What @Sionned said 
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So that explains Mae hi’n braf then from the course. Thanks!
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OK, putting this on here instead of the music section to ask a quick question regarding
_"Mae ‘Gall Pethau Gymryd Sbel’ yn Trac Yr Wythnos @BBCRadioCymru wythnos hyn! "
(Some Things Take Time: track of the week this week - actually last week now.)
Can I use “sbel” in common speech or will I sound a bit folksy?
If so, do all meanings translate?
I’m thinking of Time, A rest and Taking a turn at doing something.
I don’t think it would sound folksy - I hear it a lot in speech. I wouldn’t use it in the sense of taking a turn at doing something though - that would be tro. In the sense of a period of time or ‘a while’, that’s where it’s used, and some would argue it’s a ‘Welshification’ of the English ‘spell’ in this context (which it could well be, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t entered common useage by now), because there are other ways of expressing ‘a while’.
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I agree with @siaronjames - “am sbel” I’ve heard quite a lot (ages would be the colloquial English). If you don’t like English sounding words (I have no issue with them, chicken and egg springs to mind sometimes ) “amser maith” is another option for am sbel.
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Yes, I’m fine with loan words. Especially well established ones, which might have died back in some parts of England, and yet continue to thrive in Welsh.
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For longer than I should have, I thought the expression “maith yn ôl” (which I had only heard, and not read) was “maes yn ôl”. I knew what it meant from the context, and rationalised it to myself as being a nicely poetic way of expressing the passage of time in terms of distance (the length or breadth of a big old field). How typically poetically Welsh, I thought to myself. But eventually the truth dawned. ŵps. collapse of stout party.
Reminds me of the story my wife tells about her mother, who was a Sunday School teacher at one time. There was a sign on display saying something like “Jesus is here Today”, and one of the little kiddies thought it said “Jesus is here Tuesdays”.
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Not really a match - ‘amser maith’ is a long time, ‘sbel’ is a short time.
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Ah How about - am sbel = for a while
Amser maith = ages
Does that work?
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Yes, more or less - off the top of my head, I’d mostly expect to hear ‘amser maith’ used to refer to time that has passed, but that may just be a frequency thing…
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Noswaith dda
I have a tiny question, too, before dashing off to work. Since I don’t own a credit card, is it possible to pay for the subscription via bank transfer or Paysafe?
Diolch yn fawr 
Not at the moment, I’m afraid - it should be possible to use a debit card - and at some stage we probably need to add Paypal to the mix again, although we’ve had such headaches with them in the past we’re a bit wary of it…
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I’ve finished Challenge 9 (Level 1) earlier today, but I strongly doubt that I came up with 80% of the answers before the teachers. I must admit that I used the pause button several times, I still have blackouts and complete memory fails…and I sure as hell made loads of mistakes…and I’m guilty of having looked up a couple of expressions in the vocabularies during the Challenge.
Would you advise me to repeat Challenge 9 until I get everything right, in order to be able to move forward to Challenge 10?
Diolch yn fawr! 
Please don’t worry about that - that’s old advice - I’m now keen to see people pushing on as far as they can, and embracing making as many mistakes as possible…
So no, I’d strongly recommend that you push on the Challenge 10…
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As many mistakes as possible - well, in this case, I’m your “man”! I will heed your advice and move on to Challenge 10, feeling like a daredevil. Thank you very much for your reply and your help, Aran 
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Excellent - that’s the spirit! 
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You know, I didn’t believe that this is possible, but I’ve started to enjoy not giving a dime on repeating, just having fun learning a beautiful language and actually embracing mistakes, instead of cursing myself for making them! Your approach is cool on an epic level 
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That really sounds as though you’re tuning in to a mindset which is going to lead to great things for you… 
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It’s very kind of you to say this. 
I’m not sure about great things, I’ve given up hoping and wishing, but I sure feel that I’m growing more confident in my ability to learn, to remember and reach the things that I’ve learned. For me, that’s a huge success! Your method to acquire languages in truth guides the learners toward a new, open, relaxed…much more human “un-perfectionist” way to approach learning in life in general. Isn’t it interesting that, not being perfectionist, one gets much more things actually done? 
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