I’m just coming to the end of Course 2, South (I did Vocab 10 for the first time the other night, but I think it’ll take a few more goes before I’m ready to move on, and perhaps a revision of a couple more of the Vocab units).
But reading all this good stuff about the new Course 1, and the earlier introduction of short forms, has got me wondering. Would it be worth my while going back and whizzing through the new Course 1 before pressing ahead to Course 3, or will I get all the short forms etc. in Course 3 anyway?
Am really enjoying the lessons, and I’m so excited by how well my Welsh is coming along
No idea if it’s worthwhile or not, but I’m about at the end of C2 (done all the non-vocab, although having significant trouble with stuff sticking) and I’m intending going back to do the new C1.
I found that the grammar-type stuff in the main lessons solidified quite a lot as I was working through the vocab units (which are great fun), so do persevere. But there’s a particular vocab lesson that just won’t stick in me, even though I’ve done it about 4 or 5 times (the only word I can remember from it is ‘sylwyddoli’ (sp.?). Might have to do something drastic, like writing the words down (gasp!) to see if the visual element helps me.
Me too (to Sara and wondersheep)… Just finished course 2 and half way through the vocabs. I did try the first half of the new northern course and enjoyed it very much, but the thought of starting again on the southern course feels pretty harsh. It may be possible to whiz through, but it’s still a lot of hours.
I’m guessing Aran will turn up here any minute with a view…
I’m guessing Aran will turn up here any minute with a view…
Now I feel I should be quiet…
There isn’t really a right or wrong answer to this (sorry, I tried being quiet, but it didn’t last). You will get the short forms in C3, but (for my money) you’ll get them in a bit more of a predictable, step-by-step repetitive manner - the new course, by contrast, is a fair bit livelier because it’s focused more carefully on real conversational structures. Having said that, you might find that C3 feels like a good period of consolidation, and the new stuff can be a fun distraction once you’ve finished C3. Either way is fine - if you keep on working through new material (C3 or C1v2!) you’re going to keep on broadening your range of Welsh…
@Steve - just one suggestion - don’t see it as ‘starting again’ - because you’ll be internalising the stuff in the new course against a background of your existing Welsh, so your experience with it (bar the first three or four lessons which should feel mostly too easy) will be like an intermediate learner carrying on developing, not like an intermediate learner going back to being a beginner again…
Thanks! I think I’m going to probably press ahead (as I’m just too impatient to get on with learning more and more, and I would just love to finish all 3 courses before we move to Cardiff), but perhaps go back and do the Course 1 units afterwards (or in between, if I feel I need more time between C3 lessons to help them sink in).
I would expect that having done C2 going back will be a massive confidence-booster, because it’ll be even more apparent just how much one has learned!
I would expect that having done C2 going back will be a massive confidence-booster, because it’ll be even more apparent just how much one has learned!
Mmm… that would definitely be true if you were going back and running through some of the old C1 material - but when you get to it, do bear in mind that the new C1 material was specifically designed to deal with (important) stuff that didn’t get properly covered in the old course - in other words, even once you’ve finished C3, the new material almost certainly won’t feel like ‘going back’!
Aran: do bear in mind that the new C1 material was specifically designed to deal with (important) stuff that didn’t get properly covered in the old course
I can already see this having done L1 yesterday. A short while back I was wanting to say “I’m trying to learn Welsh” and realized I didn’t know the verb to learn. I have just started C1 vocabs, so I plan to go ahead and do the new course. I can still do the vocab units while waiting for the new lessons to arrive.
To me the new C1 feels almost like speaking practice for the old C2, plus some additional structures.
If anyone is worried about all the time it will take, I found that after just finishing the old C1 and the first couple C2 lessons, I could do one or sometimes even two of the new C1 lessons per day and have good results. So it may not be as much of a time investment as you fear.
But it isn’t just about content. The new lessons definitely leave me with that “just off a merry-go-round” feeling much more than the old framework.
Don’t look at it as going back, look at it as practice. You’ll know the vast majority already, but it will undoubtably improve your ability to listen to/speak what you’ve already got.
Diolch, Craig! It’s just like anything you look back at enough years down the line…
That’s a really interesting comment, Jeff, diolch - yes, it definitely shouldn’t be like ‘starting from the beginning’ for anyone who’s already done the old Course 1…
I was at the start of Course 2 when I stopped a few months ago and am now nearing the vocab units of Course 1 on a rerun - including doing the new version of the first six lessons. It’s well worth it, both from the perspective of demonstrating how much I actually still know (or almost immediately recall on hearing the words introduced again) and the new lessons were excellent. It might have taken a few hours but definitely worth the effort.
I’ve finished Course 3 and learnt something new (and very useful) from Lesson 1 of the new Course 1, so I’d say definitely have a romp through the new course. I’m looking forward to doing the rest of the lessons as they are released.
I got two-thirds of the way through course 2, when the new challenges started to come out. I’m pleasantly surprised that they are still challenging, and therefore very enjoyable.
wondersheep: As a mostly incompetent learner of Iestyn-Welsh, how bad an idea would it be to run through the challenges in Aran mode?
I would personally be quite curious to see what you think of the difference in speed between the two. I have to confess that I find the northern version very slow so I prefer the southern which seems to be more of a normal speed of speaking, but I’m sure others have different views.
