Course 1 vs Level 1 - which? Why? When? What?!

@Kathryn I remember lesson 6! I thought it was all falling apart overnight. It’s honestly not. I switched to the new Level One shortly after and it felt like flying in comparison. I promise you you’re not a hopeless case - it’s all Lesson 6’s fault!

As Aran says, Level One is much better, but if you run out of lessons and don’t want to stop, my advice would be don’t be afraid of going back to Course 1 and the rest afterwards, even if you just press on through the difficult bits - it will come together in the end. I’m just starting Course 3 and that seemed like an impossible dream when I was ploughing my way through the 3rd miserable attempt at Lesson 6, wondering if it would be easier to gouge my brain out with a spoon.

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:slight_smile: I can remember I just went through both lessons 6 two times then I just gave up on them both carying on. “Woo, that’s more like it!” I remember me exclaiming when finishing Lesson 7 and just pushed on all the way to Lesson 25. I even did all vocab lessons (which were also brainmelting to me) before I returned back to those Lessons 6 realizing they’re easier now.

To be honest though, Level 1 (all the way to Challenge 15 (to where I came and then gave up) was as taugh as Lesson 6 of old course to me. But obviously it’s only me having hard times with Levels as all the rest of you here fly as an aricraft through them. :slight_smile:

Might be I’m not at mach speed yet obviously.

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Thank you for your kind and encouraging replies.
i guess I’m being a wimp, but I don’t have a lot of faith in my abilities. I do want to give this a go though (I tried a different course once before and didn’t find it anywhere near as helpful) and I think I’m going to listen to Level 1 and see how soon I come up against a wall again and then try to keep on pushing through.
It’s good to hear of people who’ve ‘been there and done that’ and I thank you so much for helping me to see I just have to keep going even if at times I don’t feel I’m getting anywhere.
A great course and a great forum :grinning:

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Any time you feel stuck, Kathryn, come on the forum - there are people here who have been stuck at every single point you might possibly get stuck on, and you’ll get the support, encouragement and advice you need to end up a very confident and successful speaker, I promise :sunny:

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Thank you so much for your support and I’ll report back and let you all know how I’m getting on…see, I’m being positive! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Hi just wanting to keep in touch the level one course is going well although just finished lesson 13, a bit of a mouthful so i’ve gone over it again a couple of times. Enjoying learning Cymraeg very much only i’m a bit short of people to talk too. Hope someone can turn up soon trying to find out who may be available here in Alice Springs Australia. Oh by the way I am doing the Southern course too thanks. oh I am watching some old rugby commentaries of rugby in Wales good thing is some of the commentaries are in Welsh good listening practice and listening practice 2 in the level one course is awesome, where it is twice the normal speed. Thanks.

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Don’t get stuck on it more than that, though - push on with more new stuff - you can always come back to it later if you really want/need to :sunny:

Great to hear that you’re having fun with the listening exercises!

Just wondering whether to have a go at the northern challenges. I’ve finished course 3 (southern) and the the level 1 challenges as far as they go at the moment and am spending more time reading in Welsh than actually speaking. I notice that most of the written material for learners appears to be northern so thought it might do me some good. Does it matter if I end up speaking a mixture?

I started with the northern and on completion, did much of the southern, after finding I had a little difficulty understanding, Iestyn on my first Bootcamp. I found it very useful for general comprehension of the spoken language; and following more on the radio and television. I catch myself mixing elements of both courses depending on whom I’m speaking to: much to my own amusement.
I found myself after a few hours shooting through the southern lessons as there’s not much difference between them.

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Hello! I’m on lesson 10 of Course 1 and am really enjoying it, doing 1 or 2 lessons a week.

However, I’ve only just seen that people seem to recommend doing Level 1 rather than Course 1.

Should I stop and start doing Level 1 or carry on with Course 1? What do you think?

Thought I would chip in here. I started with first half a dozen lessons of the old course one.
Then switched to the new level 1. I think its much better and have now abandoned all of the old course material on Aran’s advice.
He was quite right too but I did have to get used to the new material first. Once you get used to it you will find new level 1 is far better. Just my opinion though

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Thanks Ann!

Should add that I’m doing Southern.

You are welcome. Mine is Southern too. :blush:

If you’re progressing smoothly, then it doesn’t really matter too much either way :sunny:

I think the new material is a lot better - but we know the old stuff works too. The only thing I’d bear in mind is that we’re not currently producing new material for the southern version as fast as we’d like, although fingers crossed that will change in the not-too-distant future… :sunny:

If you do decide to switch to the new Level 1, maybe when you have finished it, you could quickly run through the last couple of lessons of Course1 and see how you get on.

Then it might be worth going through the Course 1 vocabulary. Some of it may be familiar by then, but it should probably fill in a few gaps.

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Hi, I am pleased to say that I have just completed course 1 and i’m still going on Level 1 on lesson 18. I’m enjoying the Welsh language and never thought that I would be speaking Welsh like I am. Awesome I just want to thank everyone and I will continue on I’m still looking for people to talk to however, I’m sure they will turn up Dioch.

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That’s the spirit! Keep on looking, and you will find people in the end :sunny: :thumbsup:

Hi, I am coming to the end of Level 1, it has been awesome had a bit of frustration when I thought that I was doing alright and then I hit lesson 21, wow a bit of a mouthful however, it was great when I think of how much there is to learn and actually what makes or puts a language together. I will leave thinking too hard about that for now still loving the learning tho yes I did get a bit frustrated last night but I think that was a good thing and a wake up call. Still have not found anyone to talk too that is possibly whats letting me down a bit so I just keep talking to myself thanks .

Everyone has ups and downs with different lessons, Peter, don’t worry about that - you don’t need to master every individual lesson to end up speaking the language :sunny:

Hello! So I’m a little confused. I’ve been trying to learn for some time now (read: years) but I’ve had to take some huge breaks leaving me only on lesson 6 of Course 1. I’ve been terrible at using the forum, and can’t remember seeing the Levels when I first started. As I have come relatively short on my learning journey, should I jump over to Level 1? Or finish Course 1? See I’m not sure I understand what the difference is other than one being newer! I hope someone can explain! Diolch!