My friend Kerstin Hammes from the Fluent Language blog has been using SSiW to Dysgu Cymraeg. She wrote about her experiences in her blog last week. You can read it here http://fluentlanguage.co.uk/blog/
Hysbys is short for ‘hysbyseb’ btw, which means advert. In its shorter form, though, hysbys acts more like the English ‘a mention’. You say it like this: huss buss
Hwyl!
@mererid Thanks for posting that link. It was an interesting read, and great to see a “hysbys” for SSiW! But more than that, it gave me back a sense of perspective. I started learning Welsh in May, and worked hard, put in a lot of time, and made great progress. And then about a month ago, life has thrown some things at me that have brought my learning to pretty much a screaming halt. There’s not much mental energy left for learning a language or anything else. I’m trying to keep something Welsh in front of me every day, even if it’s just checking the forum (and seeing Kinetic’s Welsh word clock on my desktop 
), but I’ve totally lost my momentum. There are lots of people on the forum making fantastic progress, but I’m not one of them at the moment. I miss that feeling of accomplishment when I learn something new and add more to what I can say . An abysmal performance in a Skype conversation last week added to my discouragement . But reading that blog post brought home to me that not only am I not in a race with anyone else, but I don’t have to feel like I should be working on my Welsh every single day. I am doing this for fun, after all. Kerstin said, “I do not feel guilty about picking my own language pace and neither should you.” That really struck me.
I know that what’s going on with my life won’t last forever, and that my energy to learn will come back. I’m feeling better this morning about letting things be as they are, and setting my pace to whatever it needs to be right now. @aran says people have taken big breaks and not lost too much ground, so that makes me feel better about my inablillty to do much at the moment. So, diolch for helping me feel a lot better about my Welsh journey right now!
Dear @AnnaC
When I have read your post, I just felt I have to do something to give you some hope, so much needed momentum and encouragement. You need this right now (at least I feel so).
I always talk just a little bit too much so this time I decided I just have to do something different. I’ve left everything I was doing, including learning (it will not run anywhere and it can’t hide from me wherever it tires to hide) and put all my time and effort this evening to create this just and especially for you.
And for all those who are feeling like Anna at the momment, loosing their momentum and hope … this is for you too. You all gave me so much encouragement and so needed momentum to go on, to learn, to believe in myself, now it’s just the time to do something (if even a little humble movie) to do the same for you.
Diolch yn fawr iawn (over and over again).
Enjoy.
Pob lwc.
Tatjana , i’m beginning to realise there is no limit to your talent,
Cheers J.P.
@margaretnock and @ramblingjohn … simple and humble Diolch.
And well, there are limits to my talent but sometimes I just tend to break them occassionally.
Agreed.
@tatjana You are the kindest, sweetest, most caring person. I am sitting here with tears in my eyes. I cannot believe you gave up your precious free time to do something to encourage me. Your video is beautiful. You are so talented, and when I got to the end and realized you made the music yourself, too, I was just overwhelmed. Thank you doesn’t even start to cover how much your thoughtfulness means to me. Diolch o galon! 
@margaretnock Diolch yn fawr iawn for your kind words. I’m not amazing, but the people here who give their time to help others truly are. And that includes you! Thank you for being my oh-so-patient Skype partner. It means a lot to me that you are willing to keep working with me.
No, you don’t talk too much! Keep being yourself
Agreed, also!
If this my little movie can acheave for what it was created for, then I’m more then happy. Diolch o galon i ti hefyd.
Don’t stop where you are now (in learning), just carry on! Go for it! You didn’t work so hard all this time to let it go now! When I thought there’s no hope for me left, I always tend to say exactly this to myself. if I’d let it go then all my hard work, time and effort I’ve put into it would be for nothing, wasted, thrown away … it shouldn’t be and so shouldn’t be yours aswell.
Dal ati @AnnaC … dal ati!
Diolch, Tatjana. Believe me, I don’t want to let my hard work go to waste, or give up on trying to become a Welsh speaker. Life is throwing some difficult things my way at the moment that are using up a lot of time and energy. I need to let myself be okay with the fact that dealing with those things means that I can’t accomplish as much as I’d like until circumstances get better. I will “dal ati” as best I can. Because like the video says, there’s always hope!
Yes, this is the key. Life likes to throw the tough stuff at you, and learning is (consistently, regularly, for everyone) interrupted and made more difficult when that happens.
Don’t worry. Everything you’ve learnt will come back very quickly when your energy is right again - I’ve seen it time after time.
If you want to feel that you’re having a small win every day, maybe going through one 5 minute listening exercise would do the trick?
Hang on in there. 
Hearing this from the “voice of experience” is a good thing.
This is a good idea - for practice and also because there are always some sentences in there that make me smile
Diolch yn fawr iawn, Aran!
Croeso mawr! And pob lwc… 
And don’t be a stranger - you don’t have to be in the middle of learning new material to come on the forum and get some support…
You are most welcome Anna, croeso mawr! I wil have to pass your lovely comments on to Kerstin. She’ll be delighted to hear that her thoughts resonated with others.
Life does indeed throw unexpected things at us and force us to rethink our priorities and the way we’ve been doing things, let alone shaking up our ability to do the things we used to do to a similar level. This is something I’ve had to deal with myself, both as a language learner and as a teacher.
Learning to be ok with not learning or giving to the same extent as you used to is a tough lesson. Physical and cognitive fatigue takes everything away from you and during this time, you need to develop so much compassion and kindness towards yourself, just as you would if a dear friend of yours was going through the same thing. As for the Welsh, as @aran says, you won’t lose it. It’s ok just to do a little bit now and again, and you don’t have to even learn anything new, just practise what you know already. When I’m having tough times with my health, but I don’t want to stop with my Italian studies, I simply just play some flashcard games for 5 mins on Memrise or Quizlet, and that would be it! Even though that’s only 5 mins, it still gives me the sense that I’m not giving up and that I’ve chipped away a little bit more at that iceberg that is known as language learning. When I have a bit more energy, I might take one of my books and learn something new, or listen to an Italian podcast, but my energy levels are so low that I’ve had to adopt the viewpoint that it’s a blessing that I can manage to anything at all, let alone learning a language! What’s really helped me with having been forced to slow down is that I don’t actually have a final goal of ‘being fluent in Italian’. I see it as a hobby. There’s no reason why I need to learn it. There’s no deadline and I’m enjoying the learning process so much that I’d be happy to sit with it, learning a bit here and there, for a very long time, if not for the rest of my life. As my meditation teacher keeps saying, “nowhere to go, nothing to achieve”, and this can be applied to learning a language too, if, like me, you’re learning for the pure enjoyment of learning. There is no pressure - only what you put on yourself. And luckily, you have full control of removing that pressure. Dalia ati and take good care of yourself. Mererid x x
@mererid Thank you so much for your very kind and thoughtful words. I really appreciate that you took the time to share your own experiences with me. I also do not need to learn Welsh, I’m doing it for fun and there is no deadline. I haven’t actually thought of it as a hobby; in my mind my goal has been to become fluent, or at least fluent enough to be able to understand radio/TV and have a conversation on Skype without having to resort to English.
Your view of your own journey learning Italian makes a lot of sense, and has made me think. Thinking of it as a hobby is a better way of looking at it. I am good at putting a lot of pressure on myself to succeed, but that just isn’t necessary or desirable - not in the best of times, and especially not given my current circumstances. I know that, but I tend to lose sight of it. I do really enjoy the learning process, and the joy that comes from understanding something new. So I appreciate that you have shared a perspective that is a good one for me to adopt. You are right, I have full control over how much pressure I apply. I’m going to let go of being so goal-oriented and just enjoy the journey. If five minutes of listening practice or reading or Memrise is all I can manage on a given day, then okay. I like the image of chipping away at the iceberg. I’m not giving up hope that I might eventually reach my goal, but I can be okay with letting it take as long as it takes, and if I never get there, the world won’t end. My life is already so much richer for being on the journey.
Diolch yn fawr iawn, Mererid. I wish you the best of luck with your own challenges and your own journey as you find new ways to do what you love.
You are most welcome and I’m really glad that you’re starting to shift how you view learning Welsh. Make it fit in with your life, not the other way around. xx