it was good speaking with you. I hope my sales patch was useful. I’ll speak with you again sometime 
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Superb work the pair of you! 
Would love to hear any extra detail about how the day went for you - highs and lows kind of stuff - otherwise, it sounds as though you had the kind of experience I would have expected, and will get all sorts of knock-on benefits from it… 
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Hi Aran; I’ll say that this day may have been colored by my feeling ill, and, as I said above, my two-year-old reigning havoc, so I had a sense of despair at first like, “Oh no, I’m not going to learn anything, will this be a waste of time?” But because I had committed to a day with Conor, I decided to push through and have faith in the process. I figured I could do at least six, even if I had to take breaks to ransom my lap top in-between Paw Patrol sessions and some fitful napping. I started feeling better toward the evening (after two ibuprofens and one for good luck!) and was able to concentrate better but felt like I’d missed some big parts from previous challenges. Things I would have liked to have grasped and had an understanding of before moving on to more complicated things. I finished the 2nd Challenge of Level 2 and feel like there are some linking words and phrases that sound like gobbledy-gook to me and whose function I do not know yet.
When I go back now and look at the transcripts for the listening sessions, I can pretty much read everything. So the Welsh-to-English muscles are working okay, but the English-to-Welsh ones are in need of more practice. Dw i angen ymarfer muy acos dw isio gwella yn llawer!
As I said, I would like to do another intensive day, perhaps when I am feeling better and can negotiate childcare with my husband (most likely a weekday).
Feel free to ask me any questions and to pry further into anything mentioned above!
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*I should also add that I often couldn’t get the whole phrase out before the model, and that I stopped as soon as the model sentence came on so I could listen and absorb. Sometimes I would only mentally say something. This may have handicapped me, as saying something out loud gives the added benefit of hearing myself say it, though I was definitely putting sentences and phrases together in my mind during the silences and switching to listening carefully for the model sentences. I also rarely–if ever–use the pause button.
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The day for me started with excitement, this was mixed with some thoughts of would I make it through the day.
First 2 challenges of the day I was being challenged but felt optimistic about the task in hand.
Challenges 3 and 4 of the day I knew I was being pushed hard, getting my sentence structures mixed up mostly.
Challenges 5 and 6 of the day I was getting some structures close to the model. Others I was only getting some words in the sentence out.
Challenges 7 and 8 of the day my issues here was overthinking. Always saying something but my brain knew the words sometimes. Other times the words had disappeared. I always got some words out that were correct.
Takeaway from today has been I trust the process when I feel out of my depth. I trust the exercise today will all fall into place at a later date. Possibly improving my ability some what if not a lot.
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Fascinating feedback - thank you both so much
Christie - the fact that you find the Welsh recognisable strongly argues that the learning process is working, even for the bits that you felt out of control with - so I would expect the bits that still sound impossible to you will sort themselves out over the coming challenges (and I recommend you don’t do any repetition at this stage, so that you can find out for yourself if spaced repetition works for you even in the face of exhaustion!).
I have one very slight concern about what you say about not getting the whole phrase out before the model - if you mean mostly for the longer sentences, my concern vanishes - and not getting the whole phrase means you say several words each time and only miss the closing details, that also removes my concern - but this is an important area, because if you’re drawing a blank more than every now and again, you need to start catching them by using the pause button more.
My instinct tells me you’re just getting the classic ‘run out of time’ stuff - which isn’t a problem - especially since you’re a non-pauser, which means that in general your brain is operating very quickly with this stuff… But - worth checking, since this is a key point…
Conor - that sounds superb - I would expect you to be feeling tired and losing control by the end of the day, but it’s clear that you kept on pushing, and I know from experience that even stuff which feels entirely out of control still contributes to the learning process - so keep on pressing on, and you’ll start to recognise the new items becoming more familiar for you…
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Thanks for advising, Aran! Yes, I usually run out of time but it’s good to get the confirmation that on a tired day, if I need to, it’s better to pause so I can get something out rather than not.
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Hi I live in St Asaph and would love to meet for a coffee and a chat I’m only on course 1 level 6 though?
Stephanie
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Yeah, we could definitely meet up.
I don’t have a car, so it would have to be somewhere buses can go. 
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