I see with some interest that SSiW have launched paid-for courses. I am interested in doing the 2-year course, but wonder what the difference in outcomes would be if I just stayed with doing the older ‘Levels’ material? I have just started (dw’i newydd dechrau :D) Level 1 (Southern), so it wouldn’t be too late to switch.
Money isn’t the primary motivator here, either.
Is it envisaged that you’d end up at a higher level at the end of the 2-year course than at the end of Level 3?
An interesting question - and currently unmeasurable… apart from the very rough breakdown that we see somewhere round about 5% of our free users finish Level 1 and sign up for Level 2, which is a) a bit disappointing in terms of overall success and b) pretty similar to Welsh for Adults in general… meanwhile, we’re seeing completion rates of about 80% to 85% on our guided courses…
Having said that, I would personally choose the free material and then subscribe for access to Levels 2 and 3, because I am entirely happy working on my own and setting my own targets, and I know exactly what gets me to conversational usage as quickly as possible.
For polyglots with confidence and experience, I can’t really see why they would need the paid-for courses.
For people who are less certain they know exactly what to do at each stage, or who suspect that they would benefit from the higher levels of accountability and group work, the paid-for courses seem to be working extremely well.
The main extra thing that is in the paid-for course but not the free material is the result of the work we’ve done with 5 and 10 day intensive courses over the last year and a half - the aim is that they replicate what we’ve discovered we need to do on those courses to get the best results.
So someone who does the 2 year course - and completes all their tasks - would, I’m quite sure, be a considerably more confident speaker than someone who works through to the end of Level 3 but doesn’t do the follow-on work of getting into as many communicative situations as possible.
Hope that helps make it a clearer decision for you…
What you say makes a lot of sense and has provided the kind of guidance that I was after. As I would classify myself as a confident and experience polyglot (who taught herself Danish with only Babbel and the Danish equivalent of BBC Radio 6 Music as a tutor), I think I will get on just fine with the free material.
Great, glad to have helped - and remember you can always come in here and chat about any of the wals you hit along the way… there’s always be someone who’s been through similar experiences…
