Right - there seems to be plenty of interest in an April bootcamp, so I’m going to start the count-down to booking.
With Christmas right in the way (my Scrooge instincts come into play now…!) I’m goign to set a date in January, and give you morenotice than usual.
So, I will be opening booking on Friday evening, the 12th of January 2018, at 21.00hrs, or 9pm.
I will publish the booking reference at 9 on the 12th of January here, so you will need to be able to get to a computer then.
Important
The price this year will be marginally higher, I’m afraid, because everything else is going up, so running the bootcamp is also getting more and more expensive. However, I am keeping the rise as low as possible, so bootcamps in 2018 will cost £285, plus a £10 booking fee (they’ve been £250+£10 for a while).
After the April event, we will also be having to charge VAT, which will make bootcamps from June (if it runs) onwards approximately £340 + £10 booking fee
Yes Sionned - the booking system includes a payment through PayPal, which means either by your personal PayPal account if you have one, or via a Credit or Debit card. The advantage of the PayPal system is that they accept most payment cards, whereas our own in-house system is a bit more restricted.
For clarity, the booking payment is not refundable, so if you cancel, you won’t get a refund unless someone else takes your place, which usually happens if the cancelation is early enough. So please take out holiday insurance to cover unexpected circumstances! If someone does take your place, then we will refund the booking minus the £10 fee (which PayPal will have taken from us). Of course, if we cancel for some reason, then we will refund everything in full, although I realise that won’t help people who have booked flights from abroad etc.
We have only ever cancelled for a lack of numbers though, and there is no lack of numbers here!
Hi Iestyn
The Bishop of St Davids would love to do this but for that particular week is unable to due to it being Holy Week. Would you kindly keep me informed when the next boot camp is being run please? Diolch
Yes certainly. I’ve pencilled in dates for the end of June, the end of July and the end of September - we choose which weeks to run by how many people show an interest when we announce the date.
If you subscribe to the 2018 bwtcamp thread (which I have just opened) here, then you will get notifications when new dates are announced.
Hi. I’m interested but Ive only been learning for a very short time. As a complete beginner will I be disadvantaged? What’s the format? Is it Welsh speaking only for the whole week?
Hi @nevilleeden.
Bootcamps aren’t for complete beginners, but if you have done course one or level one with SSIW you have learned enough Welsh for a bootcamp to be a great boost to you. You aren’t ‘taught’ new stuff, but you may pick it up during the week. What you will do is learn to use the stuff you do already know and surprise yourself in the process.
I’ve been to several and in one I met a young woman (not @Novem) who had worked her way through the required material in under a month. While she was pretty exceptional and it certainly isn’t required that you go through the material at that pace, it does indicate that if you put the work in now you could attend and benefit from any one of the bootcamps in 2018. Go for it.
It’s certainly possible for you to complete level 1, and even most of level 2, before the April bootcamp, which would then put the cherry onto a particularly impressive cake, and make you a Welsh speaker after only about 6 months of learning. You’d need to do 2 challenges a week between now and the start of bwtcamp, you’d be about half way through level 2, and have plenty of Welsh, and a huge momentum, to really enjoy yourself.
The best thing to do if you are considering that is to try it between now and the 12th of January (4 weeks), and if you have done at least 8 more lessons in 4 weeks time than you have now (preferrably a couple more than that), then you might seriously consider paying your money and coming on bwtcamp. After all, if you’re going to become a Welsh speaker, you might as well become one in April rather than wait til later!
The counter-argument (and the contra-indication) is that you will find yourself under quite a bit of pressure if things don’t go to plan, which will cause you problems if you don’t react well to the pressure. you could end up hating the process, which isn;t a good way to start a bwtcamp! Have a look at the last point of the FAQs that I put up on the 2018 Bwtcamp page earlier - it will give you a better idea of what level of Welsh you will need, and whether you are confident that you can reach it.
I know that you can reach it, is whether you will enjoy the process, and whether you will get the most out of bwtcamp that concerns us here!
Just to add, there will be more bwtcamps over the year, but I’m not 100% as to when at the moment.
There’s booking information at the top of the page - this bwtcamp will be booking on the 12th of January, and the link will be posted here that evening. if you want to know about any other bwtcamps, you’ll need to keep an eye on the 2018 Bwtcamp page.
My first bootcamp in 2010 included a woman with a disabled daughter. She would leave Tresaith at about 10 every night, drive home, put her daughter to bed, get up early in the morning and get her daughter ready for the day before coming back to Tresaith for about 09.00.
There are holiday flats next door to the Tresaith centre available for hire. People who can’t, or don’t want to share accommodation can stay there but still participate in bootcamp.
The only problem being that the evening activities - maybe at the pub, or in the ganolfan, are an important part of the bwtcamp, so if you miss out on those, you will only be having a very intense experience rather than the full on bwtcamp thing.This may affect how much you benefit.
Of course, if the choice is no bwtcamp or 80% bwtcamp, then you are obviously going to benefit more from the 80% experience!
Just a quick reminder to everyone, now that Christmas is past, and spring is in the air (OK, the sunshine of the last two days may have made me a touch over enthusiastic there…) it’s time to get this bwtcamp on the road.
So, remember that we are booking at 9pm (21:00 hrs) GMT on Friday. I shall open the booking and publish the link here at 9.
The evening activities would be fine. But as a seriously allergic person I’d sleep at home, which might also save the expense of paying for overnight care for two dogs.
Hi Lynne. I’m sure that if you are able to get most of the activities done, but need to sleep at home in order to be relaxed / healthy enough to get the most out of bwtcamp, then that is a great way to run things.
If you would like to discuss any other aspects (particularly regarding the allergies etc) then ask away here or feel free to PM me - just click on my name at the top left of this message.
