Great to meet-up with everyone!!! Looking forward to hearing more stories about the week…
I didn’t have time to find this thread before the Bootcamp, although I had made one or two comments in the thread on the proper forum, sorry, the old forum 
so I had announced that I was coming in a vague sort of way…
…
John knew I was coming, as we are by now old G+ buddies, and occasional Meetup buddies, and he very kindly offered to give me a lift, which he did in splendid style, so once again, diolch yn fawr iawn for that John.
I can only echo what John said…what an incredible week, even if I didn’t know what was supposed to be going on for quite a lot of it, as much of the Welsh went right over my head. Still highly enjoyable though, and very very interesting to hear quite a lot of Welsh which wasn’t quite what I’d been learning on the Gog course. After talking it over with Iestyn, I’ll probably be doing the Southern practices (certainly the listening ones) as well as the Northern ones, and will probably have a go at the Southern New Course 1 (as well as doing the Northern one, which is really growing on me, by the way).
Fantastic to meet you all, and fantastic to actually be speaking “Welsh in the Wild” for a whole week. I’d say that just about everyone I inflicted my very poor Welsh on - in the shops, cafe’s, street, etc, was kindness itself, and very happy to go along with it, and often very helpful as well.
So if anyone is still in fear and trepidation about giving it a try (as I was) please don’t be put off - just go out there and do it whenever you get the chance. It’s great!
@Helen: Sorry I didn’t get chance to say “Hwyl” directly to you (or Polly), before we left.
Hope to see you perhaps on another Bootcamp, or out in “the Wild”, or maybe on a G+/Skype exchange some time.
Hwyl am y tro!
Quoth Iestyn: “On the other hand, I have absolutely no objection to having three cafetieres on the go at breakfast time, seeing as how my cafetiere (750ml) just fills my coffee mug…”.
And now that I’ve seen his coffee mug, I understand his comment…
He’s the Daddy all right.
How have you lot had the energy to come on the forum already? I’m still one of the walking dead after the exertions!
Great to hear that you all enjoyed. Once again, my introductory talk is proven right:
Mike Ellwood: I’d say that just about everyone I inflicted my very poor Welsh on -
There’s always someone (usually ten someones) on bootcamp who speaks lovely, natural Welsh, but only ever hears their mistakes / pauses etc, and so thinks their Welsh is poor. Mike - your Welsh is great (though a bit too Pen Llŷn for my liking… where are those joking smileys when you need them!), and I’m sure that most people hearing you would agree with me. And after a whole week of living in only Welsh, it flowed noticeably better by the end of the week. Now to keep it up!
And Helen - between your untimely dispatch of one of my childhood heroes, and John’s bumblebee incident, it has to be said that bootcamp had it’s share of tragedy. If laughing is how you cope with that, then I’m sure it’s ok. (Ha ha, I’ll strugglr to keep a straight face as well, but will never be able to watch Ivor the Engine again).
Really looking forward to the next one (I’ll be in touch about it soon, John)
well put Iestyn,
Mike is progressing faster than me and catching up fast but suffers the same lack of confidence, what about all the words i don’t know etc. when in reality he certainly did very well.
On the way home, first stop for tea was Llandovery, where we had a great time with the two ladies behind the counter (oh yes Mike approached them in welsh), one spoke welsh and the other felt she ought to as she lived there, so we were being translated from welsh by one lady to the other, aren’t people just ready for fun, it was great. Monmouth for lunch was i’m afraid bereft of welsh
As for Pen Llyn, i must say the first three days Hwyel really had me listening carefully and often confused with those advanced southernisms, anyway progress was made and enjoyed.
Many thanks once again, cheers J.P.
I was certainly pretty tired on the way home and dropped in on some friends for a cuppa. I was in time to see some of the rowing teams doing the Celtic Challenge arriving in Aberystwyth from Arklow in Ireland. Nearly 100 miles rowing through the night - they were tired!
On the way back to Edinburgh I stopped in Machynlleth and grabbed a few paperback Welsh books from charity shops, and this time in the town dared to speak bits of Welsh, and pitched my tent in a site near Bala, speaking more Welsh, then On Sunday shopped in Bala and bought that Iolo Williams book so I’ll be bird watching in Welsh now (thanks John!). Missing you all so much already and now I have only myself and my cat to speak Welsh to, and oh yes a bemused woman in the supermarket who had tried to get me to use the self service checkout - she quietly and politely went away.
Nice to see the comments above. The week worked well and I think we all left feeling happy that we had made important progress…
I really hope that that anyone tempted to test themselves at Bootcamp and who had been alarmed by reports of the proficiency of participants at the last Luxury Northern Bootcamp will read this thread. The week in Tresaith was not a get-together for advanced students but an opportunity for early-stage SSIW folk to break-out of the classroom (real or virtual) and make the transition from dysgwyr (learners) to siaradwyr ail iaith (second language speakers). There can be no safer and supportive environment to achieve this aim than that provided by Bootcamp. If you have made it through Course 1, take heart from the other comments in the thread and give it a go - you really do know enough Welsh to cope.
I hope, also, that our efforts are not solely for our own self-improvement and that the visibility of the SSIW programme is helping the language. We were met warmly wherever we went and our guides through the week included a Welsh learner (Castell Aberteifi) and a lapsed first language speaker (Coracle Museum in Cennarth) and it was great to see what they gained from the encounter with the SSIW group also.
Diolch o’r galon i Iestyn, Cat a teulu am eu cymorth trwy’r wythnos a diolch i’r Bootcampwyr erraill am eu cymni hefyd.
On reflection, it’s possible that a recorder may have found its way to the top of the cupboard in the kitchen to frustrate the efforts of the woodwind section of the ap Dafydd youth orchestra to burst my ear-drums. I hope this was spotted in clearing-up because Heledd will never reach it.
Hwyl
Enjoy the book poly, i hope Iolo is pleased with the increased sales SSIW is putting his way.
Hywel, great write up, i can only agree the buzz word is enjoy, as for the recorder, i didn’t know (da iawn)
Cheers J.P.
Diolch o’r galon @Iestyn. Too Pen Ll^yn mae’n ddrwg da fi. chuckle Well, as you know, I’m now doing my best to “correct” this, so let’s hope you hear an improvement tro nesaf. Thing is, I’d been under the impression that that “southern Welsh” entity was a dangerous foreign land, where there be dragons (which of course there are). Instead of which, it’s hyfred and lyfli, and I love hearing it. OK, so maybe you do all speak at 90 MPH where i’m more comfortable with a sedate 45 or so (downhill…).
@Hywel: good point about SSiW visibility, and I tried to mention it out in the wild whenever I could. Diolch yn fawr iawn for all your energy in keeping us all going when we were sometimes in danger of flagging. You were an inspiration linguistically and in other ways.
BTW, via a cat-related incident, I discovered recently that Welsh (or Welsh origin) family is living sort of round the corner from me, i.e. the lady of the house announced that they were Welsh - it’s not that I heard them all siarad Cymraeg - and the circumstances weren’t really ripe for enquiring about their linguistic interests, but hopefully, I can contrive another meeting, and push the coracle out, so to speak.
Good job that man, on the recorder!! I fear it’s still there, which is no great shame - it shall remain there, more than likely, until a future bootcamper says “I wish I’d brought my trusty recorder with me”!
We should mention the true grit shown by bootcampers in raising money for Cancer Research Wales - £61.30 was raised, all by forcing yourselves to drink wine with dinner! My parents had donated a 10litre box of Bordeaux, and bootcampers donated a £1 per glass - have no idea where the 30p came from, but it’s gladly accepted!
True Grit: It was a tough job Cat, but someone had to do it …
Who knew alcoholism could be so beneficial. 
I’ve already mentioned this to John, but one unexpected benefit from the Bootcamp, still apparent a week or more later, was an increase in listening comprehension. I’d expected benefits to be more on the speaking side.
But I noticed I was picking up a lot more of Rownd a Rownd, and also more from the Pigion podcasts.
I’m getting more of the gist, and more individual words, even if I don’t get (by a long way) all the words.
Strange seeing as how much of what I heard at Bootcamp I wasn’t understanding at all, but I guess I was still listening all the time, and am still used to actively listening out for Welsh. Hope I can keep this up.
Mike, that’s an excellent advert for what is good about bootcamp.
Yep, we all heard a lot we didn’t understand but it didn’t seem to matter.
It all seems to revolve around the fact that with other learners, (yep we are all in the same boat) so let’s try to communicate and enjoy, so by day three everyone was relaxed and talking with everyone else, we were all reminding each other of forgotten words/phrases which meant those just flowed by the end of the week. New stuff was occurring every day, an example might be the welsh for dandelion which introduced two new words, whether everyone remembers them now doesn’t matter as they will come easier another time (and sooner or later stick).
The really impressive bit was how Cat and Iestyn manage to understand what ten different people were saying (possibly as badly as me), and never looked baffled. seren aur.
Cheers J.P.
Mike Ellwood: I’ve already mentioned this to John, but one unexpected benefit from the Bootcamp, still apparent a week or more later, was an increase in listening comprehension. I’d expected benefits to be more on the speaking side.
Mike, I had the same reaction to my first Bootcamp in May 2010 (as I reported over in the old forum here): the big and lasting difference Bootcamp made was in my ability to ‘hear’ spoken Welsh and distinguish the individual words, even if I didn’t know those words.
Rambling John: New stuff was occurring every day, an example might be the welsh for dandelion which introduced two new words,
And I still remember one of the (apparently many) words for “butterfly” (not counting “pili-pala”, that we came across, or that you or someone else already knew.
Diane Owen (Tahl): Mike, I had the same reaction to my first Bootcamp in May 2010 (as I reported over in the old forum here): the big and lasting difference Bootcamp made was in my ability to ‘hear’ spoken Welsh and distinguish the individual words, even if I didn’t know those words.
Diolch for the link Diane. That’s interesting, and good to know I’m probably not just imagining my improvement, if others have found exactly the same.
Yes, it’s great being able to distinguish the individual words, so you can then ask someone what it is, or (if all else fails ) look it up in a dictionary.