Announcing: our new '6 Month Welsh Speaker' course

Yes, I am a bit old school and still type urls in manually. https://forum.saysomethingin.com/6mws was what i typed

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Hi
The issue appears to be the word forum in the url you typed @Y_Ddraig_Las. It works if you change that to www.

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Good. So itā€™s only people like me who use the forum regularly who would do such a thing!

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I was thinking that the Ā£50 cost was a little on the cheap side and the Ā£100 that youā€™re proposing sounds more like what you would expect for something like this.

A bit obvious but just to clarify ā€¦ I take it there isnā€™t a start date but people can sign up at any point commencing from the next coming Monday? I was thinking about the video sessions and being there with people at a more advanced stage, hopefully that wonā€™t be a problem.

No - in fact, I think itā€™ll be one of the strengths, in the same way that the forum brings together people at different stages. Weā€™ll be making it clear that the expectation will be for people to move slowly from listening to making occasional contributions - as is the nature of any group situation, I would expect most of the actual speaking work that people do to take place in pairs at other times (and will be strongly recommending that). But I think itā€™ll be a lot of fun for people to see other peopleā€™s progress, as wellā€¦:slight_smile:

Yup, the Ā£50 is really a way to thank our early adopters, whoā€™ll be playing a valuable role in helping us get everything running smoothly - I think weā€™ll probably go up about Ā£10 a month until weā€™re at Ā£100 - and then weā€™ll have to see how to unpick the balance between keeping it at Ā£100 (so more people can go for it) or shifting to Ā£200 to be able to invest more in the support we give. Iā€™m also thinking we might set up some kind of scholarship programme.

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This sounds quite exciting! Will definitely share amongst my Facebook rabble

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Any of them who come in through that door will find themselves being pointed at some of your videos from time to time, as an inspiration boostā€¦ :slight_smile:

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theyā€™re trying to learn!! Donā€™t punish them!

Weā€™re thinking of buying a course for my father-in-law who has been working his way through Level 1 for the past few months, could be good for him to have the regularity of a weekly session as heā€™s previously said the thing heā€™s struggled with is finding people to practice with. Iā€™ll have a word with him

EDIT: to clarify, my father-in-law lives 2 hours away, so we donā€™t see him all the time. I didnā€™t want anyone to think I was refusing to practice with him :D:D:D

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I am so sorry if you thought I was asking that. I was trying to ask , obviously in a badly worded way, if the three levels of Challenges and listening exercises would remain available and whether they would be available to new folk who want to take things slowly because of home or work commitments or just because they like to take their time? In other words, after the free bit, will the regular smal subs still be accepted for Levels 2 and 3?

I just automatically presumed that. It seemed reasonable :smiley: :laughing:

Yes, for the time being, although once we move over to publishing much more practice material for advanced learners (which I hope will happen in the next two or three months), the subscription price will be going up for new subscribers.

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Thank you. That should be very helpful to new folks and I donā€™t mind paying more for more stuff, as long as it is more stuff that I need and want!

sounds good. Do I remember someone saying that all the new ā€œthingsā€ that come in will automatically be available to existing subscribers? Or was that just certain things?

All the monthly stuff for subscribers will be available to all existing subscribers, yes. :slight_smile:

Separate, non-subscription stuff - like the 6 month course, or ā€˜Brain Shockā€™ residential courses, or Bootcamps - nope, because the payment structures there are really about solving the fact that weā€™ve never charged enough to be able to put as much into support and development as weā€™d like! :slight_smile:

I was just wondering if the 6 month course would be worth trialling. Iā€™m on challenge 18 of level 3, but have no face to face conversational experience. Would you recommend the 6 month course or just continuing with level 3 and growth club and actually speaking to someone in welsh?

This, Brian, without a doubt! Weā€™re planning to do a ā€˜Jump in at the Deep Endā€™ course for more advanced learners - maybe by this summer - but 100% absolutely, you just need conversationsā€¦ :slight_smile:

This sounds great. :+1:

My friend is interested in joining in. He has a few questions, which hopefully you can answerā€¦

  1. When will the course start?
  2. How long do the video sessions last on a Thursday?
  3. How big will the group be on a Thursday?
  4. What format do the ā€˜tasksā€™ take? Listening to mp3s? Or real world stuff?

Thank you! :slight_smile:

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Each class starts on the Monday after you sign up.

Q&A will be an hour, and in English - conversation practice will be an hour, and in Welsh only.

Iā€™m hoping that weā€™ll add extra nights before too longā€¦ :slight_smile:

Probably not all that big initially, but we hope they will become much bigger over time. We want people from all different stages of the course to be on the calls. This is NOT a replacement for one-on-one conversational work - itā€™s an opportunity to listen, and to get chances to say a bit now-and-then, probably on a hot-seat basis. Unlike evening classes, this is NOT the main focus for your speaking work.

A combination of quite a few different things, a good few of which will be real world stuff (although capable of being implemented virtually, if you get what I mean - a 5 minute chat could be with a friend, or via Skype, etc).

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Hi Aran
Can I ask two questions please?
The first I think I already know the answer to.

If I cannot commit to 4 hrs a week, I assume the course is not for me?

What happens if for any reason, emergency etc, we are unable to complete the tasks for that week?

Thanks
Clive

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Definitely not, no. Thereā€™s no point paying for this if youā€™re not in a position to put the time inā€¦ :slight_smile:

Apart from the lessons, most of it is self-regulating - so in a genuine emergency, it wouldnā€™t be the end of the world if something got shifted over to the next week. Apart from the lessons - if those arenā€™t done for a couple of weeks in a row, weā€™ll be into refund/cancel territory, because weā€™ll be able to see that itā€™s not working out for you. :slight_smile:

Great.
Thanks for the speedy response.

I think it might be the kick up the pants I need.

Will sign up once I can get to my tablet.
My sausage fingers and this small screen, do not a good mix make.