Tatjana - progress reports

Yet more surprising, itā€™s Northern listening exercise isnā€™t it?

If I one day speak Welsh fluently, itā€™s thanks to you @aran (and to @Iestynā€™s propriately strict voice) :slight_smile:

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The differences are small enough for the listening exercises to be valuable either way round :sunny:

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Iā€™ve just found out Challenge 13 in Level 1 is as taugh and frustrating as both Lessons 6 in Course 1. Iā€™m totally lost ā€¦

Heia Tatjana,

What about this particular challenge is making it feel that way? The sentences get pretty long, if I remember correctly. I think it also brings in dweud wrth with its personal forms I thinkā€¦ Let us know and weā€™ll try to help.

Hwyl,

Stu

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Dweud is the slidest problem, Iā€™m stuck with different way of past for him and her and yes, very long sentences. I canā€™t even remember the whole sentence in English what to form it in Welsh. (my constant problem though).

Suggestions: should I go back to Challenge 12 and then to Challenge 13 again or should I continue with Challenge 14 no matter what? I was thinking of repeating Challeng 12 and 13 and then go further as Iā€™m not sure how much of previous things is practiced in Challenge 14. With more material itā€™s understandable not everything can be practiced in each and every Challenge further on.

This is extremely common Tatjana, just do not worry about it. If you cannot remember the whole thing, make up the ending yourself. Over time, you will get a lot better at remembering long sentences, but really, honestly, it is no big deal and not worth getting frustrated about :wink:

I suggest that you push on. I listened to Challenges 12 - 20 during my drive to and from Abertawe today, and you will get lots of practise with the key stuff in the upcoming lessons!

Most of all, take a deep breath, laugh at your mistakes, enjoy your Welsh and try not to be hard on yourself. Everyone has gone through what you are experiencing, and come out the other side a Welsh speaker - and so will you. There will be down days, but over time, the highs will overwhelm the lows and as you grow in experience, you will be happy to go with the flow, believe me. The best of luck with Challenge 14, and post back with how you get on; I am certain that your story will be here to inspire other learners to persevere long into the future!

Hwyl,

Stu

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This. Not every single word/structure is repeated in every session, but thatā€™s because the structure of spaced repetition doesnā€™t require them to be - they are all, however, repeated often enough at the right kind of intervals for you to acquire them successfully if you keep on moving through the course :sunny:

Iā€™ve pushed through the Challenge 14 yesterday only to find out I just couldnā€™t produce almost any single sentence so I might go back.

I just donā€™t quite get quite different aproach to past and future for he/she and now Iā€™m even so confused I all of a sudden canā€™t remember even those Iā€™ve learnt in Course 1. So I just now decided Iā€™ll go back to Challenge 12 and do all three again.

I wonā€™t post much in this topic anymore as I obviously talk too much (was warned by the forum system) and it might really be Iā€™ve brought this topic to a bit different direction then it meant to be for what I apologize. Iā€™ll give people space to discuss (despite I never meant to take it away from them).

So, now really, as said before in one of my previous posts, Iā€™ll return in a month or two (hopefully if I wonā€™t quit learning before that time)

Da boch a pob lwc i chi bawb.

I bet you donā€™t get warned half as often as I do! Donā€™t take the system warnings too literallyā€¦:wink:

You tend to rate yourself too harshly, Tatjana - I think it would be a really interesting exercise for you to attempt Challenge 15 before you go back and do a re-run through 12 onwards. If it confirms your feeling that you need to repeat, no harm done - but if you find that you do better than you were expecting, it would be a very useful nudgeā€¦ :sunny:

Meanwhile, Iā€™ll give your conversation its own thread, so that we leave this one clear for discussion about choosing which course :sunny:

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No, donā€™t stop posting Tatjana!

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Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Bydda iā€™n trio.

I went back to Challenge 12 in Level 1 and stucked with Challenge 13.

Move on to 14 Tatjana, no point in getting stuck!

Pob lwc,

Stu

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It seams like with math to me. If you donā€™t get it you just canā€™t go further as itā€™ll do no good. Thatā€™s why Iā€™m lausy with math all the way. :slight_smile:

That really isnā€™t the way this method works. I remember distinctly the oain of old lessons 6a and b from Course 1, they seemed so hard! But Aran advised moving on, so I did. A week or so later, I really wondered why I had made such a fuss about those lessons, as they seemed straightforward having moved on. Getting stuck and just getting frustrated will get you nowhere, honestly. Trust the method and fire up Challenge 14!

Hwyl,

Stu

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I did a week ago and Iā€™ve got nowhere. Iā€™m not sure what part I do wrong, but at the moment Lesson 6a and b seams like balsam against Challenge 14.

But obviously itā€™s just me. Obviously Iā€™m just too old to get rid off this perfectionist of mine so I suffer, I know.

I agree with Stu, for the same reasons. I, too, beat my head against Course 1, 6a & b, for probably longer than I should have. I ended deciding to just move on and try 7. I think part of my block on the 6ā€™s towards the end was purely mental. Iā€™d unknowingly convinced myself they were impossible and/or I was incapable of learning the material. Well, once I moved on to 7, I did that lesson in one go and flew on through to 12 in the space of a week. Now if I get stuck on a lesson, Iā€™m allowed to repeat it once more just before I go to bed, then the next morning is a new day and I have to move on to a new lesson. Yes, the first few minutes or so are typically full of the painful ā€œdoh!ā€ moments as I struggle to come up with the material from the prior lesson, but then itā€™s all back to business as usual. Iā€™m a firm believer that anyone can learn just about anything if they come at it the right way and believe they can do it!

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This is weird. Moving on to next lesson it resulted in just oposite thing to me. At the beginning of next lesson it all seams quite comfortable and light and I always say ā€œWell, thatā€™s easy enoughā€ but the further I go the less Iā€™m capable of producing no matter how I convince myself it is as easy and ā€œlearnableā€ as at the beginning. Thatā€™s why Iā€™m even more frustrated. All of a sudden nothing gets in anymore.

However the truth is I rearly use pause button as I believe everything should be easy enough to say it in a go. I used pause button maybe in one of two lessons and it seamed to me as that I donā€™t go anywhere and the whole lesson seamed 1 day long (instead of half an hour).

:angry: That does sound annoying. Maybe take a semi-break to relieve some frustration? And by semi-break I mean stop doing lessons for a bit and stop trying to learn, but still do lots of listening. Turn on Radio Cymru. Play whatever Cymraeg tv you can get ahold of in the background while youā€™re just puttering around the house. Iā€™ve found the latter to be especially helpful. Sometimes it feels as though Iā€™m just being reminded of something I already know because Iā€™ve already heard it a dozen times on tv.

As for your earlier comment about being a perfectionist, I very much understand that. Doing these lessons has been excellent practise for me for working on not being such a perfectionist. I mess up and absolutely nothing happens! Itā€™s amazing. And Iā€™m doing these lessons in the safety of my home where the only one to judge me for my mistakes is my cat, who will judge me anyway. :wink: So relax, breathe, and cut yourself some slack. :slight_smile:

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Umm, well, strangly enough Iā€™m not worryig about who will judge me when hearing me talking in Welsh (although despite my husband and my son no one can), but this is clearly evident Iā€™m just not satisfied with what I produce. I never was afraid of talking in any language I learnt (and Iā€™ve learnt 4 languages (English is not my native language though)) so this is not the frustration. The more Iā€™m frustrated is if Iā€™ll understand what other people say as no one even thinks of those who are not native speakers and very often talk even faster then normally at such occassions. (unstopable - haha) :slight_smile: Thatā€™s why I totally failed on Chris Needsā€™ ā€œGardenā€ on Radio Wales on the phone once when he said ā€œI heard you are speaking some Welshā€. Despite writing the whole evening to them in Welsh when comming to the chance of speaking the first thing comming through my head was What if heā€™d takl to fast and I wouldnā€™t understand him and will look like total noob to public, so I just replied ā€œOh, I would rather not talk about that. Iā€™m just trying to learn some Welsh.ā€ Total fail Iā€™d say, missed chance.

As for listening - the only way I can listen something in Welsh is online but I donā€™t have my computer at such place it would be heard everywhere in the house and Iā€™d have to sit put there and listen what (normally) I canā€™t afford to do all the time. I could use phone though for listening some podcast and this is the thing I might do.

I could talk on Skype or messengers but as this experience I passed already I know itā€™s time consuming for me as Iā€™m easily messenger lover and canā€™t stop then. (Well, thatā€™s life). I once was consumed by messengers and Skype (thatā€™s why i write English quite well and can easily understand it) so I know how it works for me. Thatā€™s why I also donā€™t search for a swap so I wouldnā€™t eat someoneā€™s time.

Well, now you knwo all my story. LOL. :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :blush: