Ffantastic news!! Pass on my congratulations to Lara as well 
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Don’t think it’s that small, but I’ve just been to see Y Tad by Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru. Lacking confidence I picked up one of the simultaneous translation devices, but pulled the earphones off after about 2 minutes. There was the odd word i didn’t know and lot’s of 'on’d oes’s and things I’m still not used to, but I actually forgot about concentrating on understanding the Welsh and really got into the story.
And i finally finished Blasu by Manon Steffan Ros, my first full length grown ups novel in Cymreag. There was a lot I missed but followed the gist of a long story and it got easier every chapter.
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It’s not a breakthrough as such, but a gradual realisation that speaking Welsh out “in the wild” is starting to feel perfectly normal. Today I ordered our pasties and cuppas in the cafe in Coed y Brenin in Welsh and I didn’t feel the need for a sit down afterwards. Well, I did need a sit down, but that was because we’d just walked about 5 miles and not because I was all of a dither after speaking in Welsh to a stranger. 
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Sorry, naughty ipad put post in wrong thread!
You’re absolutely right, that is not small - that is you turning into an experienced, natural understander of Welsh, which means that the most difficult part of conversations will be far easier for you. Da iawn!
I actually heard a thousand intakes of breath from people who still find speaking Welsh a bit stressful. Not a breakthrough? That is the ultimate masssive step from learner to speaker! Even if it’s only in one situation, that means that there is a situation in which you find it natural and easy to speak Welsh. If you can da that in one situation, you can extend it into any situation where you can get exposure / experience. It’ll get easier and easier. 
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Reading the Welsh before the English on signs, is a new one for me 
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Hi Conor, that’s great - me too. I only tend to then read the English if I feel I could learn some extra vocab from it.
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I’m finding more and more songs of bands that I come across which I can generally work out what they are singing about. Also discovering so many bands that I would never have come across is a really unexpected surprise of learning Welsh. Currently I’m trying to convince my better half we should go to Focus Wales 
Dw i’n hapus iawn am faint dw i’n deall yn barod, mae’n hwyl iawn! Diolch SSiW / I’m really happy with how much I understand already, it’s really fun. Thank you SSiW!
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More and more sentences and parts of them from Radio Cymru popping into the side of my brain which ‘knows’ what they are saying (ish). It’s only small but things like: “yr un peth nesa gneud”; “wedi cael”, which I haven’t been specifically taught, but the method of SSiW has allowed my brain to accept this! It’s so satisfying!
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Da iawn. One to listen out for is “wedi cael ei [something or other]” where [something or other] is a verb. It’s usually a giveaway for a passive construction. e.g. “wedi cael ei adeiladu” “has got its building” or “… was built…”.
(For a long time, I didn’t recognise these, because “cael” wasn’t being pronounced quite as I might have expected).
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I mentioned elsewhere big thanks to leiafee and friends for the welcome that I received at Ty Tawe this morning.
Not really for me to judge, but I felt after the first few faultering sentences, I was away 
Ive got to say that I found it easier avoiding dysgwr stuff and just picking any sentence that came to mind and coming out with it in Welsh, or stopping halfway through when I ran out of vocab. 
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Me again!
I was greeted in Welsh by a friend tonight. A small thing, but It means a lot to me to have Welsh as the default language. After all, we are talking Swansea here.
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Nothing small about that - a hugely important shift - llongyfarchiadau!
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Thanks,Aran. Working for a Welsh speaking client today. Might need help with some technical civil engineering language. 
Digressing, my daughter trained as a dental therapist in Cardiff (Heath) UHCMS or something for Short. Anyway, she had a friend from Caernarfon who had to get used to English technical language. I don’t think it took her long. Only words that most English medium kids would struggle with anyway.
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Btw, I’m really enjoying Slack.com chats. I’m trying to speak some Welsh each day now, either electronically 
or for real when possible. Cheers, John.
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Finally my first post in this thread! I have recently survived bootcamp, and while that is a breakthrough in its own way, I have another story to share.
The setting: train from Aberystwyth to Birmingham, I have settled down in one of those seats at the end of one coach, those with some extra fold-away seats running rectangular to the one that I was occupying, and there I placed my luggage.
As the train comes to a stop in Machynlleth, a young man boards the train, with some equally unwieldy piece of luggage, accompanied by a woman who I (correctly) assumed was his mam.
I rearranged my luggage so that there is enough room for the young man and his luggage, and while doing that, I clearly heard the two saying their goodbyes yn y gymraeg.
So, after the mam left, I asked him “Ti’n iawn fan’na?” (You okay over there?) – which sparked a mostly-welsh conversation (about 90%) that lasted pretty much the whole way to Birmingham, where we both got off the train.
Although he will probably never see this: Thank you, Matthew, where ever you might be now, for giving me this unexpected extra chance to use cymraeg “in the wild”!
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Not sure if it’s a breakthrough of just plain weird…before I got up and when I was hitting the snooze button last saturday, I was dreaming that I was asking how much bread we had for breakfast but realised I did it in Cymraeg (in the dream)! I’d literally never thought of that sentence before, but had learned the building blocks gyda SSiW by that time. I tiredly scrawled it down and checked it proper when I woke up, and to my surprise I was almost correct! My brain must have pieced it together by itself somehow!
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OK, no mistaking this one, although it did take me slightly by surprise:
A young (adult) friend greeted me and then started a conversation. The usual stuff: how are you? how did your day go?, etc etc. Except that it was all in Welsh, no English.
I was so pleased that he took the time to do this
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That’s a BIG marker - well done!
@JohnYoung - it’s starting to look a little done and dusted, isn’t it?.. 
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I just ‘flu’ through it…
Been down with the flu for the past week and would normally feel sorry for myself just wanting to lie down or doze on the couch, clutching tissues. But with the prospect of self-imposed quarantine and a week of enforced rest, I started right back at the beginning of SSiW and let lesson after lesson wash over me, croaking responses, falling asleep with it playing, then waking up to find myself responding automatically.
Except for the odd “Thank you” in English to my beloved feeding me soup (sadly, he hasn’t yet figured out that chocolate-chip ice-cream is a sure cure), for the past 6-7 days I have been totally immersed in Welsh, 10-12 hours a day–maybe more.
It’s probably the closest I have been to a bootcamp or one of your magical intensives, and suddenly I have found myself thinking in Welsh, not even occasionally translating. Even some of the mental barriers like switching from ‘Mae’ to ‘Ydy/Yw’ or ‘Dyw’–one of those stumbling blocks for me that normally slows me down, seems to have disappeared–well, almost.
To all those lucky ones who are able to enjoy the residential courses–have fun! And to those of us living far, far away–try ‘living in the language’ for as long as life lets you–a weekend perhaps. You don’t have to have the flu, but my guess is that chocolate-chip ice-cream helps revive the vocal chords as you practice the “ll” and “ch” sounds–so “Pam lai?”
Hwyl,
Marilyn
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