Croeso Kass!
Just one word of warning. It is fine being taken for a native when you speak a language as well as you clearly speak Japanese, but I imagine it takes even you a little while to learn! I used to suffer real problems in France and Belgium because my accent was too good and nobody believed French wasn’t my native language. As my French has never been brilliant, I had trouble getting help. People thought I was joking!
That sounds fantastic! We might be within 20 minutes of Bangor by then - it would be lovely to see you 
Diolch, Mick!
What an interesting initial reason! And a very warm welcome to the forum… Thanks very much for your feedback, Kass, hugely appreciate it - and many thanks to Omniglot for the link…
Ah yes. This happened to a lot of Japanese Americans I knew. No one believed they weren’t Japanese so they got a real hard time for grammar mistakes. Me, I don’t look Japanese, so I always got praised. And I speak French with a Japanese accent so no worries there. LOL
Because - I wanted to speak Welsh - to complete my sense of belonging
But - 3 years of evening classes just did not stick - too much paperwork and clearly on a conveyor as far as the tutor was paid / measured. The mutations came at the beginning and were a total turn off
I so wanted to learn welsh - I did summer session wlpan at Lampeter which was not an improvement.
So I was willing but frustrated
Then a Welsh speaker mentioned SSSiW and I tried it and found that I could make progress at a rate of a lesson a month - halfway through Course 2 I suddenly found the confidence and ability to converse in Welsh ( slowly) - I’m so grateful to that Welsh speaker.
Everytime somebody tells me Welsh is difficult I recommend SSSiW
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I stumbled onto SSiW when looking around for Welsh language resources when we were preparing to move to North Wales 3 years ago. There was no question for us that we had to try to learn the language, but how?
What make me decide to go down this path of learning was on the one hand that I was very attracted to the natural, learning like a child’ way of learning, but I think the most decisive advantage for me was that SSiW allows to learn in our own time, pace and schedule. I have been cramming an awful lot into my life since the move, including odd days of communting to London for work (this finally change very soon 
) and I knew if I had to be somewhere for a lesson on set days it would never work.
It is a double-edged sword though, as being able to plan lessons flexibly also means that the lessons have fallen off our daily schedule more than once in those 3 years and it often takes many weeks to get back on track…
So we haven’t made the progress we could have in all that time (ut we are still here and still learning (with a bit more momentum at the moment) - whenever we get back on track the line of progress really picks up and that makes up for the embarrassment of still being unable to understand most of what is being said around me (while I am in theory able to say quite a few things at this point).
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I’m American, but I watch a lot of British television and I’d sometimes see a random Welsh person walk through the scene and everyone would chuckle and ignore them, but I thought it’d be neat if I could understand what they were actually saying. A while ago, (maybe 4 years?) Stephen Fry tweeted a link to SSiW and it seemed like serendipity. The lessons were free, a good length, and progressed in a way that made me feel I like was learning without being overwhelmed. I’m afraid I haven’t been very disciplined; I’ve stopped and restarted a lot over the years, but I’m always surprised by how much I’ve retained when I get back into it. Over the past two months though, I’ve done some Welsh almost every day!
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My son talked me into trying this with him. He had been interested in learning Welsh and also in learning various accents for theater. Working together with the SSiW program was our bonding time. I’ve enjoyed it enough to continue, even after he moved out on his own.
Terri - Wheat Ridge, Colorado
3 years ago I was thinking about learning Welsh, as we were planning to move to Wales, but I had never learnt a language before so I was doubtful of my chances of success. I was clicking around the web looking for free information about the language and came across a Stephen Fry tweet recommending SSIW and the opportunity for free lessons. It sounded too good to be true so I treated it with a great deal of suspicion at first. However, once I had spent some time researching your website and understanding why I gave it a go.
I found it very challenging at first having never heard the language before but I took heart from your encouragement and advice throughout the lessons and in a few weeks I was on lesson number 3. I figured I would have this done in a few months. However, life got in the way a bit and after a year I was still only up to lesson 5, then we moved here and my motivation and opportunity to learn changed. I joined a local evening class (2hrs a week) and started to listen again to SSIW. Hubby got the files onto my phone and I was soon walking the dogs and speaking Welsh at the same time. After a year I had completed course 1 and I started to use the New Challenges, but again I found these a bit too tough, so I carried on with my Mynediad course and revised SSIW course 1.
SSIW really helped me to do well in my local class and my Welsh friends often comment on how well I am doing and that my accent is very good. I put that down to SSIW and the practice with saying different words that sound similar. The listening practice has been very helpful too.
I have just done the Mynediad Exam (awaiting results due 2nd week of August) and as my treat I have now officially joined up as a paying member. I am working through the Challenges and finding them more achievable now because I understand more of the language and have an idea of why words are put together as they are. This summer SSIW will be my companion when I am gardening, ironing and walking the dogs. I will be going back to my night school for Sylfaen level as this traditional style of course helps to cement the language and gives a social element to learning too. However SSIW is the Welsh I do for fun! The lessons don’t feel like work and the results are really noticeable.
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For me: I have always wanted to learn Welsh, for several reasons that are probably not that interesting to anyone else, but why SSiW in particular?
I’d tried an online course before and found it very slow and boring and not at all good at giving you a sense of how to actually speak - that lasted for two lessons. I’d been on two or three ‘traditional’ classroom-based lessons when I was younger, where the teacher said a phrase and then all of the 20 or so people in the class said it in turn, and it was a bit dull (I know lessons aren’t like that now, but it stayed with me). I liked the idea of a language course on cd - I had a brief fling with a Michel Thomas Spanish course while driving to Spain, which I really enjoyed and which felt like it was teaching me something a lot faster than any attempts at language learning before. (By now, you’re probably getting the impression that I’m someone who has a great idea of myself as a potential linguist, but who doesn’t actually stick at anything long enough to learn anything useful - if so, that’s about right.)
I came across SSiW online while browsing Welsh courses and it appealed to me instantly, for these reasons:
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It sounded fast (I wanted to be able to speak at least some Welsh, like NOW)
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It sounded like it wouldn’t take up much time (I could do it while doing other things)
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It sounded like fun
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It sounded useful (learning to speak the way people actually speak, learning to communicate, not just read words)
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It sounded easy (there was lots of talk about relaxing, making mistakes, not worrying about mutations, never repeating lessons, just getting on with it and letting the detail fall into place later, etc)
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It sounded a bit rebellious (avoiding classroom learning seemed a bit like skiving school, talking colloquially, not ‘properly’, being positively encouraged to drink wine…)
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I could do it by myself.
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People on the forum were really supportive and said nice things, so even though I was doing it by myself, I wasn’t alone.
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It sounded progressive and new and like being a part of something that was a bit experimental
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It was free. I got to try it out, decide if I was making progress and then move on to the next stage and commit to a subscription when I was ready.
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I loved Iestyn’s accent.
Those were the things that attracted me straight off. Since starting, they’ve all held true. And my teachers have never seemed impatient or bored, they’ve never given me homework or failed to understand my stutterings. Also, there are lots of different ways to learn: online bootcamp, real live bootcamp, challenges, listening, finding someone to talk to on the phone or Skype. And it’s run by and used by people who love languages and want other people to learn them.
I think that about covers it!
Diolch!
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I had been learning welsh for several years but had a great deal of difficulty speaking. A kind welsh lady suggested i tried SSi . So i did twelve months ago. I am happy to say that at last my confidence to speak is growing. To. learn lots of grammer before you can speak is quite the opposite to how children learn a language.
You do a great job and so i have recommended SSi to my friends. I am in my seventies now and finding learning a new language quite challenging but i am very much enjoying the journey.
Diolch yn fawr.
grannyma
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I was looking for anything online that would support me in playing around with speaking welsh. Tried the first lesson…thought I would stop…and carried on…and on…and on…
26 months later I am addicted and have supplemented SSiW with some other stuff…two drawers full… I love this language
What kept me going with SSiW is 1) the method - audio based, hear, imitate, hear. 2) audio and downloadable onto CD’s which means I can learn in the car "kilometers long of welsh speaking 3) forum and connection with others 4) chance to do a bootcamp. 5) the spirit and passion of the birthers of the project and they way they hold it.
What would support me even more? 1) some written material only accessible after each bunch of 5 lessons for example in honour of the method 2) option to buy 1-on -1 support in digital lessons if required…or coaching 3) structured conversation lessons for us living abroad.
Thanks again for creating SSiW - i am amazed at what I have learnt and am hoping that a week immersion at bootcamp will kick start some relaxed fluency.
Elkie
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For me it was the idea of learning the spoken word in the unique way that is SSIW. The fact that it was free did play a part in my thought process, ie. what have I got to lose? In a short time, I was able to put together into sentences, all of the Welsh words that I was familiar with growing up in Wales, . It was a good decision. I’m really not sure how I came across SSIW but it was most definitely somewhere on the Internet. I’ve completed all of the courses and challenges up to the new challenge 2 lesson 18. Diolch yn fawr iawn to the SSIW team.
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Hi Aran
After travelling for years and telling many people that we have our own language, I thaught I’d better give it a real go.
I signed up for the ‘normal’ night school, and one in the daytime aswell, however they both seemed to still be going down the same route as my one lesson a week for 3 years in secondary school, which I think put most kids off learning Welsh.
So I kept searching the net for other ways.
I did have a brief look at SSiW, but didn’t get on with the intro, however, after a slow progress with night school, (where they tell you ‘you can’t say that yet, as you haven’t learnt it’!), I gave the new course a real go.
And I realy enjoy the fact that you Do NOT have to write anything down, or spell, or change any letters to progress.
I am up to lesson 14 new course 1, which I am finding harder than some, however I know I WILL crack it and progress, because I have cracked the previous 13.
And as for the normal schools, I still go, as every little helps, but I think that most of my progression is thanks to SSiW.
Diolch.
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I have dabbled in a number of foreign languages over the years mainly just to find out how they work and what they sound like. In the case of Welsh I started with a Teach Yourself Welsh book back in the mid Nineties but never finished it and only got about one third the way through the book, then set it aside. Several years ago I thought I would like to give Welsh a second go, but wanted a more interesting, engaging method. I found and tried Lesson 1 of the SSIW southern course, and loved the way it was taught. I did the southern course all the way through, twice, then the northern course, once, and then the southern course a third and last time, over several years, before I decided to take the intermediate course, which I am taking now and have enjoyed very much, as it is taught in much the same manner as the introductory course. I am sure I will stay with it to the end. I also appreciate the notes on how the words are written, which I have glanced at but not made the focus of my learning experience for the same reason that the introductory course as I first studied it did not show you how the language is written at all – to emphasize listening and speaking. I can now say, “The cat was watching everything carefully before the woman gave her a sandwich.” Maybe not correctly… But I cannot say, “Where is the gas station.” I am sure that will come in time!
Steve Bush
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A ‘Brummie’ by birth, I spent a fair bit of time in Wales in my teenage and early adult years, and, initially, became enchanted more by the look and meaning of the language on signposts and maps, I suppose. So I began learning Welsh through the old ‘Dysgu Cymraeg’ school textbooks. Emigrating to NZ at 25 meant that as my opportunities to speak Welsh disappeared, my interest languished.
However, in 2012, having been cast as a Michigan, US, Welsh-speaking witch, captured again by the force and beauty of speaking the language, I determined to renew my studies. Also, I’m aging, and it seemed a plurry good way of re-igniting my brain in a way that sudoku and cryptic crosswords couldn’t. I contacted the Auckland Welsh Club, and someone mentioned hearing about an internet programme for learning spoken Welsh- SSIW! So I joined, which also, I hasten to add, gave me a very good motive to ‘get off my chuff’ and come back, to revisit the land of a few of my forebears from time to time… this September is next. Any Autumn ‘Bootcamp’ in the North on the horizon, Aran?
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Several years ago my employer was offering Rosetta Stone for free, and imagine my surprise when I saw they were offering Welsh! I decided to give it a try and was picking up words when they stopped offering the service!
Since then I’ve dabbled (my Border Collie, Fiona, knows a fair few Welsh words) and have tried a few apps that just didn’t work. Then I found Dw i’n dysgu Cymraeg on Facebook! I knew enough Welsh to know what that meant so asked to join the group. Someone there recommended SSiW as a great place to actually learn Welsh, as opposed to just playing with it.
I appreciate the reassurance that feeling a bit adrift is natural.
Fiona and I are looking forward to speaking Welsh!
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Bore da Aran,
I found SSIW by chance about 8 years ago when I had only just started learning welsh and I was looking through the internet for ways to help me learn when I saw Say Something in Welsh - the easy-ish way to learn Welsh. I thought easy-ish that sounds good! I’ll give it a go and I’ve been doing it ever since and telling everyone I know about SSIW. Unfortunately I’m still not rhugyl but dw i’n dal ati!!
Hwyl
Jenny Carter
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Wel, wel. I think I stumbled across SSiW on the “visit wales” page - perhaps via other links from there? - about four years ago. I had made my first attempts at learning Welsh when our family was spending a holiday (our first one in the UK) in Pwllheli in the 1970s. Being interested in languages I bought myself a Welsh dictionary and a “Teach yourself Welsh” and had a go at Cymraeg. It was an on and off thing for many years; I kept starting again and again but didn’t manage to keep it up.
Some years later I went to North Wales with the orchestra of our university. We were staying with very welcoming families; and the lovely lady I was staying with had learnt Welsh as a second language through records and books. When I told her that I was trying to learn the language she gave me those records and books as a present. That encouraged a new start (“Aberystwyth yn erbyn Aberafan” is one of the sentences that stuck). But for some reason I didn’t keep it up. I wrote the odd letter or (Christmas) card, but that was it.
Shortly after that trip to Wales I did four terms of “middle Welsh” (medieval version of Welsh, I’d say) at the Department of Indoeuropean Languages at our university. During that time my parents met visitors from Wales, got talking, told them that I was doing Welsh at university and eventually exchanged addresses. Luckily, Meudwen had been a Welsh teacher in Cardiff. She started sending me Welsh phrase books and an updated version of the Teach yourself Welsh with tapes to listen to. After a while I managed to say a few very simple and very short sentences in Welsh when speaking to Meudwen on the phone. But I had very great difficulties in understanding what she said; probably, because I wasn’t used to “real” speaking speed and didn’t know enough words and grammar. At least I tried more often and kept writing the odd letter and card. I started reading simple stories as well.
When I went to Wales again some years later I managed to understand a word or two but never dared to say something myself.
So this is where SSiW came in and did the trick:
When I found the link I jumped at it, out of curiosity, straight into the first lesson without bothering to listen to the introduction (sorry!). I had pen and paper ready, of course, eager to take notes and write down words and do written excercises. As if he had seen that, Iestyn said something like “put away your pen and paper …” ( I had opted for the Southern version because it was the version I was most used to through the records, tapes and Meudwen.) Well, at first I was somewhat sceptical - no pen? no paper? no notes? How should that work for me? But it did and miraculously so. I must admit that after reading and seeing a lot of Welsh words I was able to imagine how most of the words that were said looked, at least in the first two or three lessons. (So that was cheating a bit, in a way.)
The first few minutes convinced me of the concept and method and I got hooked, as it were.
I think, focussing on listening and speaking is the best training for using Welsh in real life in Wales. The chunks and phrases keep popping up quite naturally and, at lonng last, I am bold enough to open my mouth and (try to) say something in Welsh to Welsh speakers in Wales. That is very rewarding and increases my motivation to keep going and continue to the next level.
So, to put it in a nutshell:
Genuine interest in the language - many fairly unsuccseessful attempts to learn it through books and tapes - not enough courage to try and speak Welsh to Welsh people - SSiW-Link arouses curiosity - lessons are exactly what I need, namely, encouraging, training, giving confidence to speak - concept and method absolutely convincing - Three cheers to SSiW!
I keep telling people about this wonderful course and forward the link to whoever mentions some kind of interest in Wales and Welsh.
Diolch yn far iawn i chi am ddyfeisio (invent) SSiW!
I apologise for this somewhat lengthy reply. ( Mind you, you asked for “the more detail…” 
Pob hwyl,
Charlotte
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I wanted to learn some Welsh, but didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a course which might be unsuitable. I started by buying the Mynediad materials on eBay for about £5. I still dip into these, but found that being unable to actually attend a course was a huge obstacle. My son, who lives in Pembrokeshire and attends a discussion group in a local pub, said that some members of this group were using SSiW and their proficiency with the language was impressive. I signed up and I haven’t looked back. Diolch yn fawr iawn!
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I have always wanted to learn the language of where I’ve lived and worked for 30 years, but due to health issues classes have always been beyond me.
I would constantly search for a suitable on-line resource but never found one until one day a link popped up in the Martin Lewis Money Saving Expert email - about 7 years ago now I think. It was the perfect solution; I could learn anytime anywhere and back then at least the forum was also a great tool to aid learning. Despite the odd lull in learning (life gets in the way sometimes (and the loss of the old forum had an effect), but a change is as good as a rest eh) I have never looked back.
Diolch o galon.
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