Diolch yn fawr - that’s great encouragement! I have to get through the course until January 2021, so not congratulating myself yet. Cardiff University ASSL library is a gem of a place for Welsh studies. For anyone with a Cardiff Central library card, you can become an associate member of the University library for a small annual fee. That’s what I did to start with. Recommended.
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A MASSIVE diolch from me to @siaronjames, who, when it comes to answering forum questions on grammar, pronunciation, spelling, etymology and so much more, is an absolutely rock solid star.
Siaron continues to give endless voluntary hours to this forum - which would be a much duller and quieter place without her. Her patience and virtual smile are priceless.
Diolch Siaron am bopeth - your friendly contributions to this community are so valuable. 
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Couldn’t agree more, @CatrinLliarJones, but you have to join her weekly show and tell on WSP to find out just how eccentric she is!
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Siaron is a true multi-talented legend! She was one of the members of the band who played at our wedding nearly 15 years ago… boy, does she have some stories to tell… 
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This is extremely random but I’ve been meaning to say it for a while. This website has one of the nicest ways of telling you you’ve put the wrong password in:
I’m afraid the password you entered isn’t the one we have on record for you. Please try again, or click ‘Forgotten your password?’ above.
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It’s the first day of a new decade… a good time for thanking people… I’ve just been sending thank you notes to all our staff… I’d love to try and thank everyone on the forum by name, but that’s very clearly just utterly out of my reach now!
So with your understanding, although I could rattle off dozens of individuals I’d like to thank, I know that would mean missing dozens more equally deserving…
So thank you ALL - thank you for all you contribute to this community, for your passion and enthusiasm and energy and kindness and love. You’ve made this a very special place indeed, and I’m looking forward enormously to being able to put more and more resources into supporting and growing this utterly fantastic community
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Just enjoyed listening to your review, Simon. If you’d like a chat on Slack anytime, let me know. Though no more advanced than you - not being on the 6mws course I’ve been taking the whole thing more casually - I have nevertheless had a good number of 1-to-1 chats on there, which has improved my speaking confidence. I may also be able to help with some suggestions re vocab.
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Just a quick thankyou/breakthrough from me (hoping i’m not too long in the tooth to post).
I stayed up last night watching an interactive live podcast (the Facebook type where you can comment to show encouragement). Hang on, I didn’t realise at the time, but it was all Welsh. I understood every word. hopefully they understood me as well. 
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My long awaited copy of @garethrking’s Working Welsh arrived at last yesterday. It was worth the wait. I couldn’t get on with Colloquial Welsh but this Is quite simply bloody brilliant ! Thank you @garethrking
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I’ve just noticed that @siaronjames has hosted her last, hopefully not for ever, ‘Show and tell’ group discussion via Slack. I know that I haven’t been able to attend these for quite a while now, but I couldn’t let this pass without thanking her and the other members of the group for their support and encouragement. Diolch yn fawr iawn Siaron!!
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Aw, thanks Doug! I’m not planning on it being my last forever, but having to do loads of video meetings whilst working from home is winding Lwcus up even more than usual, so it’s a break for him as much as for me!
And while I’m here, I just want to thank everyone who’s been coming to the Show&Tells over the last nearly two years, especially you and the ‘regular’ gang - I won’t tag everyone but you know who you all are! I’ve seen so much improvement from you guys, so much growth in confidence and vocabulary, and you’ve all worked really hard to make the hangouts so informative and so much fun.
I’ll miss our giggles for the time being, but I’ll be back!
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I only managed three before my microphone gave up, but it was great. Thank you @siaronjames.
Sue
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Have Cymuned finished now… I’m just reading your book and wanted to find out more, but can only see they were in difficulty in 2008?
I’ve been wanting to say “diolch yn fawr” to the SSiW team for a long time now, and this thread seems as good as any.
I started with SSiW in June 2020, after getting frustrated with my inability to actually ‘say something in Welsh’ to the people who were aware that I had started learning on Duolingo.
Anyway, 18 months on, and I’m able to string really useful bits of phrases together, and able to hold up my end of the conversation (big thanks to Phil, my weekly chat-companion, if you’re reading this!).
But what finally prompted me to write here was something that happened in my job-of-work this week…
I work as a GP in England, so opportunities for speaking Cymraeg in my daily work are usually nil ,as you can imagine. But I was fortunate to be asked to make a house-call to someone I had never met before; a lady who had been born in Gwynedd into a first-language-Welsh family, but who had moved to England as an 18 year old (many, many years ago).
When she heard I was a '“Jones”, her first words to me were ‘dach chi’n siarad Cymraeg?’ (she later told me she does this to everyone with a Welsh surname, but is almost always disappointed by their shrug and blank expression).
Imagine her (and my!) delight when I was able to tell her my SSiW story! I don’t mind telling you that we both had tears in our eyes as the conversation went on, as did her daughter who was in attendance.
Was I able to understand every word she said?
Of course not!..she became more & more animated and fluent as she hit her stride, and I kept having to ask her to ‘siarad bach yn arafach, plis’. Did it matter that I didn’t grasp absolutely everything she was trying to tell me? Not one bit! It felt like a beautiful (if occasionally clumsy on my part) linguistic dance…
Anyway, I felt it was a magical moment that I just felt I had to share.
The delight on her face, as she spoke the language of her childhood, in the twilight of her years, will stay with me always, and what a privilege to be able to help her, as her doctor, in her first language.
So, thankyou Aran, Catrin and team (especially Nia, who has taught me along the way too, when I can manage to join a daytime session).
As I’m sure many others can testify; SSiW touches people’s lives in amazing ways.
Nadolig llawen i chi i gyd.
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That’s absolutely marvellous Thomas, da iawn ti! I’m tagging @aran, @CatrinLliarJones, @Deborah-SSi and @nia.llywelyn in case they don’t spot this straight away (not sure which Phil to tag, otherwise I’d tag him too!) - I know they’re all going to be so happy to read this.
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I had tears in my eyes reading that! If you did nothing else with your Welsh, that moment would have made it all worthwhile! Fantastic!
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