fawr iawn, pawb! Thanks everyone for all the support thus far, and on I go to Level 2 next week!
Another big milestone reached, Sasha - well done! And I hope that your health is improving as well, and that you and your cat are enjoying Welsh walks in the sunshine. Dal ati! (Keep at it!)
Thanks @BronwenLewis! Iām feeling pretty good about getting this far.
Bubba Moon and I are doing pretty well, still learning Welsh together on our walks every day!
I havenāt forgotten we were going to chat on Slackā¦ My confidence speaking with people is still not as strong as Iād like (the anxiety wipes my memory temporarily), but I would really like to give it a try sometime if youāre up for itā¦ If I freeze up, Iāll find a couple of lines in my notes to read until it passes or something.
Dw i 'di cwpla! Thatās it, Level 2 and the 6-month course are complete and in the books! I finished Challenges 24 and 25 today, and my brain loved it! I am looking forward to seeing what Level 3 and the Deep End have in store, and I am still excited for Monday! Diolch yn fawr iawn, pawbā¦ diolch o galon!!!
) and I live in Sacramento, California in the United States. I found out about SSiW on the DuoLingo forum some time back and did my first challenge about two and a half weeks ago. I have been on a journey of self-discovery after my birth-motherās adoption records were unsealed following her passing three years ago - we were both adopted and she never knew where we came from, therefore neither did I. Now, after forty years, I can begin to learn about my origins and start to feel some connection to my past. Finding Welsh ancestry in my genetic genealogy research led me here to you all.
) as well as the short-term memory issues related to complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Nonetheless, I am making progress, however slowly! I have completed Challenges 1 - 9 in Level 1, and I am in the process of repeating 5 - 9 (without the pause button! 
) to aid me in retaining what I have learned before moving on to Challenge 10. In fact, I feel like I have made a LOT of progress in just those few lessons! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the amazing course, and also for making Level 1 free to learn. I am so very grateful.
Sasha Quickstar
Heās been learning to give me snuggles and nose boops (kitty kisses) when he wants to go for a walk on his leash and harness rather than yowling around the house, so he getās a LOT of praise from his mama!
Iām feeling really good about my progress! 
