Just hauling myself out of the ‘Deep End’, unbuckling my flotation belt of encouragement from hubby and friends, pulling off my flippers aka copious cups of coffee that propelled me forward, and fancying a celebratory brew once I’ve soaked in the hot tub and changed back into cas’ gear.
Our coach did a great job, as always, so I’m delighted with my progress having tackled all the lessons and some, if not all, of the exercises with gusto. I learned a lot, enjoyed the challenge, and have made a note of anything I didn’t manage during the 13 weeks so now I can carry on learning and improving.
Some days it was magical the way words and sentences just rolled off the tongue, and I’d think ‘Where’d that come from?’. Other days felt a bit like slogging through mud, but thanks to the accumulated experience of ups and downs, I knew that if I just pushed on I’d make it to the far end.
It took quite a time commitment and dedication to work at it consistently. Even so, I want to go back over some sections to make notes of patterns that still trip me up. The vocabularies do not provide sample sentences, so that’s on my ‘to do list’—to capture some key expressions I need to practice.
I certainly enjoyed it, felt my Welsh made a quantum leap forward, and would definitely recommend the ‘Deep End’ as being very worthwhile. Thank you!
Coffee and a celebratory brew - the staple diet of SSiWers…!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, and really, really pleased that it was tough but manageable, and that you’ve come out of the other end raring to learn more.
I hope you really enjoy the Beca a’i Phobl advanced listening material - hopefully they will push your Welsh on almost as much as the courses did, with thadded bonus that you can put your feet up and have a celebratory brew with every one of them, rather than relying on coffee-fueled concentration!
Mostly, I hope you absolutely love being a Welsh speaker!
Just “singing in the rain” here, doin’ my jive steps up the garden path, swingin’ those hips and pumping the air as I put the garbage out while the kettle boils for that first cuppa’.
Yep, ‘I’ve done the Deep End’ and am feeling gwych. The neighbours think I’m bonkers talking to myself in Welsh, and there’s the odd dog-walker in the woods who who didn’t know quite how to respond to a cheery ‘bore da’ as I sweated it out along the trails responding to SSiW on with my MP3 player–that is, except for one regular who actually learned those words at least, bless him.
Sure, you miss a ‘certain something’ when you live in a non-Welsh-speaking area like Vancouver, but ‘I am a Welsh-speaker’ (climbing that learning curve) thanks to you and Aran, your wives aka female voices on the lessons, and all the world-wide SSiW family.
Onwards friends… “Dw i’n hoffi coffi yn y bore” (still only 8 am here you know)
A diolch o galon am dy eirau caredig iawn 
