Because I live in London I spend about an hour or so on the Underground each day. I therefore try and listen to one of the challenges on the way to work. On the way back I’ll listen to the same challenge again if it was a difficult one or a different one if the first was easy.
At work I try and cast my eye over the vocabulary from the challenge I’ve just listened to if I have time.
I also read a textbook when I have time and, also, one of those Welsh vocabulary books where the words are broken down into subjects such as ‘the town’, ‘transport’ etc.
I presume you can’t actually say anything on the Tube or people would look at you very sideways! Do you find stuff sinks in OK if you just listen? I ask because I frequently fail to speak in time and that feels like total failure!
I either say it in my head or mouth it quietly to myself. In terms of speaking in time, I occasionally use the pause button if I want to give myself a few more seconds to get the sentence right in my head. Generally find I’m keeping up with it reasonably well though and, yes, it does seem to register although I also look at the vocabulary regularly afterwards. Occasionally there’ll be an awkward phrase that takes a bit of time to stick.
These days i do the new lessons as soon as they are out. I supplement vocab with memrise and duolingo. Always have radio cymru on in the car and have a welsh chat at least once a week.
I also have just started reading in welsh and try to “talk to myself” too.
But good luck with it. Sounds like you’re doing very well.
Diolch for starting this thread Stuart! I’m rather curious to read about the regimes of others. Since my commute to work basically takes the length of the upstairs landing, I set aside some time for study either before or after work.
I’ve been happily plodding through a challenge a day. Whilst I have purchased ‘Cant Y Cant’, ‘Camu Ymlaen’, ‘Ling Di Long’ and the ‘Blodwen Jones’ trilogy, I shan’t rummage through them until after completing Course 1, as my primary focus is to speak the language. However, I have placed the lyrics to Sŵnami’s ‘Gwenwyn’ in Evernote, amongst others, and enjoy revisiting each verse after every few challenges taken, comprehending a little more each time and witnessing my progress in all it’s glory. Finally, for the pure joy of hearing this beautiful language, I listen to Radio Cymru each morning over a hearty breakfast!
A simple but effective routine for my journey’s beginning, though suggestions and adjustments are very welcome and in fact, encouraged!
This made me think about it, and so I’ve just realised that most things in my life have become Welsh in some way…
Music, books, Skype, school notes, all other notes/to-do lists/things like that and even some video games have just sort of shifted into Welsh. And S4C has half-replaced YouTube.
So I’m not actively trying to learn at the moment, but learning is happening, I think (or hope).
I like to do a chunk when I do the big 2 1/2 hour drive back and forth to my boyfriend by downloading everything to my phone and putting it on auto play. It usually goes too fast for everything to sink in so I spend the week listening to them again at home or in the car on shorter journeys. It gives me a chance to hear or read the vocab elsewhere in the week, meaning I have extra associations to aid with my memory, and things are much easier the second time round. It’s probably not recommended but it works well for me.
Love the idea of writing to do lists in Welsh
Can’t seem to find Welsh on Memrise! Is it unavailable on Android or something?
I see the Welsh courses on memrise on Android. You have to go to the “More languages” link as it is not one of the dozen or so listed on the first screen, but there are actually dozens of welsh courses on memrise. Here’s just one example:
I commute to work by train each day. I listen to a challenge one day then I repeat it the following day. For the remainder of my journeys I usually read some of a Welsh learner book (Ffenestri by Lois Arnold at the moment), listen to some Welsh music (Sŵnami are my current favourite) or watch Pobol Y Cwm on my phone.
I try to go to Paned a Sgwrs (a conversational group) in my lunch break on a Thursday but I sometimes struggle to get there depending on what’s happening in work. I go to Cwrs Sylfaen on a Wednesday evening for two hours a week (although I’m finding this slow going at the moment). I also get involved with Awr Y Dysgwyr on Twitter on a Monday night.
Seems like quite a lot! Tbh I’d like to do more speaking practice.
I find it interesting that a lot of the people on here say that they listen to the lessons, rather than speaking. For me, it was the speaking part that made all the difference - the physical act of speaking out loud is quite different from just imagining in my head what I would say. When I then went to meet real, live Welsh speakers ‘in the wild’ it felt perfectly natural to speak to them - less of a massive hurdle - as I’d been chatting away to Iestyn and Cat quite happily…
I have finished the course now (I just hang around here for the interesting conversation!) but I used to do them while doing mundane household tasks. I was lucky enough not to have a commute at the time!
Yes, I think that speaking is an essential part, although I can see that it might be a bit tricky on, say a London bus. In my case, my learning is in my work vehicle, so a bit easier. However, I try not to look at other road users during my responses, in case they think I am commenting on their driving skills
I find two runs through each challenge is about right for me, followed by a check on the (desktop) vocab text and sometimes some other online translators just for the tongue twisters. Mainly to see where one word ends and the next starts (eg. stuff like pa mor uchel, nad ydyn ni & dydy hynna ddim).
By the way, although I had already completed both versions of Course 3, I am really enjoying the new Level 3 with plenty of real Welsh to go at. I found Challenge 6 to have a nice, slightly less pressured feel to it.
With the past four or five challenges (I just listened to 12 though I need to go back), I’ve been writing the vocabulary in my notebook BEFORE listening so I kind of know what’s coming. Then I listen through, repeating some things here and there but probably not everything. Probably while I’m making coffee/in the shower/driving. Later I listen again but use the pause button after really long sentences so I can write them down first, then say them. I want to be able to do both and I’m trying to keep what I’m hearing connected to how things are spelled.
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