Hello tatjana, nice to meet you.The next conversation will be interesting - I’m sure I used up all the words and phrases I know in the first one.
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Hello Aran. Thank you for all your encouragement. I honestly thought I couldn’t do this, so all credit to you. I’ve read the book too (High Intensity learning) and it makes sense. I think part of the reason I kept progressing was because it was just between me and the computer, and your encouraging words. I know if I’d been in a class I would quickly have been discouraged by other people going faster / better than me. I need to work hard at not getting discouraged now I’ve come out of the closet. It feels a bit exposed, now, and I don’t want that confidence to slip away.
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Thank you, a-jay.
Diolch, AnnaC. I will do my best to ‘dal ati’.
Hello Jason - wow1 well done, I daren’t start course 2 yet. My very, very first attempt at a live conversation was in a ball pool with my grandson. I trotted out ‘I’ve just started learning how to speak Welsh’ (in Cymraeg, of course, but I’ve no idea how to write the sentence in Welsh…) to a complete stranger, who gabbled on about colours and I had no idea what to say next. There was an awkward silence and in the time it took me to turn bright red and try to fish out something - anything - from my shallow pool of Welsh words - the woman and her baby had left the ball pool. Funny now, but mortifying at the time.
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This forum is the best place for that! Any time you feel discouraged or frustrated, come on here and share - there will always be people around who’ve been through what you’re going through - because the ebb and flow of language acquisition always figures out a way to trip you up sometimes…
Right now, though, I think you should have a careful think through moving on to Course 1 - it really isn’t a progression from Level 1 - and if you’ve done Level 1, however scary the thought of Level 2 might be, it will do you far, far more good than going through the older stuff, I promise… 
Oh, and you won’t discover that you’re very poor at speaking to real people - the first time you do it, you’ll discover that it’s a skill you haven’t acquired yet - but your success with Level 1 shows that you have the neurological functioning you need to become a Welsh speaker - so once your brain has had enough of the right kind of exposure, you will be a Welsh speaker - even though each new step in the journey will always feel a bit tough at first!
Are you doing the daily listening exercises? Those will make a huge difference for when you’re ready to jump into the deep water with a live speaker…
I’ve not been doing the daily listening exercises. Are they the ones you pay for? I’ve been looking at the various payment options, but am not sure yet which I will go for. Any advice?
Sorry, bit misleading from me to call them ‘daily listening exercises’ when we already have some of those on the old courses - what I meant was the accelerated listening exercises that you’ve already had access to with Level 1 (but doing them, ideally, on a daily basis, since they’re just 5 minutes)…
Umm, payment options? I think we just have the monthly payment for Welsh, don’t we?..
@franhunni probably counted Growth Club in and/or monthly subscription for all languages, that’s why he mentioned “verious payment options”. At least this is what I can remember of with that.
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I have been doing the accelerated listening exercises - if they are the crazy fast ones!
Re Course One. Aran, you say it isn’t progression. I’m going through it with only one listen through per lesson. I’m at lesson 15 and I’ve learnt new structures and quite a lot of new vocabulary, so I feel it’s helpful -especially the he/she in different tenses. I got really stuck on my first (only) proper attempt at a conversation only knowing I and you.
I feel reluctant to launch straight into Level 2. It seems like a big leap.
I’d appreciate your thoughts.
They’re still the same…
Course 1 isn’t a progression from Level 1 - sure, there’s some different stuff in there, but it doesn’t build on or repeat (except at random) the material in Level 1, which is what Level 2 does.
Why does Level 2 seem like a big leap? It’s just the continuation of Level 1 - in fact, if we removed the names ‘Level 1’ and ‘Level 2’, we’d be left with a straightforward set of of lessons - you could easily say that the first lesson of Level 2 is just the 26th lesson of Level 1…
But if you’re enjoying going through Course 1, by all means continue. Just be aware that the extra gap you’re taking between Level 1 Challenge 25 and Level 2 Challenge 01 will make the first challenge of Level 2 feel a bit tougher when you reach it, because it will be more time since you had to produce those structures…
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(Sorry, I can’t work out how to quote your bit, Aran, so I’m writing it out)
‘Why does it seem like such a leap?’
I’m not sure. Maybe it’s because I never expected to get to the end of course one. It’s required a huge effort. I’m probably wanting to do the equivalent of lying down and catching my breath after a hard physical work out:)
I will take your advice, gird my mental loins p, and carry on…
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How about: you just spent all morning digging the garden, and now you get to plant some seeds? Or you’ve done all the wallpaper stripping, filling and sanding, and now you get to paint the walls?
(I’m desperately trying to think of another metaphor that doesn’t include chores/jobs - but I do think those are the fun bits!)
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Here it is @franhunni a little something (no they’re actually step by step instructions) on how to quote.
Enjoy quoting. 
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You sound as though you’ve got some good self-understanding going on there - it’s definitely a psychological thing rather than based on the content of the lessons themselves…
It certainly takes a huge effort to acquire a new language - so you’ve done fantastically to get this far. But you’ll definitely benefit more from Level 2 than from Course 1…
Thank you Tatjana:)
Okay, you’ve convinced me! I’ve signed up and am good to go.
(I might just carry on with Course 1 as well because, in the words of Malcolm Muggeridge 'I’ve started so I’ll finish")
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It might be fun for you to try a real romp through it, no pause button, just go as fast as possible, on the grounds that it doesn’t really matter…
Oh my goodness. I’ve just untangled my tongue and cleared my throat. L2.1 was the most challenging, pronunciation wise, since I started learning. But I’m up and running again…
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A month from now, you’ll wonder what the fuss was…
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