Welsh for Adults after level 2

The latest podcasts are from July this year, but I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for it, diolch.

Found it. Will definitely listen, now I know who he is :blush:

Boy, that guy can talk! What I understood was great. Diolch!

He can indeed! Interesting life!

I have just started using memrise. Does anyone have any suggestions about which of the many things to try.

I just did something called canolradd which consisted of 60 new words but there seems a right mixture f stuff so any recommendation would be gratefully received. I’m doing northern by the way.

I use it and it is a great help for building up a word database. I’ve done a couple of the smaller ones (at the top of the Welsh list), and I’m currently doing “All round confidence” which has around 1600 words.

Caveats: There are hardly any audio examples (about 150 of the 1600). It also doesn’t always indicate that whether it wants the singular or plural word answer, with frustrating consequences in the speed round!

My method for using Memrise is to build up my own (private) course as I go along, out of all the most useful words I’ve looked up in any one week. You can conveniently star words in Google translate for future reference, then I go in about once a week and transfer a batch to Memrise. The advantage is that you can use the Memrise spaced repetition model to learn the things that are most relevant to you at the time. I found learning other people’s lists a bit disjointed.

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I didn’t know this! Diolch yn fawr.

For those looking to move on in Welsh, I highly HIGHLY recommend Gareth King’s reference book Modern Welsh.

It’s different from the two books of his that sarapeacock recommended above, which are both also good; they’re organized as textbooks, and Modern Welsh is a reference book. It’s concise but astonishingly complete, and once you get used to it I find it invaluable for going and looking up the verb ending or oddity of “what form of the word “year” do I use with the number 7?” or oddity of prepositional usage.

With SSIW, and Modern Welsh, and gradually reading my way through Nofelau Nawr and other series of novels for learners, I’ve gotten to a place with Welsh from over here in the U.S. that makes me kind of happy I didn’t ever have to wade through classes.

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I finally got around to enrolling on a course, i think I just want to be able to formalise my Welsh more quickly and get a regular weekly practice that’ll get my brain melting again.
Having spoken to people who suggested Sylfaen to me this summer, even though I was asking in Welsh about their courses. Anyway I met another tutor at the National Eisteddfod who said I was ready, as suggested ages ago, for Uwch 1.
So after frightening the ladies in the reception by asking where the classroom was in Welsh, I found the class and sat down and starting chatting away in Welsh with the other students, this seemed fine, until the teacher mentioned that this was an Uwch 2 class, I was in the wrong room. So i asked where the Uwch 1 room was and on leaving the tutor said I sounded ready for Uwch 2.
I really enjoyed the first Uwch 1 class. This is a new Uwch course developed for this year and everything is in Welsh, which is great, though we can ask questions if we need to in English. Two and a half hours in Welsh is still tiring for me, but despite not going through the Welsh for adults system I was getting most things right, what I lack was some vocabulary, 80% of the words we were learning i didn’t know, which is usual for a course and not getting the occasional word from the tutor, but I have vocabulary that no-one else knew as well. We have started with plurals and I’ve generally done the SSiW thing of working around it.

My question is I think I’m going to be happy in the course, it’s a really nice group and I enjoyed it, it’s lots of directed exposure and I will learn a lot, but, as there is an Uwch 2 available at the same time, with spaces in it, I am quite tempted to ask about being moved up. Or is my desire for brain melt not how this system works? What do people think?

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Since you’ve got a nice group at Uwch 1, I’d be tempted to give that a whirl, and only think in terms of moving up if I got genuinely bored - at this stage, which course you’re in is probably less important than the fact that you’re spending a good long time talking Welsh… :slight_smile:

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Out of interest, do you know what is new this year? I did Uwch 1 and started Uwch 2 last year (was run as Uwch 1+2) and it was all in Welsh. I stopped for a few reasons but the main one was that the tutors were changing for the 3rd time due to changes of jobs etc which meant the times kept changing. I went through about 6 weeks of Uwch 2, it wasn’t really a “step up” per se more new material. So, as Aran said, if you’re enjoying yourself stay there.

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For the last four or five years, because I’m fortunate enough to be able to arrange when I work, I’ve tended to do two classes a week, canolradd 2 plus Uwch 1, or Uwch 1 and 2. When you get to this stage it’s not step after step in the classes, miss one step and you won’t be able to understand the next. It’s much more fill in the gaps here and there. If I did Uwch 1 and 2 one year I did 2 and 3 the next. Practice something old, learn something new. But always and everywhere, speaking as much as possible.

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I don’t really know as I have no knowledge of what went before. The main thing is that we have been given a workbook (which is new), full of exercises to do with our partners in class, basically encouraging us to talk to each other in one to ones, with a clear subject and new vocab to hand. The teacher will keep us swapping partners to get practise of speaking to a wider range of people. No glasses of wine, but tea and coffee is available.

Okay, thanks for the reassurance people. Learning isn’t a linear process, so it doesn’t really matter which class I am in. I think just having the sustained immersion and focus on new vocabulary will work really well. Coming from SSiW, I’m never going to neatly fit in neatly with learners who have been progressing slowly though Welsh for Adults.

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Well this is the perfect timing for me to ask this. I’ve just started Uwch 1+2 (medi 2017 -mehefin 2018). It was the first time I stepped in to a classroom. The issue is that it’s difficulty to leave work and then arrive for 6pm and then carry on till 9pm without dinner! It’s do-able though. I could ask to transfer to Monday and Wednesday (if they provide it) where it’s 7-9. The other option is to ask if I can do Uwch 2, once a week. I think I could catch up. Thought? Experiences about uwch 1 / 2?
Are there any good textbooks available at an advanced level?
Mihil

Yes evening things are always difficult to organise with work.
For me, having to prepare lunch and tea to keep with me from the mornings will be a pain, not enough time to go home, some time to try make use of sitting in a car before the 6.30pm lesson. I got into the habit of eating late, 9ish, after evening events, so having meals at 6 is now weird to me. Just having a snack at 5.30, 6ish works as I hated being full trying to do active things.
The impression I have got is that Uwch 1 & 2 aren’t different in terms of complexity, the difference will be the other learners. For them Uwch 1 is I believe, their first popeth yn gymraeg thing, in my first lesson people did slip into English a fair bit. What’s important and the hardest thing to do is find a lesson you can regularly make it to and find a way to make it work for eating / having some brain function at lessons.

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Tagging @garethrking:wink:

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Yay! :slight_smile:

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And don’t forget, with the iPlayer Radio app, you can download any radio programme (not just podcasts) (when you have WiFi available), and keep it on your mobile device for (I think) 30 days, and can listen to it offline, anywhere, without it using up your data allowance.

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I might take an opportunity for an outrageous plug here: I’ve just finished the new edition of the Intermediate Welsh Grammar/Workbook - we’re hoping to bring it out by the end of the year, I think.

Just in time for Nadolig!! :slight_smile:

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