Course 1 Northern Am I Normal? (plus remaining Level 2 North course notes)

@4Ruth Try this: Northern Level 1 Content Guide

The FAQ is different on the original vs. new/beta websites, I think that might be why you are having trouble.

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Got it!! Thanks so much Anna.
As always the people on this forum are all so helpful. Much appreciated. Thank you all.

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Maybe only the new layout has those links. Looks like @AnnaC got it sorted for you.

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Thanks Craig. Canā€™t wait to crack on with the Challenges now!

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Thanks for the kind words, folks - donā€™t worry, I donā€™t beat myself up over the vocabs too muchā€¦:wink:

But I am very conscious that they only came into existence because I saw at first hand on the initial Bootcamps that people whoā€™d done Course 1 had some important gaps, so we needed to fill them - and then the vocabs for Course 2 were just a matter of continuing the pattern without really thinking all that closely about itā€¦

The Levels, by contrast, are designed from the start to include the key stuff that wasnā€™t in Course 1, and to weave vocab extension into the main body of the course, which is why there arenā€™t separate vocab units on the Levels - which in turn means that the spaced repetition for vocab introduced in the Levels is much, much betterā€¦ :sunny:

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I wasnā€™t sure where to put this, but ā€¦ Has anyone else had a problem of thinking they know the Cymraeg for something, failing to find it in a dictionary and discovering via Google that it is from another language? I have always tended to put in, say Cymraeg, when feeling for and failing to find a word in, say French, but this isnā€™t quite the same!! I was sure ā€˜Tir na nogā€™ meant ā€˜Fairylandā€™!! It sort of does, but in Irish Gaelic, which I have never learned!!!

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I find myself inserting French words when I donā€™t know the Cymraeg word, and only realising afterwards. Only/seulement is a common culprit. Iā€™ve not studied French for 6 years, since I was at school, but it seems I remember a lot more of it accidentally than I am able to reproduce consciouslyā€¦

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Hi Ruth. I know Iā€™m miles behind you but I just wanted to tell you how encouraging I have found reading your various comments as I have also started aged 51 (just finished Northern Course 1: 6.2) and didnā€™t know how I would get on, particularly as a friend who teaches German at the university (Birmingham) said heā€™d tried learning Welsh and found that, being in his fifties, was too old and gave up! I have managed to stick to a bit each day for the last 3 weeks and am really enjoying this method of learning. Thereā€™s a strong possibility that we may move to Wales in a few years, and I would like to at least be able to have some sort of conversations with Welsh speakers. And thank you, Aran and the team, for such an excellent resource.

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I had the opposite problem in France shortly after the boot camp last April. When I thanked a waitress in Lyon she looked puzzled and I then realised Iā€™d said diolch yn fawr.

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Helo! Iā€™m so pleased that my learning journey has encouraged or helped anyone! Welcome to the forum, and you are doing so well yourself to have got that far in 3 weeks. Your university friend who couldnā€™t learn Cymraeg didnā€™t have SSiW so perhaps thatā€™s why he struggled! I also know a lady who is French, but also speaks Spanish in addition to English - and she threw her hands in the air in a very Gallic expression of horror when I told her I was learning Welsh, exclaiming that Welsh is ā€™ so so hard!ā€™ . It did make me feel a little bit brainy and smug that she was impressed with me doing it but i really think itā€™s just got a bad reputation!

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@4Ruth @Kays Okay, so we could form a clubā€¦Iā€™m the same age, too. :slight_smile: Welcome to the forum, Kays.

@4Ruth Your journey has encouraged and inspired me, too. And, you have every right to feel brainy! Iā€™m impressed by how quickly you are progressing. I donā€™t know if Welsh is really hard, or if it just has a bad reputation, but we can just let everyone think weā€™re really smart, canā€™t we? :wink:

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I love that Anna! Yes I do agree that itā€™s a good thing if everyone thinks we are incredibly brainy and we must not dispel that illusion!

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Yes!! Except in my case the ā€˜another languageā€™ is Welshā€¦ from my childhood (ok, so thatā€™s a moment or two ago) but Iā€™m staggered as to how different the language is now.

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A warm welcome to the forum, Kays, and thank you very much indeed for your very kind words :sunny:

Iā€™ll recommend the course to him! And of course weā€™re brainy - because we found our way to this site! Thanks for your reply (and yours too, Anna). Iā€™ve never used a forum before, and itā€™s lovely to have such helpful and friendly responses.

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Oh yes!! I too have discovered that problem!! But as I also suffer from learning de and gog, Iā€™m never sure if the word is gog, de or just plain old!!! Discovering Iā€™ve picked up bits of languages without realising it makes things even more confusing!! I suppose itā€™s good for my 73+ year old brain!!! :grinning:

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Iā€™m feeling all positive again. Loving doing Level 1 so much. Iā€™m finding the short forms are going in quite easily because theyā€™re surrounded by words I know!! Up to Challenge 14. Happy days!

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Happy to hear that you are doing well again! Thanks for sharing that about the short formsā€¦I feel like a lot of people on the forum have mentioned that they had a hard time with those, and so your comment makes me feel less worried about whatā€™s to come. Not that Iā€™m there yet; Iā€™m currently doing Course 2 Gwers 3. My pace has slowed down a little in the intermediate course, because there is so much new stuff packed into each lesson. Itā€™s really fun to expand what I can say with every new one, though, even if it takes a few repetitions to get it all straight :slight_smile:

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Hi Anna
Yes donā€™t worry - I slowed up quite a lot on Course 2 as well. I think maybe Course 3 is a bit intensive with the short forms, perhaps itā€™s easier almost going back a step to Level 1 and having them introduced right from the off but in really early (simple) patterns? Iā€™ve certainly had no problems yet and finding most lessons are there with one listen, which has really reassured me how much I do know from the Courses.(Iā€™m sure at some point I will be finding it hard again though so mustnā€™t get too carried away with myself!)

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Yes, Course 3 seems like a bit of a mountain to climb, whereas with the Level 1 / Level 2 approach, you can to some extent bypass the mountain and eventually get to the same place, with perhaps just a few small hills or bumpy patches in the road. Hopefully, by the end of Level 2, if one then went through Course 3, it would probably seem a lot easier. Will be interesting to see what Level 3 sounds like.

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