I’ve just got my first lesson but I’ve decided to swap to north instead of south how do I do that?
Thanks,
Josie
If you go into settings you will see at the top of the page ‘REGION’ with a simple switch from south to North next to it.
Goodbye fellow southerner. 
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The only settings I have is account settings and it doesn’t mention region at all, just my personal details. 
Josie
Are you looking on the website or on the app?
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on the website
Josie
If you go to Challenge 1 and look down underneath the actual sound file, you should see the ‘switch region’ option - it’ll say something like ‘switch to northern region’… 
Found it, that’s great, thanks for your help 
Josie
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((sob))
Only joking!
Enjoy…
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Traitor!! 
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Why don’t people just learn Welsh. It does not matter if it is N or S. Welsh is Welsh and the differences are unimportant until you need to use local dialects.
If you learn English you learn English. You do not learn Cornish English or Glasgow English until you move to live there.
Is it possible for SSiW to standardise the lessons such that people learn Welsh rather than treating Welsh as two almost separate languages. In fact it is not time that the Government or whoever organises language courses standardised lessons throughout Wales.
I think the point here is that whilst with English there is what we’ve come to accept as ‘standardised English’ with all its regional variations, with Welsh there are these two traditionally variant forms of Welsh, which even if the differences today are not so great with people moving around and so on, nevertheless are still sufficiently distinct so as to make it tricky to meld them together for teaching purposes.
I for one am glad that we have the choice of the two traditions, but that doesn’t mean that over time one doesn’t pick up a lot of the alternative phraseology - gyda/efo, moyn/isio, eisiau/angen, nawr/rwan, llaeth/llefrith, and so forth. Indeed, there are numerous discussions about these variations on the forum, and some learners go on to do the Northern challenges after they’ve done the Southern ones, and vice versa.
One day perhaps they will all meld together so as to be indistinguishable, but they don’t at present and until they do it is reasonable to be given a choice as to which pathway one wishes to follow. Ultimately, yes, one is just speaking Welsh, but the kind of Welsh you’re speaking will inevitably be influenced in part by whichever version you choose to learn.
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But…but…I like Southern accent! Why don’t you want to let me just learn that? 
More seriously. As an outsider for both languages and countries - who had/has a hard time understanding different accents in both - I would say that the first main differences to me seem:
- in England most people learn English as a first language and use it all the time. That also makes it easier to master it enough and be more flexible to understand different accents (same for me in Italy - while foreigners struggle way more to adapt to local differences in accents and words).
In Wales not everybody learns it as first language, and even if they do I have the impression that they don’t always use it in every day life as much as an English-native can do with English.
Learning a second language is not as smooth as the first, and from what I’m hearing there is quite a difference between Southern and Northern in many ways - so learning the one you’re more likely going to speak makes your life much easier.
Having said that, I’m doing the Southern course, but I could do Northern as well, if I wanted; and for example the advanced content hasn’t featured anyone from the South yet - so there’s plenty of chances to practice Northern as well in SSiW - and differences are interesting I’m kinda against flattening everything to fit into standards. (just my opinion anyway)
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My children learned a standardised Welsh in school and because they grew up in a town where no one else spoke Welsh they missed out on so much. They have trouble understanding colloquial.welsh speakers in the real world north or south. Their Welsh is very good but it’s a classroom Welsh. The point of SSiW is to get you speaking as quickly as possible to local people and to be being able to understand and be understood. The North or South choice is extremely important to someone in the far south West like myself. Most of my chatting will be done to locals down here. Of course some people on the forum have chosen to speak Welsh for varying reasons and do not live in Wales. An American lady I met said her ancestors hailed from North Wales and so she chose North and an Italian lady on the forum was introduced to Welsh through music and the fabulousl band Datblygu who hail from Cardigan so she’s chosen South. Fantastic reasons to choose don’t you think and we are very lucky to have this choice.
My eldest daughter was born in 1991 and went to Welsh infants aged 3. Soon after I joined a evening class called dosbarth nos that was a southern course. I also over the years joined several mynediad classes and they too were honed to south. I never got past the 6 month mark of any evening class for one reason or another. After class we would sometimes attend a local cyd group and it was soul destroying to see how much I hadn’t learned.
My latest and last attempt to learn Welsh came when I went back to Cyd and moaned that I still.want to learn Welsh but dread going back to the classroom. I was then introduced to SSIW 12months ago last November and now I can speak Welsh. Also because of the diversity of learners on here I can get by in North Wales too without a problem and spent a lovely weekend in Bethesda putting the world to rights until 3 in the morning in a local pub. The differences in North/South Welsh seem vast but are actually not they seem many but are actually very few. It’s the same language at the end of the day with regional variations.
Sorry if that’s a bit long-winded ha not gonna reread until after posting. My thumb is numb and I need a coffee. 
Oops had to edit. 
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I feel like I’ve opened a whole can of worms by asking a simple question. I was undecided which to learn because the programme I’m watching with subtitles is south, and I like practising with duolingo in odd moments through the day - which I think is south. However, the friends I’m staying with in the summer speak north.
Tbh it doesn’t really matter. I’d like to learn both in time. I just needed a place to start. Thankfully (now that I know how to do it) I can swap from one to the other with SSiW whenever I feel ready.
Josie
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Maybe tomorrow 
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The can has always been open josie. We all have different opinions on this which is great and makes for some interesting conversations. Lots of people on here have done both North and South courses. In the end we all speak Welsh. Hooray for that. Enjoy your journey
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Just enjoy your Welsh you’re always learning whether it is north or south.
I am mid Wales and I find I use both without thinking where it originates it just slips out of my mouth.
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I’m really loving it, thanks. And yes, that’s my hope - that both will find space in my head 
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There was an initiative to teach a unified Welsh ironically titled “Living Welsh” and I was taught a version of this in the 70s and 80s at school - result was I came out with an A grade GCSE in a language I could not actually speak at all!
I have learned the Southern version as I’m from Cardiff, and am now enjoying getting to grips with the Northern version (for understanding more than speaking). The differences are not as big as they seem, and I think they are to be celebrated.
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The government have already tried to do that, and it’s been largely unsuccessful - look up the history of ‘Cymraeg Byw’ - it left learners sounding very artificial to first language speakers, by all accounts.
For us, it was an easy decision to offer two - in fact, we talked about offering more - because it isn’t possible to standardise without undermining dialectical variations - and if you undermine dialect, you get more first language speakers feeling that their Welsh ‘isn’t good enough’ and becoming more likely to switch to English.
English is an entirely different matter - it’s been hugely standardised (perhaps more than any other language?) by a hugely powerful mass media. That mass media has never existed in Wales - we have precisely one TV channel, and have only had that since the 1980s - and partly because of that, differences in dialect are far more wide-ranging and socially important than is the case with English.
We’re always telling people that the choice of northern or southern isn’t very important - that either way, you’ll end up being able to understand most variations - but having the choice is a key part of why SSiW learners get so much praise for sounding natural, and that’s a hugely important step on the emotional journey to success…
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