I am happy to say that I am pleasantly working through SSiC (currently on challenge 2, although I’m relistening to the first two currently).
Has anyone finished SSiC? What are you thoughts? Do you feel like a fairly confident beginner/intermediate conversationalist?
I look forward to finishing the course within a month… Maybe a tad bit longer. I was living in Scotland, and I am slightly considering moving to Cornwall… And, ofc, if so, I would join a speakers group.
We’re hoping to have some new stuff out for Cornish before all that much longer - there are some shufflings and rearrangings going on down in Cornwall at the moment, but we’ve got a course creation structure up and running that should let us move much faster, even if it’s without funding…
@aran NICE. I’m loving the Cornish revival going on… I started listening to Radyo an Gernewegva, and I’m having a blast. I can already hear quite a few words that come up regularly enough from lesson 1 & 2.
Thanks for your dedication! Can’t wait to see what’s coming up in the near future for SSiC (and, ofc, the other courses, as well!).
@aran Hey there. This question would be better suited for a different thread, but seeing how you mentioned new material, I want to ask, do you guys plan on implementing anything for those wanting to learn written Cornish? I think I remember some years ago that you guys included something for Welsh… I may be wrong though.
We haven’t done for Welsh yet, but I do have a fairly clear idea now of how we want to go about that step - once we’ve finished our L3 structure, and the dialogue-driven approach we’re going to build for getting to the first 4k most common words, then we’ll put some time aside for the ‘and now, some reading!’ tool…
I didn’t learn Cornish but did listen to some parts of lesson 1. Was interesting though, but all I actually wanted to say is welcome to the forum @naltun since you’ve joined a day ago. This part of the forum sin’t quite crouded though but if you stumble onto problem while learning Cornish or you’re extreamly happy with something related to it, so happy you feel like to tell the whole World about this, you’re welcome to jump in here and say it. Here surely are people who did learn the language or at least started with it and could give you advise. If happy thingy, we’re of course all tuned into hearing it.
I finished SSiCornish last year and have gone over most of it again since. I enjoyed it too, though I must say some of the sentences in the later lessons are quite challenging! But it’s well worth doing.
One thing I would say is that although the first 10 lessons give you the vocabulary and grammatical structures to make some pretty good sentences, there’s not much grounding there (so far) for how to carry on a realistic conversation. You get lots of practice at sentences based on “I want…” / “I can…” / “I need…” / “I like…” etc., but almost nothing when it comes to talking about everyday things like one’s family, work, interests, the weather and so on. So overall, I would say it’s an excellent and fun way to start to learn some basics of Cornish as a spoken language, it really needs to be supplemented (at least as it stands) with other lessons/courses as well.
If you do move to Cornwall, or are just visiting, it’s well worth looking for a Yeth an Werin (informal conversation group). I visited one while I was over there last year and found it very welcoming and lots of fun — although there was also a lot of chatter in English while people were fumbling through their Cornish dictionaries!! Since Cornish isn’t widely spoken as an everyday language (so far), just about everyone is in the same boat when it comes to still being a learner.
Hope you enjoy the rest of the SSiC course! @aran, I’m looking forward to some new Cornish content as well when it’s ready.
By the way, @naltun, if you like Radyo an Gernewegva, you’ll probably also enjoy An Nowodhow — the weekly Cornish language news bulletin on BBC Radio Cornwall. It’s at 5 pm on Sundays, but you can listen to the current and recent episodes any time here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d77s
Also, the script for the most recent episode (with English translation!) is always available to read at http://www.cornish-language.org/annowodhow/an-nowodhow-script.pdf — which makes it a lot easier to follow what you’re hearing and learn a few more words along the way!
And I think you’ll like the new Cornish content when it does get there, because we’re moving it over to the Levels model (which is weighted far more heavily in the direction of interactional language)…
Thanks @tatjana ! That’s real nice of you Sure, I’d love to connect more with the people on the forums, and I’d love to post about Cornish when I’ve stuff to tell.
Hey @aran, I know it may be inappropriate, but is there any… vague answer, even,
that we could have on when the latest material will be out? I know, I may be pushing into the hidden vault of SSi knowledge.
@Courtenay, thanks for the recommendation! I’ll give theirs a try. More Cornish to use, the better.
It’s not so much about hidden vaults as about me being very reluctant to put dates on things that have any element of them out of my control…
Current state of play - we’ve got a new course creation tool, which our Cornish friends need to get used to - the previous lessons were built by hand in a particularly painful process of to-and-fro, translate-and-break, and we needed to move away from that.
So - it might be as soon as a couple of weeks, or as long as a couple of months - sorry I can’t be any more precise than that!
Sounds good, @naltun — thanks for the offer! I’ll be very interested to see (hear, rather) what the new course content is like and how much further it takes us.
I’ll also be attending the annual Pennseythen Gernewek (Cornish Language Weekend) in Newquay next month, so am looking forward to meeting a lot more Cornish speakers and enthusiasts, new and experienced alike! I should also have a chance to meet with the same Yeth an Werin I attended last year. I think most of them will be at the weekend too.
I’ve been learning Cornish for 5 yrs now at evening classes, and getting a chance to actually speak is the biggest challenge. I keep forgetting about SaySomthing - so keep going over lesson 1 and 2! Remembering what I’m being asked to say in Cornish is the hardest - good ‘brain training’ for me! My goal is to complete the whole thing! It’s a good way to really get the structures embedded in my brain.
Even if you have a big gap, try going straight on to 3 next time, without repetition - you’re not meant to have everything perfectly under control - the spaced repetition will help sort it all out as you keep pushing on through the lessons…
By the way, @aran — is there any word on when or if the next set of Kernewek lessons might become a reality? I know we were told there were some in the pipeline, but I understand there have been staffing and funding issues in the way… does anyone know what the situation looks like now?
The people we were working with (MAGA) had their funding removed from the council - lost out in a tender for Cornish language services, I believe - they thought originally that the council would be in touch with us to discuss continuing with SSiCornish, but they haven’t been - so the good folk from MAGA have decided to work with us to keep producing the course without funding.
They’ve accessed our new tool, had some original questions about it, but will probably start to get some new lessons out in the fairly near future - we’re very close to launching our first 18 lessons of Manx, so that’s probably our main focus right now - but it really, really shouldn’t be long before more Cornish makes it way out into the light…
Thanks, Aran. Gosh, that’s good of the people at MAGA to agree to keep producing the course without funding! The Cornish language does seem to be fighting an uphill battle to get funding as well as recognition, I must say.
That’s brilliant that you’re doing Manx now as well! Will Breton, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic be following some time in the future?
Since Cornish isn’t widely spoken as an everyday language (so far), just about everyone is in the same boat when it comes to still being a learner.
Sure, I’d love to connect more with the people on the forums, and I’d love to post about Cornish when I’ve stuff to tell.
I’ll be very interested to see (hear, rather) what the new course content is like and how much further it takes us.