Today I successfully paid my Council Tax (Treth Cyngor) yn Gymraeg for the first time! I started SSiW in March this year so this is remarkable progress for me. I asked for a Skype coaching session with @margaretnock first to practice and run through what the usual, fairly predictable format is. Armed with my cribsheet I nervously picked up the phone, the woman I spoke to was friendly and welcoming and it seemed like it was successful, I now hope that I didn’t say to many '0’s and I get a rude awakening when I look at my bank account! Has anybody else had a breakthrough that’s done wonders for their confidence? 
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Llongyfarchiadau Howard that’s a great achievement. Your a lot braver than me. I phoned up to make an appointment once and pressed the number 1 option to speak to someone in Welsh ( I wasn’t expecting to be given this option ) after the phone rang for a few seconds and my brain was quickly scrambling to think of what to say I chickened out , hung up and phoned back again using the English option 
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I had this trying to buy tickets for a concert. I pressed the button for the Welsh speaker, listened to the music for a couple of minutes while I planned what I was going to say … and then they answered in English! I was so flummoxed I just went ahead and booked my tickets in English 
Well done for Howard for persevering!
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Great job!
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Da iawn Howard. Beth yw dy her nesa? Well done Howard. What’s your next challenge?
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Hugely impressive, Howard - llongyfarchiadau mawr! 
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Dw’i ddim yn sur Margaret! Going to think about that. Diolch eto!
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Not as impressive as yours but breakthroughs… (things i’m sure many here have achieved).
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Realising you’ve understood something on the radio or tv.
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Ordering something for the first time.
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Dealing with unexpected questions.
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Singing from a welsh carol sheet.
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Working out what something new means without a dictionary.
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Unexpected conversations with strangers.
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Realising you’re constructing sentences without having to translate.
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Dreams involving welsh speaking.
Etc etc…all breakthroughs however small.
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Talking to someone at work and then being asked which school I went to because they thought I was local. (This is in Cardiff, so people assume if you speak Welsh you went to one of the Welsh schools).
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Is that really an achievement? Wow, I’ve been doing that since… most people on here were yet to be born!! You brightened my morning!
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For me it was. New words on the sheets…thank goodness welsh is phonetic!!
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I suppose, thinking back, I sang without understanding. In fact, I think I sang “Hen wlad fy nhadau” without understanding all the words!
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Not with speaking, but I was listening to an episode of Y Gwyll last night and there was a whole scene where I felt like I was actually understanding the Cymraeg first, and the English subtitles second. I know, the real test will come when I’m brave enough to turn off the subtitles 
But it was a distinctly different experience where I felt that I was hearing the Cymraeg and not just having it wash over me while picking out only a word or phrase here or there.
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Again, I wouldn’t call it a breakthrough exactly, but I had a bit of a quiet period with Welsh for a month or two (no particular reason - it just happened), and when I made a conscious effort to go back to it, I found I could understand much more of Radio Cymru than I was expecting to. I hadn’t forgotten as much as I expected (maybe hadn’t actually forgotten anything). There are still plenty of words I don’t know, but I’m quite often getting the gist, which is a satisfying feeling.
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That’s exactly what happened for me today for the first time, Lewie! I was working with BBC Radio Cymru on in the background, as I often do, and not really paying attention. The news came on, and the newscasters usually speak far too quickly for me; but today, all of a sudden, I realised that I had understood a news story by accident. As I said, I wasn’t properly listening, so I wasn’t trying at all to translate, but the meaning just “washed” into my head.
It was a news story about the bridge in Llanrwst being closed. Maybe it helped that I used to live there (I’m thinking about the way you can hear your own name in the babble of a crowded room), but I was really pleased with myself! 
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And rightly so - that’s a very significant achievement…
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I just had a Skype conversation with a teacher I found through Skype.
To be honest, I had booked the session mostly because of the encouragement in the Levels to “go out and speak”… I didn’t expect to be able to carry on a conversation with what I knew so far.
But I understood surprisingly much! And was able to say some things! And it was a bizarre feeling to just understand bits without consciously translating…
Also, when she said she lived near Aberteifi, I asked her whether she knew Tresaith… she said she did, very well, and was surprised that I knew of it and asked why So I mentioned the bootcamps there, and she said she knew of a language weekend taking place there in February (she had a card for it on the wall).
Anyway, I’m well chuffed that this conversation went as well as it did!
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And that, right there, is the reward you get for that kind of courage…
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I love these Pete, I like picking out phrases and words on S4C and there’s the odd occasion when the subtitles are slightly wrong, which is quite exciting! Lol
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