The '5 Minutes' Test - week 6 **Going PINK** šŸ’® (Badges Awarded Mondays)

Can you do it somewhere in private? The ā€˜out loud’ bit is a central part of this step… :slight_smile:

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I know, I know… will try, promise, Sir. Perhaps am chwech o’r gloch yn y bore 'fory, as far away from y gwely as ffossib!

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Or lock yourself in the bathroom with the radio on?

Or just pretend to be on the phone to someone?..:wink:

Or actually call someone!

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Love it @aran - diolch yn fawr iawn. Perhaps I should lock myself in the ystafell ymolchi, turn the :radio: AND call someone whom I won’t have a gath in hell’s cyfle of clywed’ing because of the :radio:being on in the Hinterland :wink:

Alternatively, I’ll just banish fy gwr i for pum munud - much easier. Can’t wait to show the ā€˜test’ to my friend Cheryl yfory. We’re doing one of our weekly ymarfer sessions which is more a question of trying to cement and further her own commitment (she’s flagging somewhat, but refuses point blank to do SSIW; says it ā€˜annoys her’ … hey, I suppose you can’t win 'em all, eh?). We’re both doing Mynediad in a traditional evening class (year 2 now), but she hasn’t got my determination and those gritted teeth you talk about either near the end of Level 2 or in one of the first 3 challenges of Lefel tri/dri…

No, but seriously though, I absolutely promise I’ll do the test aloud yfory and report back with a ā€˜done, not ā€œsort ofā€ā€™ - howzat?:cricket:

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Dw i wedi ei wneud e. (Please feel free to correct this).

That sounds like a deal… :thumbsup:

I suspect this might be a big deal for you, Caroline. Anyone who is into Level 3 has got far, far too much Welsh to be on a Mynediad course - which you may already kind of sense - if we can get you (via the 5 minute test) to stay in Welsh only for an hour, I think you might see it all start to flower… :slight_smile:

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It flowers already if you ask me, just that she didn’t quite realize that yet …

If I wouldn’t be hard at work at my job at 9 am already, hardly having the time to even speak my own language I’d be willing to turn myself into the alien you could call to have the excuse to taok Welsh @carolineparkinson … :slight_smile: But unfortunately I am not in that position though. :slight_smile:

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sort of, kind of (sense, that is). I’m also doing Duolingo and am on Level 23 with that, plus I try to find other online resource/tools/stuff to keep it all fresh, but learning this way is perhaps even more difficult, since it means I’m getting my Welsh ā€œfixā€ in perhaps too many different ways. Maybe I’ve made a rod for my own back. Never mind - carry on regardless. The irony is, if someone says something new to me in Welsh, it completely floors me, to the extent that I sink back down a little (only for a millisecond as I’m an eternal optimist, fortunately) and realise that actually, I’ve got a long, long, long way to go. But hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day and, being a Capricorn, you won’t find more determined than C R Parkinson round 'yere so it’s onward, upward and if necessary, sideways for me! Having recently turned the tender (!) age of 59, I need something to exercise the grey matter and what better than learning Welsh? Unbeatable, it is; absolutely, astonishingly, agonisingly, achingly, amazing! Love it. And love the forum when I get a chance to check in. And, unlike ffrind Cheryl, love SSIW.

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What’s the longest conversation you’ve had in Welsh?

Hmmmm … I know this one …:slight_smile:

From this post energy bursts in all directions and I can actually feel your determination and passion. Da iawn ti! You will do this test tomorrow just fine, believe me. Don’t worry about perceptions of others. I know them about me at my work too but still this doesn’t prevent me to ask someone every morning a question in Welsh like ā€œBore da, sut ywt ti???ā€ ā€œHuh???ā€ and then realization that I’ve told them once already what does it means after what comes the reply ā€œDobrā€ (good) and slight smile on their face … Perceptions gone … :slight_smile:

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thanks @tatjana - there’s nothing like a Capricorn! :grinning:

Agreed! :slight_smile:

A chroeso mawr! :slight_smile:

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Mmmm, seconds, I’m afraid, not even a minute. Dyna Radnorshire i chi. There’s just not that many speakers around and are they available when I am? Are they heck… things are always at the wrong time and in the wrong place. I long for a sort of bwtcamp penwythnos that doesn’t involve a dwy-awr gyrru a aros un wythnos. Something short and sweet ble basai fy gwr i ddim teimlo abandoned - if you see what I mean. Perhaps even just a day of intensive siarad with some Welsh-speakers in a place and at a time and one a date that is when I can make it. I’ve expressed an interest more than once in something they do at the Thomas Shop in Penybont bore ddydd Sadwrn and apparently there’s something similar at CARAD in Rhayader, but word just doesn’t seem to me on when one of these bore coffi or whatever it is are being held. I know, i know, it all sounds like a load of lame excuses. I must get off my butt as our American cousins would say and take control. Find out and get on with it. It’s not going to come to me by the looks of it, so I must go to it, mountains, Mohamed and horses and water all come to mind! So, to cut a stori hir byr (LOL) I wouldn’t even call anything I’ve had a ā€œconversationā€ TBH since that requires at least two participants. First, catch your participant… :grin:

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So the good news is: a huge jump forwards is sitting there, waiting for you, ready to surprise you, as soon as you get yourself into one good long conversation.

Yes, a local intensive weekend would be great, and so on - but seriously, you will get a gigantic kick forward the very first time you put yourself into a one-on-one situation where you commit to using no English for 1 hour.

The ideal would be to find a local Welsh speaker - preferably one you like! - but you’ll get almost all the benefits from doing it over Skype, too, and there are loads of people on here who’d be willing to help you do that… :slight_smile:

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Just made it! EDIT (Jan 20): I did it a month ago but no badge - Do I have to use the word ā€œdoneā€?

Wel @aran dw i wedi neud e. Took me just over two minutes and I asked fy gwr i to ignore me - the mad woman talking aloud to herself the other side of the table am brecwast! He did, I did and all’s well. The only hesitation was ā€˜that I need’ a) I’d anghofio’d ā€˜angen’ and b) it was the ā€˜that’ that threw me. So I thought about a bit and did that one outside of the test conditions, if you see what I mean. Came up with something like ā€˜dyna’r peth ti’n angen’ which may or may not = that is the thing you need…? Suppose I could also have said ā€˜dyna blant i chi’. So, pretty please do I merit a funny red speech-mark thingy with dots in - I value my dots, 'sti. :grinning:

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Hah! Forgot to just say ā€˜done’ - so… Done, done, done, done, DONE, DONE, gorffen, finito’d, finished, accomplished, completed, fait, complĆ©tĆ©, achevĆ©, abgeschlossen, drum-roll, tada, :tada: etc. :hourglass:

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This should go in the ā€˜you know you’re learning Welsh’ thread. I read ā€˜tada’ and wondered why you were calling your father, Tada’ being a ā€˜pet’ form of ā€˜Tad’!!! :smile: :wink:

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Gwych - well DONE! :star: :star2:

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Done it, phew

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