This is my first post on here so I’m unsure whether there is somewhere specific I should be posting this! I pretty new to SSiW and went on the bootcamp in July which was AMAZING! Hugely increased my confidence in speaking.
My partner, who is completely new to learning Welsh, has done the first 3 lessons on the app (repeating each one). He’s finding it hard to repeat the sentences in the time allowed and to remember it all which he’s finding a bit frustrating. As someone who grew up in Wales (and have essentially been learning Welsh all my life to very limited success!) it’s a bit different using SSiW having some knowledge of Welsh to begin with compared with none. Obviously many of you will have learnt from scratch using SSiW extremely successfully (as evidenced at the July bootcamp :-)) Does anyone have any advice, tips, words of encouragement that I can pass on to him beyond just to persevere? Or is there a thread/hand tips section I can point him towards?
Hi, Vicky - glad to hear you’ve got the Bootcamp Bounce too!
When I started SSIW, I couldn’t get my head round the answers quickly enough either, and as I hadn’t realised learners were advised not to use the pause button, I used it every time. I don’t know if that’s even possible on the app?
Later, and partly because I had read the advice to say whatever came to mind without thinking too much about it, I did the lessons while doing the housework. Gradually, I started to get 70-80% correct answers, and where I didn’t, I repeated lessons or even single phrases until I felt more confident.
If duffers like me can do it, your partner will be fine, with the huge bonus of support and encouragement from you. He’ll be ready for his first Bootcamp before long!
I’d offer your partner three comments/suggestions.
1 - it is hard - it’s meant to be hard - because that’s what gets the results. So it’s normal to feel that it’s hard to produce the sentences in time - everyone feels that at first. When the sentences get too long, just do what you can, and listen to the rest - it’s all valuable exposure to the patterns, and the method doesn’t depend on you getting everything ‘right’.
2 - he’s not meant to be able to remember it all at first. That’s a hangover from school approaches to learning, where if you can’t remember something, it means you haven’t learnt it, and you get a bad mark. That’s not a good reflection of how learning actually happens - the more exposure you have to something, the more often you try to recall it (successfully or not), the closer you are to a reliable, active memory. If he keeps on pushing on (through 5 or 10 sessions, maybe) and then comes back to the first 2 or 3 that he’s currently finding difficult, he’ll discover they’ve become easier.
3 - if he wants to see what it’s like when someone really, really finds it tough, but commits (over time) to the process, he could do no better than having a look at Tatjana’s journey (even if he skims it rather than reading every post!):
On the second note: Thank you @aran. I actually didn’t think my journey would be of some use to other people, but more and more of learners here keep me telling they’ve got inspiration and help from it. Diolch i bawb.
On the third note: Vicky, tell your partner that sometimes I even now (after going through the courses and lessons for who knows what time already) have quite hard times remembering all long sentences and giving the right answer for that reason. So, for one who just began it’s way normal they have difficulties with that especially as you actually don’t quite expect what comes next. One sentence is short then all of a sudden you get the sentence which is (from the view of learner) extreamly long and I found myself many times paying attention to how long the sentence is rather then what it really wants me to translate into … I don’t know does he do Challenges (new course) or Lessons (old course) but if old course the best example for finding out how relatively easy things become in time is two-parted Lesson 6. When I did it the first time it was totally impossible for me to do at all and I admit I kind of sulked that time protesting with being totally quiet however I’ve listened to what tutors have to say anyway (yup I was still determined to do things right one day and so I’ve stubbornly listened to the lesson until the end of it). Then (paid gwneud hyny ) I’ve repeated that lesson over and over again - without any major success of course until one day I didn’t loose my nerves and just went over this Lesson 6 completely. I’ve just left it out with the note I’ll come to it later. I’ve completed all the course before I returned to that lesson 6 again and WALLA! all of a sudden it was all way easier and I just asked myself “What i was moanong about at all? It’s not that hard!”
So, yes, he need not to repeat the things until he gets over. Other lessons eventually can be done even without being 100 % correct in one of previous lessons so, yes, I’m living proof that @aran is 100 % right.
And … WELCOME TO THE FORUM VICKY!!! and thank you for everything. Yes, bootcamp was amazing!
All the best to your partner! He will be Welsh speaker in no time, you’ll both see especially as he can practice speaking every day live with you, What if you know more of the language then he does. This should only be bonus to everything.
A belated thank you very much for all this advice, much appreciated. I passed it on to him and he also sends his thanks (I don’t go on the forum that often, though I should!)
