I´m eighteen hours into the Welsh course, and I feel like I´ve hit a brick wall!
I was born in 1948 in Tredegar (in South Wales). It was, and still is, a place where very little Welsh was spoken. Many (including my Welsh parents who were monoglot English) felt that the language was a waste of time. But I was always fascinated by the place names and other things I saw and heard everywhere around me, and occasionally had an opportunity for a rare Welsh speaker to tell me what they meant. Then I had the good fortune to go to a grammar school where Welsh was taught as a compulsory subject for the first two years. Imagine how excited I was at that prospect! So I learned quite a lot - I could soak it up like a sponge at that age. What I didn´t realise at first was that I was being taught a very formal register of Welsh. Then, after school, life got in the way and I moved away had other pressing realities. But I could never shake off that feeling that I had missed out on something immensely important. So here I am, (living in Spain now), determined to make up for lost time. And, here´s the rub: I apparently haven´t totally forgotten what I learned between 1959 and 1966. I´m aiming to learn a ´standard´ register which doesn´t make me sound like I learned all my Welsh from reading the Bible. However, I´m having a little trouble making the transition. What I learned then is interfering with what I want to learn now. Will I give up? No I won´t. I know that Aran is right, and that this course will turn me into a confident Welsh speaker - all I have to do is stick at it! So, if ever you feel disheartened, don´t give up! There´s nothing else out there quite like SSiW.
Well done Robert!
Spoken Welsh will certainly have changed since you studied it in school, but the consolation is that it wouldn’t be a living language if it hadn’t!
When you come across any really bamboozling bits of formal vs informal and need some help, just ask - there are always people here willing to help lower those brick walls 
@robert-42 as a paying subscriber you’re entitled to join the SSiW Community Chat Slack group, a place where you can also ask questions, but where you can join in online group chats with a tutor as well.
For someone living in Spain, it will give you an opportunity to hear and practise speaking contemporary Welsh, so I’ve sent you an invitation.
Whereabouts in Spain are you, by the way? I live in the Basque Country
Don’t worry if you say unusual things at times. There’s a whole range of ways to express yourself. For example, Dysgu Cymraeg learners tend to sound more formal than those of us exclusively using SSi. Honestly if you ran across some who spoke English like they’d learned from reading the KJV, you’d think them odd but comprehensible. (It’s been done!)
SSi is not really what’s usually called “standard” - they choose more colloquial ways to say things most times - but so far I’ve found it highly reflective of how Welsh people on TV / radio actually speak. 
Schoolteachers may or may not approve, but everyone else should understand you!
I do sympathise Robert, my story is very similar. I was born in 1950 in Pontypridd, my mother was English so we spoke no Welsh at home, although my father could and I did study some Welsh at the local Grammar school. I haven’t lived in Wales for over fifty years and thought I had forgotten it all. I’ve always wanted to be able to speak and understand Welsh better, and recently started doing the Automagic course, which is brilliant and I’m enjoying it so much! Quite a lot of Welsh is coming back to me, but the Welsh that I learnt was so much more formal, that I feel I’m almost having to unlearn as much as I’m learning! However I’m enjoying it so much that I’m definitely going to carry on.
My grandfather apparently, did learn his Welsh using the Welsh Bible, and people used to tell me that he spoke beautiful Welsh, however I’m hoping that I’m going to be able to speak more a modern Welsh that doesn’t sound like I’ve stepped out of the nineteenth century!!
As you learn more and get to speaking with other people, you will soon adjust your speech to match what you hear used around you, and barely even notice you’re doing it after a while. It is simply part of communication that we mirror each other (unless we’re sociopaths).
But also some things we learn as children are embedded so deep we keep them no matter who is around us. So if sometimes you still speak like someone who went to school in the 50s and 60s… well, you are someone who went to school in the 50s and 60s! It is okay not to to sound “down with the kids” at all times. I’ll bet you don’t speak English like a Gen Z tik-tokker, and why should you?
Basically, if you say something differently but you know it’s correct you do not need to unlearn it. You can keep saying it whatever way is comfortable, just be aware of the other ways you may hear it. Or change to fit with the SSi way if you want.
Hi Deborah. We live on the Costa Blanca in La Marina (part of the Elche municipality in the Alicante region of the Valencian Community). Not surprisingly, there´s an attitude to Valenciano even here which mirrors the way some people perceive Welsh within Wales. Regrettably, they´re still at the stage of painting out road signs in frustration because they need to organise their campaign better.
Thanks Siaron, I´ll bear that in mind.
Thanks Verity. I´ll plod on. At least I can get S4C here in Spain - that may help me find my level!
Hi Pontygram. Thanks for your reply. I thought there would be many more like me out there somewhere. The amount of vocabulary that I´m remembering is really astonishing. I suppose I should glad that there´s so much to dig up in my memory which must help me in my learning…