That sounds like a huge achievement - llongyfarchiadau mawr! And thank you so much for telling us… 
I haven’t posted in here because I don’t fit the criteria of doing most of the material in a year or in three or four years. It took me two years to do the first three Courses, and I’m almost done with Level 1 a month and a half later (I’m a bit stalled at the moment because life gets busy). But then I realized that maybe the second set of questions might not be only for the people who meet the first set of criteria. If they are, then ignore the following
I was a good student in school, and I stuck with the strategies that have worked for me in the past - study hard, review a lot, make sure you have a solid foundation. Some of those strategies don’t mesh with the current SSiW advice. Like @netmouse, I did the lessons understanding that it was fine to use the pause button as much as you wanted, and I did so - liberally. It wasn’t until I was partway through that I realized that the prevailing advice had changed. I also sometimes repeated lessons in the first Course (did a lesson 2 times if I felt I needed a repeat, maybe 3 for just a couple that I really struggled with). I only repeated a few lessons in Course 2 and none in Course 3. It makes me really uncomfortable to get things wrong, and I’ve struggled to change that attitude. I’m all for the theory that mistakes are good in my head, but it doesn’t always translate to my emotional self. I’m a lot better about it than I used to be, and now I’m going through Level 1 with no pause button (well, except very occasionally for really long sentences). It’s hard to overcome to compulsion to make sure I can get it right…
I don’t think I’ve ever really felt like I’ve hit a plateau - I might be going slower at times, but I’m always learning. I can say that I feel solid about what I’ve learned doing things the way I did. (Well, except for the short forms, I’m fine with understanding them for the most part but my own production is another story. I will probably need to go back to Course 3 at some point. But I’m doing the Levels first.) I understand why things are the way they are for the most part. I don’t worry about the grammar, but I’ve supplemented with learning some very basic grammar. That has helped make me more comfortable using the language. But the flip side is - I also know that my production speed is likely not as good as it would be if I had not used the pause button as much as I did.
Which brings us to having a conversation partner…I’ve had one Skype partner, and it’s been a good experience - I got lucky. But she’s gallivanting around Asia now I’m shy, and not the best conversationalist even in English, so I’m really nervous about just saying “Hey, who wants to Skype?” So, in actuality it’s been quite a long time (6-7 months?) since I’ve spoken to anyone but myself. I know I need to fix this…
Understanding different accents - I’ve definitely figured out from watching S4C what is a northern vs a southern accent. I’m doing the Southern lessons. I think I have more trouble understanding northern speakers than southern, but it may just be that I struggle to understand quick and very colloquial conversation, and it seem to me that the northerners do that more…dropping lots of syllables and running things together! I have to say that I go in spurts with the listening exercises - I did them a lot for Course 1, but after that sometimes I’ve been good about doing them, but sometimes not. I’d rather watch S4C and listen to music 
But I was pleased that when I got to the first “chipmunk exercise” in Level 1 I understood it just fine,
Words different from what you learned in school - not applicable, since I’m in the US and never heard the Welsh language at all prior to SSiW. Letters/sounds - I’m still not sure my LL is very good, sometimes I think there’s a bit of a L sound still in there, but it’s better than it was. Some words are easier than others, depends on what sounds are before and after the LL. I don’t think I have any trouble with CH. I can roll my R’s just fine, it’s fun. And I drop my H’s right along with Iestyn, so I don’t worry about RH 
I waited to read until something like 1/3 of the way into Course 2 - I think, hard to remember back, but I did wait until I finished Course 1. I love to read, always have, but it wasn’t hard for me to wait until I did. The feeling of satisfaction when I found I could read was tremendous! Knowing how much I love to read, it surprises me a little that I’ve been very good about doing a little reading, but mostly focusing on doing lessons. I really enjoy doing the lessons, and finishing a lesson and knowing I’ve learned something new gives me a lot of satisfaction, too.
I think that’s all…
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It sounds like we’ve got a few things in common, @AnnaC! I’d like to Skype with you one of these days… (I’m afraid it won’t be soon as life is crazy at the mo, but please hold me to it! )
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@netmouse That’s really very kind of you! I’d love to Skype with you sometime. I understand about life being crazy
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Absolutely this - sorry, I’ve clearly presented it all a bit confusingly - really looking for input from anyone who feels that any of those issues was particularly difficult/particularly easy for them, irregardless of how long they’ve been learning…
And diolch o galon for such detailed input - hugely helpful 
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Probably about 8 months or so to do Level 1, Course 2, Course 3 South using the slower method of getting 85% right and occasional pause button. Slowed up a bit with Course 3 as getting the short forms correct before Cat wasn’t so easy.
Then did Level 2 South more quickly without pause and switching to North whilst waiting for more South lessons in chunks of 5 or so lessons as they became available.
Found the new levels and methods much more fun despite mistakes ( mistakes good !) so I am looking forward to the rest of Level 3.
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I started the Welsh lessons in SSi around the 1st of November of last year and I am now on lesson 21 in Level 2. (It’s been 33 weeks) I try to do the lesson daily so, yes, it is obvious I repeat the lessons. The first time I hear a lesson I will do so during a time when I can concentrate on what is being taught. I will usually use the pause button. (I’m from Texas, and currently live in Oklahoma. We don’t speak English that fast! 
) After that I try not to, unless it was a more difficult lesson. I do not proceed to the next lesson until I can get everything correct. Then, while driving, or doing chores around the house, I will put on a lesson I have already learned, one that doesn’t require concentration. It really gives me confidence when I find I can go through them without even thinking about the response.
In the first level there were the listening exercises, and I would listen to them. It probably wouldn’t hurt for me to go back and do that again.
I am taking a Welsh course online through Ameri Cymru, so it is giving me a chance to speak with others, though, other than the teacher, we are all beginners. The class is using a book, so I am actually learning both ways. My daughters were taught Suzuki violin, which pretty much uses the same process of SSi. They are not taught to read music until they have been playing for a number of years. Children taught by ear seem to have an advantage over those taught by the older method and are much more likely to play in tune. The same applies with languages. So… that being said, I try focusing on the SSi more than what the book teaches, so that I can better pick up the pronunciation, and my teacher seems to be very patient with me!
I was concerned at first with the different sounds in Welsh, but it really didn’t take long to get used to them. It seems that you spend the first couple of months training yourself to say them, and the next six months training yourself to soften them a bit.
I have just a few lessons left in level 2, and am hoping that level 3 will be coming soon! I haven’t decided whether I should go back and do the Northern Welsh at the end of this level, or do Course 1 and 2 in Southern Welsh. What would be your recommendation?
I had asked in a different thread a few weeks ago about skyping with others. I noticed today the option to have a weekly conversation covering the week’s lessons. I love that idea. How does it work? Do you have a different time for each level?
Again… I love learning Welsh! Thank you for offering this!
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Terrific - thank you Anne, thank you Vickie!
We’re hoping the first set of Level 3 southern lessons will be published in the very, very near future…
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I raced through the old course in its early days and found it thoroughly addictive. Some of my early thoughts were shared in the old forum:
http://old.saysomethingin.com/welsh/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1900&start=0
http://old.saysomethingin.com/welsh/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1900&start=40#p23327
I completed the course in about three months, but of course as I explained at the time, I had studied a rather formal version Welsh many years before, so although I cold hardly speak the language, I had a lot of half forgotten background knowledge of it. I was just amazed at the speed with which verbal fluency could be achieved once I started SSiW, and so enjoyably as well.The method is incomparable for developing the spoken language. After getting the hang of SSiW I avoided using the pause button as I liked the discipline of being forced to answer quickly (as is the case in conversation - no pause buttons there!). Because of the overlap in material from one lesson to the next, I seldom felt the need to repeat any lessons. To be honest I didn’t find the listening exercises much help and seldom used them. I was a little bemused by some of the new words being used and resisted these anglicisms as first, having been taught the ‘proper’ Welsh words previously, but the feeling passed. I ignored the advice about not reading, since I was already familiar with written Welsh, and in any case personally I find it much easier to learn a new word if I can see it written down rather than just hearing it spoken, so it doesn’t really suit my learning style. Ll and Ch I had known since childhood so weren’t a problem but I’m still not good at rolling my r’s.
As for suffering, I think that only came at my first bootcamp. After a couple of days my head was just splitting with mental pain and fatigue. But at the end of a week I hardly knew which language I was speaking, hugely satisfying.
Unfortunately circumstances have rather carried me away from Welsh in recent times, and finding a need to upgrade my German, I longed for a SSiGerman course to help me.
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Hi Aran (and all)
My experience summarised -
My background/Preparation: Not originally from Wales. One and a half Dosbarth Nos levels in the 90’s followed by passively absorbing as much bilingual stuff as was thrown my way. I am certainly not a linguist, although I do find languages to be interesting.
I think it took me about six months to go through the system of Southern levels 1 and two plus Coures 3. Since then, I’ve spent another three months absorbing all of the other available variations as a sort of broadening procedure.
My favourite way of listening is whilst driving as strangely, I find it has a calming effect. Hence, the pause button function was not an option - I just let the lesson run, even if I was missing something. So really, I needed to repeat each lesson once before moving on.
The listening exercises were ok, once I realised that I didn’t need to fully understand everything in them.
Conversation partner - so far has been any Welsh speaker I can find. I admit I could have done more in this regard.
Understanding different accents - In the lessons: OK. In the wild less so but still ok-ish, but no worse than in with the many English dialects. An exception to this is possibly the non-English North-South variations of “y”, “ur”, “ir” “eu”, etc, which I find fascinating as I travel within Wales. Also g/c and t/d: (gadog - catoc).
Dealing with words being different from what you remember in school -
Substituting “Dosbarth Nos” for “School”. The differences have not been great, although I did need to unlearn some “Dysgwr Cymraeg”. On the other hand, some of it has helped me to switch between Southern and Northern terms and accents.
Put off reading - seemed different at first, but soon became preferable, although I do check my diction using the vocabs after completing the relevant lessons.
Accept all the different ways of saying the same thing - Yes, I like this.
Avoid worrying about grammar - Ditto!
Avoid worrying about plateaus - I just tended to back-off on the rate of learning slightly when I started to struggle.
Getting used to saying R, Ll and Ch - Not bad, as this came to me to a certain extent before I started SSiW.
I have loved going through the courses.
Just a footnote: Feel free in the booklet to push the need to use this forum as an extra learning resource and also as a way of belonging to such a friendly group of people.
Many thanks,
John.
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I actually started learning Welsh with SSIW 6 years ago, before the new levels were out. I completed Course 1 the 1st year, Course 2 the 2nd year, took a year or 2 off, and then completed Levels 1-2 in the next 2 years. This sounds like a really long process, but I only really worked on it for a couple months intensely at a time, right before I got to go to Wales, because that is when I was most motivated to do it! Considering that I took long breaks between courses, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that I retained so much over those breaks. I still come across words I haven’t heard since Course 1 and will understand what they mean!
When I started, I used the pause button very frequently and would redo lessons from time to time. When I did the levels, I really didn’t use the pause button at all and rarely repeated lessons. I think it helped me feel successful at first to have the time to put the sentences together, but now I enjoy the challenge of trying to say it fast enough before the speakers come in.
One of the things I love about SSIW is that I feel that I learned sentence structure and gained confidence in my speaking early on; then adding to my vocabulary wasn’t a big deal. A lot of times traditional courses do it the flip way – learn lots of vocab and eventually try to put it together in sentences and speak. I didn’t really worry much about grammar, but I feel like I learned a lot of it innately, especially in the courses where we stayed on one tense for a long period of time. It wasn’t always fun, but it was effective! I also really appreciated the forum; when everyone could contribute questions on a particular lesson of the course. I learned so much from reading those! Having done the courses, it’s been fun to do the levels and increase my practical vocabulary and understanding of the language.
I will say that I’m quite visual, so I respell the words in my head, when I couldn’t see them. I’ve been happy with my resulting accent and now that I’m transitioning to reading more, I feel that it hasn’t been too difficult to bring the correct accent to my reading (though it’s certainly still a process!). I will say that I’ve usually been a good speller in English and it’s taken time to become a good speller in Welsh, since I’ve trained myself with my made-up spellings!
Thanks to all on the SSIW team – your hard work is much appreciated!
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I’m another person who needs to be doing something else at the same time to get the most out of the lessons and challenges. When I first started Course 1 in January 2016, I found that I could only do about 10/15 minutes at a time before my mind would start to wander and I’d have to stop. I spent about 3 months getting to lesson 13, and then gave up (temporarily) as I was getting really frustrated.
I started up again in November 2016, whilst on holiday for 10 days. By the time I arrived back in the UK, I had not only recapped all the material in lessons 1-13, but had actually progressed as far as lesson 19 (I think). The difference was that I’d started doing Welsh at the same time as doing something else. Having finished Course 1 by the end of December 2016, I then sped through the entire of Level 1 too before Bwtcamp (whilst trying and failing to learn the Bwtcamp vocab). Since Bwtcamp, I have been tackling both Level 2 and Course 2 at the same time. I’m already almost a third of the way through both
About half the time, I’m crafting whilst SSIWing. Perhaps I ought to start posting some of my finished items in my progress thread, as well as my progress updates…
I’ve also discovered that Welsh is brilliant distraction on a long slow workout. I used to have a 7.5 mile beautiful training route round the Gloucestershire countryside. Now I have to do my training on a cycle circuit (where you can see the entire track from anywhere on the circuit), or in the gym. A SSIW lesson or challenge makes it much more fun.
I don’t have a problem with not using the pause button, but I do tend to need to repeat lessons/challenges. If I move on too soon, I end up at a point a couple of lessons later when everything goes to pot. I’ve found this can be mitigated by repeating them until I can get more than 80% right and out before Catrin starts speaking. This normally takes no more than 3 goes. To avoid ‘learning the lesson’, I alternate between lessons and challenges each day (for example, yesterday I did lesson 9, today I did challenge 8, and tomorrow I’ll repeat lesson 9 for the second time).
I held off reading until I’d finished both Course 1 and Level 1. I probably would have held off reading for longer, but someone suggested a trip to Palas Print, where my bank card took quite a hit. Haven’t been able to stop reading since. My vocabulary has massively increased in the last two months, both in terms of the words that I can recall on demand, and words that I would recognise in context (but couldn’t necessarily recall on demand).
I have problems with pronunciation. “ch” I can say inconsistently, but it depends on the position in the word. I’m more likely to be able to say “ch" correctly in the middle or at the end of a word than at the beginning. I can say “ll" correctly, but I have a tendency to accidentally interchange “ll" and “s”. "Dewis rhywbeth arall” was a particular bugbear a month or so back. I can sometimes roll my rs, but again, it depends on where it is in the word.
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@jennifer1 @Jane - thank you both so much for such detailed feedback - hugely helpful! Diolch o galon
I had a rule where I had to progress through one lesson a day . If I got through the lesson ok , getting most of it correct then I would wait until the next day and do the next lesson . If I struggled and felt like it hadn’t all gone in then I would repeat it that same day until I felt like it had settled in my brain . I would say that I repeated lessons more often than not. I went through all the new course and the old course in around 6 months . I used the pause button quite leberaly as I wanted the chance to answer before Catrin or it felt like it was all just washing over me. When I go back over the lessons now (as I still do a lesson every day) I now get the lesson 100% correct all the time without needing to use the pause button at all . It’s a sign of progress to think that a lot of these lessons once felt quite impossible to me .
I never actually got in to the listening exersizes properly . I tried them every now and then and found them impossible to follow. I just listened to a lot of radio Cymru instead . A couple of weeks ago , out of interest , I tried some of the listening exersizes to see how I got on with them now. To my surprise I found them so easy to understand it was just like listening to English !
I am lucky as I have my daughter to speak Welsh with at home (she has learned Welsh at school ) this has no doubt been a big help to me but it is nowhere near the same experience or challenge of speaking with a native Welsh speaker. I get quite a lot of opportunity to speak Welsh some days through work and I try to visit Welsh speaking areas when I can to practice my Welsh but I feel like I would really benefit by being completely immersed in the language for a good couple of weeks , perhaps somewhere like the Eisteddfod . I find strong accents and different dialects very hard to understand. Whereas I understand some people with relative ease , there are some people I don’t understand at all
I find that although I came out of school not able to have a basic conversation in Welsh , despite getting a GCSE C grade in it , there is a lot of vocabulary that I still remember from my school days that has undoubtedly been a big help to me.
I have still not started reading in Welsh at all . I started off only wanting to know how to speak the language and while I know most other people do a lot of reading in Welsh , it just hasn’t interested me at all for some reason , but I now feel like this is holding me back . I started doing Duolingo a couple of months ago which has helped with my Welsh writing and spelling a bit . It is quite a useful course but the words just don’t stick in my head like they do with SSIW . I would like to start reading more in Welsh now as I’m beginning to realise that it too is an important part of the learning process and it would also help to extend my vocabulary .
I never struggled at all with rolling my rs or with ll and ch. I found that they all came quite naturally to me . I think that it would definitely help more with my speaking and sounding more natural if I had more of a Welsh accent but this isn’t a big hinderence . (The Welsh accent got lost in my village with my generation)
It is a frustrating feeling when you feel like you have reached a plateau . I seem to have more plateaus as time goes on .There are some days where something happens to make me realise that I have most definitely progressed , weather it be having a really good Welsh conversation or understanding a conversation on radio Cymru and other days where it feels like my progress has stopped or I am even going backwards . I think it’s important to remember that as long as you are committed , you will be progressing slowly all the time , even if it doesn’t feel like it . Strangely it seems the more I progress the more I realise just how far I still have to go . It’s really important to get as much exposure as possible . There will be a lot of embarrassing / awkward moments but these don’t seem to bother me as much as they used to . I think learning Welsh must make you more thick skinned 
Hope this helps
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I was in Machynlleth yesterday and met up for coffee with another SSiW’er and we chatted for a bit about accents. Understanding peoples accents comes with exposure and practice so that’s something that comes with time, but what we both agreed was that using the SSiW method makes us, as learners, sound more natural. She mentioned that the learners she knows who are only using the evening class kind of route often don’t quite sound certain letters correctly and that echoed the comment that I had from a first language Welsh hill farmer who was complimenting my accent, saying that I had a natural sounding accent, and didn’t sound like I’d been learning for less than a year.
Shows (to me at least) how the whole listen and repeat approach and ignore word lists. reading, writing, etc etc in the first instance works so well and allows us to develop a good ear for the language.
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I first encountered SSiW approximately a year ago, and have been dipping in and out of it (the southern Welsh lessons, with Iestyn and Cat) since then.
I have occasional short bursts where I do lessons for several days running, then life gets in the way and I don’t do a lesson for weeks on end - although I do make the effort to revise what I’ve learned so far, having conversations with myself in my head. I often do this in bed late at night if I can’t sleep.
So far, coming and going like this, I’ve got up to lesson 18 in level 1 of what I think is the “old” course. And that leads me to the first point I want to make. I don’t know for certain whether I’m doing the old course or the new course. I don’t know how they’re different. I don’t know why or when they became different. I only know when reading the forum, people often refer to the old courses and the new levels, or the old levels and the new challenges, or heaven knows what, and I have no idea what they’re talking about.
I gather they mean some or all of the lessons were revised, with new recordings and/or new vocabulary lists, or whatever. But I’m only guessing. All I can say is, I’m doing whatever South Welsh lessons were on the website just over a year ago, because that’s when I first encountered SSiW and downloaded them.
I’m sure somewhere or other in this forum, or in the FAQ, is a straightforward, concise explanation of the overall structure of SSiW, what it consists of, why it used to have courses and now has levels or vice versa and where these things called challenges fit in, and whatever else a newcomer needs to know. I have gone looking for such an explanation, but I haven’t found it, and sorry, I can’t spare the time to look further, because this forum is truly vast in size and very daunting for a newcomer. It does make up for its daunting size in warmth and friendliness! But I hate asking questions that have already been asked and answered time and time again, which is why I haven’t mentioned this until now. I’ve been trying to find the answer on my own, with no luck.
Anyway. I am pleased to read that @aran is writing a User Guide. I think SSiW has been crying out for one for quite a while, to help ease the newcomer into it.
To answer your specific questions:
Not using the pause button: I gave that my very, very best shot, but it just did not work for me. I stuck it out for three whole lessons, during which I said almost nothing at all before Cat’s voice kicked in, and worse, by the end of the third non-pausing lesson, I was at the point where I wouldn’t even have known what to say any more even if I’d had plenty of time to say it. The new information was now coming too fast for me to take it in. My Welsh had barely improved by a syllable for three lessons, and the only thing not-pausing was doing was making me cross and feel like chucking it in. More details in this post. So I decided to ignore the don’t-pause instruction. I backtracked three lessons, paused as much as I wanted, and made a whole lot more progress. I felt considerably better when @aran explained that it was probably my well-below-average working memory that was to blame. Not pausing is probably a perfectly fine and even desirable approach for most people. I don’t want to discourage people from giving it a try. It just didn’t work for me.
Not repeating lessons: I did try that too, but discovered it just didn’t work for me, for much the same reason as not pausing didn’t work. So now, I repeat lessons if I didn’t quite grasp an explanation the first time, or if I’ve forgotten a word, or even if I just feel like it. I don’t get bored repeating lessons; on the contrary, I feel quite triumphant after playing the same lesson three or four times and realising just how much more I can get right now than the first time I did that lesson.
Do the listening exercises. I’m not even sure what that means. Is it something to do with the new course? Or is it something I will encounter further along than the stage I’ve got to at the moment?
Get a conversation partner. I probably should. But I’m feeling shy. I tend to completely dry up under pressure and it would be very embarrassing to be on the end of a Skype conversation with literally nothing to say, or not understanding what is said to me.
Put off reading. Now this, in my opinion, is SSiW’s greatest strength - the fact that it doesn’t require you to read, at least in the early stages. I love this. I LOVE it. And why I love it is best illustrated by comparing it to Duolingo.
Alongside SSiW, I’ve also been dipping in and out of Duolingo (out of curiosity - I heard of it via an online friend learning Swedish) - and I have to say, if I were only using Duolingo, I’d be making very little real progress. Sure, I’d be ticking off the Duolingo lessons completed, but as for real conversational progress in Welsh - nope. Not happening. SsiW suits me far better.
Duolingo does have audio, but (in Welsh, anyway) it’s a robot voice rather than a real one, and, primarily, Duolingo is a visual medium. It requires you to read, and to spell. There’s no getting round it. It is tolerant of the occasional typo, but nothing more than that. If you spell a word wrongly, then bzzzzzt, you got it wrong, no matter how good your pronunciation may be.
Now, I’m a very good speller in English, but a shockingly bad speller in Welsh. When I look at words in Welsh, my eyes just glaze over, and as soon as I look away, I’ve forgotten what letters they contained, let alone what order they should be in. I often know how to pronounce words in Welsh, but not how to spell them. I type in my best attempt, but it’s wrong. I got the y and w around the wrong way, or I typed i instead of u, or yr instead of 'r, or r instead of rh, or whatever. Duolingo doesn’t care that I can pronounce it just fine. You got it WRONG! Spell it again, and keep spelling until you get it right. I find this tedious. I don’t care that I’m a poor speller in Welsh. I don’t need to read and write Welsh - not at this stage anyway. I want to speak it and to understand it when I hear it. Duolingo doesn’t care what my priorities are.
In contrast, SSiW is a totally aural approach, and I love it. The only reading I ever do in SSiW is confirming that I haven’t misheard consonants because of my slight hearing disability. Everything else is aural, and for me, that is how I learn best. And it’s a real voice - two real voices, even! - which tend to stick in my mind, not a stilted artificial voice.
What’s more, in SSiW the same words are repeated over and over again in countless different combinations - and that reinforcement is exactly what I need. Duolingo introduces new vocabulary at a faster rate than SSiW - but with minimal repetition (almost non-existent repetition for some words!), I find I’m forgetting Duolingo’s new words as fast as they’re introduced. They are almost literally going in one ear and out the other. In contrast, SSiW introduces new words more gradually, but I’m much more likely to retain them into the next lesson and beyond. So what seems to be slower progress in SSiW actually works out faster in the long run.
Accept all the different ways of saying the same thing. So far, not a big problem, although that could be because I haven’t yet been exposed many instances of it. I have, though, encountered one significant contradiction - I’ve been saying a certain phrase the SSiW way (or what I thought was the SSiW way), but a Welsh speaker on Duolingo’s discussion board said no, that’s just wrong. Hmmm. Puzzling. I might post about that in a different thread. But other than that, no problem so far.
Avoid worrying about grammar. This is another thing I really love about SSiW. Grammatical explanations are kept to a minimum. They’re not (and can’t be) zero, but they are drip-fed to us on a need-to-know basis. In other words, we are given just enough grammatical explanation to understand what we’re hearing and to understand how to use this particular construction. It’s probably an incomplete explanation, but that’s OK - we don’t need to know all the rest just yet. In a later lesson, that grammatical explanation is refined or expanded on. Later still, it’s refined or expanded on still further.
This drip-feeding approach to grammar is just fine with me. It sure beats the language teacher standing at the front of the class droning on about how today we’re going to be doing the pluperfect passive subjunctive, and here are the 46 different variations of it. (I like grammar, and even I find that sort of thing tedious!)
Avoid worrying about plateaus. I haven’t worried so far, but I think that’s partly because my plateaus have been self-inflicted, to a large degree - the result of my taking long breaks from lessons - and partly because I repeat lessons until I feel confident with the material. If I were actively doing SSiW lessons but forgetting things as fast as I learned them, as with Duolingo, I’d be a lot more concerned.
Getting used to saying R. I’ve never been the world’s greatest R-roller, but I get by. Don’t ask me to say rrrrrrrrr, but I can say R in words like prynu or rhoi without embarrassing myself too much, I think.
Getting used to saying Ll; Getting used to saying Ch Both very easy, but I have a degree in linguistics. I learned to say [ll] (a lateral fricative) in phonetics class, and as for [ch], I did German in school. Never had the slightest trouble saying either of them. (Hearing them is another thing altogether, because of my slight hearing disability, but that’s not an insurmountable problem. I just check each word in writing when it’s first introduced, to see whether the fricative is [ll] or [ch] or [dd] or [f] or [v] or whatever. As long as I know which one it’s meant to be, I can pronounce it just fine.)
That’s about all I can think of to say. Not sure if any of this is useful to you, @aran, but you can use whatever you like.
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I just thought of one more thing.
I’ve read in this forum that some people multitask while they are listening to the SSiW lessons. They do the ironing, or walk the dog, or drive, or whatever.
I can’t do that - and not just because I don’t have any gadget to play the recordings on, only a desktop computer. The reason I can’t do it is that I have to give SSiW my complete attention.
I switch off the light, put on my headphones, curl up in a comfortable armchair next to the computer, start up the recording (with finger poised ready to click on Pause), close my eyes, and concentrate 100% on the lesson. It’s the only way I can manage it. A couple of times I’ve tried doing mindless tasks at the same time such as shelling peas. Nope. Didn’t work. Not only did I keep having to fumble for the Pause button, but even having my eyes open made it impossible to concentrate.
I mention this in case there’s anyone else out there who is equally unable to multitask but has been reading how other people can do it and is wondering “What’s wrong with me?” There’s nothing wrong with you. Find whatever works for you, and do it. By all means be open to new suggestions, but don’t kick yourself if what works for other people doesn’t work for you. It’s not a race. What matters is that you make progress that you are happy with, and that you enjoy the journey.
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Thank you so much for that hugely interesting and detailed input, Matilda - really enormously helpful…
If you’re in Level 1, that’s the new material… When you click on Challenges (well, you have to click twice if you’re in the forum - once to take you to the lesson site, and then to open up the list of courses) you should see Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Old material - if you click on Old material, you’ll see Course 1, Course 2, Course 3… so the ‘Courses’ are the older stuff, and the ‘Levels’ are the newer stuff…
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I’m the same. I can’t multi task while doing a lesson either . I have to give SSIW my full attention so I sit down in a quiet room with no noise where I won’t be disturbed
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