As one who was glued into social media and especially forums in the past and I was admin of some owning some of my own aswell - may I give you a warm advise if you tend to post on other forums too: please, for your own sake, doublecheck with every forum separately if such commercial things are allowed to be posted on them. And please do this with admins or owners and not members themselves. By my experience some forums have the strict rule of banning members who advertise and I’m sure you don’t want this to happen when posting. Some forums have the rule though that you have to post and be involved for some time having some number of posts to be even allowed to post links what to advertise.
And now … don’t go away but rather live with community as much as your time lets you and get involved. Try to explore how SSi works. It might be something new for you too, you never know …
No one is perfect … and from my experience right here on this forum … too much of effort to be perfect harms more then is useful. I’m the living proof of this. So … you’ve learnt something new along your way and it’s time to boldly go further now.
We’re all human. I’ve recently moved to another city and I’m looking for mew students now, which is proving to be so difficult that I can’t help but sympathize. I hope you’ll stay with us here and will post sometimes. A tutor can always have invaluable advice for learners and this would be the best advertisement for you:)
Unease, I think, rather than offence - certainly no offence taken on my part, felly peidiwch â phoeni dim, ac mae’n braf iawn eich gweld chi’n rhannu eich profiadau a dealltwriaeth gyda’r dysgwyr…
I feel very embarrassed but thanks people for being understanding. I’m a teacher making a part-time transition into the unknown world of actually having to sell myself rather than just turning up to a pre-organised class, so I over-compensated and ended up making myself sound like one of these pushy sales people. Again, sorry. I got it wrong.
The less-attractive reason I’m offering Skype lessons is because I’ve recently had to rethink my life and career in response to having a progressive health issue. I would be devastated if I had to give up teaching. It’s my passion. So rest assured that this is definitely not a ‘get rich quick scheme’. It’s just me thinking about how I can make use of my skills, keep busy and help others when the act of physically going to work and making a living becomes a bigger challenge in the future. Trying to turn a negative into a positive! But, I won’t get it right all the time, especially at the start, as you witnessed!
I do really appreciate your support, though. I’m really heartened to read everyone’s constructive criticism on this thread. One can only learn and improve! Onwards and upwards!
I just want to say, as well, that the person who suggested I posted on here is not at fault at all! It was up to me to find out how things work on this forum. The person would have assumed that I would have known what to do. This person speaks so highly of the SSIW forum and its members in my class every week, and her Welsh is obviously benefitting from the SSiW audio materials.
That’s tough stuff - particularly with health challenges as well.
We’ll be happy to make sure that our learners know that you’re available - I wonder if it would help for us to try and figure out a way for learners to know that a particular tutor has experience working with SSiW learners… I’ve been wanting us to build a layer for tutors for quite some time, but money/time/etc.
@Deborah-SSi - maybe we could give Mererid a welcome to the forum in the next email, and let people know that she’s available for Skype sessions?
Aran, there’s a topic here List of Welsh Teachers?. It’s very conveniently called “A list of Welsh teachers”. Maybe I should add it to the list in “How-to” thread, and Mererid could add her post there?
Mererid, you have my full sympathy. It’s very difficult, when you’re a teacher and not a sales-person, to start advertising yourself. If I come across something useful, a website or something like this, I’ll write you. Have you tried italki? They are constantly looking for new tutors. There’s also verbling.com. They don’t have Welsh listed yet, but they’re accepting new applications for languages not currently listed.
Good idea - but that thread doesn’t really become a list of Welsh teachers - maybe we should start a new one and ask around for tutors who are happy to work with SSiW learners…?
I think you might be about to experience the ‘full blast’ of support and friendship that this forum can offer!
Life long friendships have been forged here and on Bootcamps… people have travelled all the way around the world to meet up, just for the pleasure of speaking together in Welsh.
For others life changing and magical things happen, just because they embarked on the ‘Welsh Learning Journey’.
I hope you feel able to become part of that, and that you can also find friendship and support when you need it.
SSIW is not just a Welsh course (although it can be if you want it to be). It is also a community.
I refer students to SSiW all the time. I think it’s important for them to not just stick with one method of learning. Providing opportunities for Welsh learners should never become a competition between organisations and individuals.
I like the idea of having more of a connection between Welsh tutors and SSiW, especially regarding current students who also use SSiW as well as attending traditional classes.
Syniad diddorol iawn! A very interesting idea!
Syniad da hefyd i fynd ar iTalki a Verbal Planet etc. Diolch.
As long as we could find some way of balancing the need for the tutor to be a known part of the community, I think - otherwise we could end up with learners getting a lot of different offers and having no workable way of distinguishing between them…
Yes, that could be a problem certainly:( But if I were looking for a tutor (which is something I should do) I would certainly be interested in how well this person knows the subject and methodology, so I think I would be interested in a tutor who’s approved by the SSI team and who writes some advice on the forum, so I can understand what their methods are like.
I’ve just starting my training as a Welsh tutor with Prifysgol Abertawe. I went to the first session yesterday and it was great to see the positive attitude towards SSiW there. I think the collaboration has certainly grown a lot from when I started learning Welsh in 2008.
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Hi Dee!
Diolch for the heads up!
I’m pleased to hear that you noticed a more positive response to SSiW among Welsh tutors! I’m yet to meet a tutor who doesn’t recommend it, but I’ve only been tutoring Cymraeg since 2012, so I have no idea what it was like before. As I said the other day on this post, there’s absolutely no place for competitiveness in Welsh language provision, like you get in other languages like English, Spanish, Mandarin etc. There’s a need for learners to be able to access different types of learning experiences, though, and that’s where an understanding of SSiW is essential for tutors. It’s a great resource.
On a different topic, have you looked at any of our Online Eisteddfod entries? The voting is open now and I’ve just been listening to the Cerdd Dant - it’s amazing! And the poetry is really emotional - we have some really talented learners here.
… and some a bit scared (like me) who don’t dare to enter the competition just yet. Maybe another year and after one more magic provided from someone (or somewhere).
I can’t think why? I remember proofreading one of your poems and found it very well written - despite you only being new to learning Welsh! That was some time ago now, so surely now you will be able to submit something that will give other entrants a run for their money?? Gots to be worth a go…,
Oh, you all, endless believers! Thank you! Next year it is.
Thank you for this. Well, that poem was first written in English and then afterwards translated to Cymraeg. I didn’t try to do anything from scratch yet but I might …
You’re setting me a challenge huh?