Announcing: our new '6 Month Welsh Speaker' course

Oh, I know that feeling…:wink:

Could be… I’d imagine the first ‘Hey, you haven’t done your lessons’ email might be a bit of a fright…:wink: But if it doesn’t work out for you, let us know, and we’ll refund you cheerfully - we’re very serious indeed about not wanting anyone to pay if they don’t get the results we expect… :slight_smile:

I just signed up. Yikes xx

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Brave work! Welcome aboard :slight_smile:

Ok, that’s me signed up.
Wish me luck!

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Well, I’ve signed up on a kind of ‘third time lucky’ basis, though I’m all too aware that luck has nothing to do with it, really.

I started a formal evening class shortly after moving to Wales in 2014, but as the group whittled down to being, apart from me, a handful of Welsh people who had the advantage of at least some background in Welsh learning at school, and had either a work environment or family context where Welsh could be used and practised, I found myself feeling increasingly out of my depth, and after a couple of sessions that I couldn’t make fell so far behind that I gave in.

Then I began having a go with SSiW, but simply don’t have the self-discipline to make it work.

So, I’m hoping that dropping £50 (which seems an amazing bargain, appealing - if you like your stereotypes - to my Yorkshire thriftiness) and having some contact with fellow learners will give me the kick-start and ongoing motivation needed to keep it up this time.

We’ll see…

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The personal circumstance described by ‘ant’ in the previous post, is strikingly similar to my own. Failed previous attempts, and a discipline deficit, all weigh against my progress at learning Welsh. But I too am inclined to subscribe to 6mws, as a way perhaps to nudge myself into a more disciplined mindset by meeting course expectations of me. It might just work …or of course, it might not! I’ll have another crack at the Challenges, but I’m tempted to go for 6mws anyway!

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Good luck! And let us know any time you need any help… :slight_smile:

If you get that feeling this time, come and talk to us on the forum - there will always be people worse off and better off than you - and they’re irrelevant to your success. Tick off the tasks we set you, and we’ll make this happen… :slight_smile:

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Welcome to everyone else who has taken the plunge :slight_smile:

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Great, thanks for the answers. I’ll pass them on. :slight_smile:

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I’ve signed up. Briefly I apparently signed up to learn Spanish, but that seems fixed now! Looking forwards to the challenge.

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You created an entertaining amount of hysteria on the tech side of things - but it was incredibly helpful to have that early warning… :wink: :star2:

This sounds excellent. I’d sign up just to revise old stuff , chat to people and to break bad speaking habits. I work on Thursday evenings though.

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I think you’re right that there will be that kind of value to it, even for more advanced learners.

Keep an eye on this thread - I’ll post when we add extra evening, which I hope isn’t too far away… :slight_smile:

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If anyone who has signed up for the course wants a Skype partner for any of the associated practices that will come as your homework - feel more than welcome to give me a message on here :slight_smile:

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I just signed up as well!

I vowed to do one thing in 2018 that gets me out of my comfort zone. This counts. :grimacing:

Looking forward to Monday! :slight_smile:

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Oh, yes, we should do that for you… :slight_smile: :smiling_imp:

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Uh oh…what have I gotten myself into? :slight_smile:

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The horror… the horror

:wink:

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This sounds like just what I need! A few questions @aran:

  1. If I do this course, should I carry on learning the existing Levels?
  2. Committing myself to every Thursday evening session for 6 months (as opposed to most of them) is not realistic. Does it matter?
  3. Will it significantly improve my listening skills - my weak point?
  4. Do we wait until a group of people has been gathered until we start, or does each person start whenever he/she signs up?

By the way, on the fairly safe assumption that this 6-month Welsh Speaker course will be at least half as much fun as the existing SSiW Levels and Courses, I will consider the price worth every penny even if I don’t turn out to be much of a Welsh speaker at the end - so I will not be asking for a refund whatever happens!

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I suspect you’re more advanced than what we’re aiming at here - the lessons part of it will be revision for you, so it’s more about whether or not the added tasks kick you into stuff that makes a real difference for you… and I’m thinking that we should do a shorter, faster version for intermediate/intermediate+ learners, to get them to the meat of the action in less time… but that won’t be ready for a few months yet, certainly…

The Thursday evenings will mostly be about touching base - not a problem if you miss them, and we’ll have recordings anyway. If you catch up on that, that will definitely be extra help for your listening.

Um, sorry, not answering your points very neatly - I’d go:

1 - I’d recommend coming back and going with what we do each week, so revising Levels 1 and 2 (and any extra stuff as an extra, for these 6 months)

2 - no, not a problem, although I’m hoping we can build a strong pattern of ‘finding partners’ based around the set times, too

3 - yes, but again I think the shorter, faster course I’m planning for intermediates would do so more quickly, when it’s ready, and

4 - nope, start any time, there’ll be new people starting every Monday, and the Thursday (and other nights soon, I hope) pull everyone on the course together, in the same way the forum does… :slight_smile:

If you do it and it doesn’t end up (even after a slow beginning) making a real gear-change difference for you, I would WANT you to let us know so that we could refund. Having said that, I’m pretty confident that the tasks we set are game-changers… :slight_smile:

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