I hope this is the right place to ask this. Firstly let me say I’m pretty hopeless in social situations - I never know what to say and my mind goes blank (even in English). This is one of the reasons I haven’t had any Skype conversations yet. So you’d think this recorded conversation thing would be excellent for me. Well, yes, but I am feeling some stress about what to ask. At first I was very concerned about asking an original question, especially right at the beginning when there weren’t too many questions. But now there are lots of questions and new answerers joining, there must be repeats of questions already asked, so maybe originality isn’t important at all. And how basic can a question be? Could it be as simple as ‘what is your name?’ or ‘how are you today?’ ?
Yes, Emma, it doesn’t have to be original or complicated, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a question that has been asked before - and it doesn’t have to be perfect Welsh yet either! It’s the task of asking the question that’s important in the learning process, not the question itself.
It’s very common to feel hopeless in social situations - even though I’ve got the hang of video chats on Slack now, this type of anxiety is something I’ve had to deal with over time too - and I know it’s “easier said than done” but recognising when you’re over-thinking a task or situation is a good step towards stopping the over-thinking that causes the anxiety.
Ask as basic a question as you want - you can always ask something longer and more complicated or original later on once you’re comfortable doing so 
And if you ever want to chat on video (or even audio only) on Slack, let me know (or there are plenty of others willing to help too) - it doesn’t have to be a long chat or 100% in Welsh, but it really will help your confidence.
Hi Emma,
As someone else who finds social situations a bit challenging at times but has done the posting a question bit I’ll second Siaron’s comments that it really doesn’t need to be original. Where are you from, how are you, how long have you been learning Welsh, etc are all fine. I don’t know how good you are with technology but I wrote out what I wanted to say in English then recorded the question several times before picking the least worst one to upload.
The only person who’ll judge you is you, and it’s a great feeling when someone actually understands what you’ve said and posts an answer.
Thanks @siaronjames and @vikta!
That’s really encouraging. I’ll probably have a bit of free time on Monday afternoon, so I’ll make an appointment with myself to try some recording then Now I’ve said it I’ve no excuse for putting it off any longer.
Here’s another of my inovative questions, this time with mistakes. Forest is “coedwig” and not “coed” as I’ve said.
Enjoy.
I did it! Here’s my first question:
And here’s my second:
Now I can start answering some questions!
Here’s my question.
I have no idea if I have done this right?!
Oops! Just realised that I have got this wrong! I answered somebody else’s question instead of posting my own! 
Not to worry, it’s all grist to the mill…
One new from me …
After a while here’s new question from me.
Here’s a question from me. My first on here
Question from Carol Thomas currently doing level 1Listen to Question from Carol Thomas currently doing level 1 by Carol W T #np on #SoundCloud