I should also say it’s been the most pleasurable learning experience I’ve ever had and the one in which I feel I’ve made most progress.
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Coming back two years later to update on this reply – turns out that date and all subsequent dates went very well, and we were married earlier this month!! Who knew this is where my Welsh learning journey would take me?! 
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Llongyfarchiadau! Congratulations!
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This is very minor but I thought I would share it on here anyway. I’m in the Clwb Cardiau Post and took a postcard I’d written to the Post Office for a stamp to post it to Germany. The lad behind the counter looked at it and said, “! can read that!” All my Welsh immediately deserted me, then I managed to say “Ah, ti’n Cymro! Dw i wedi bod yn dysgu am blwyddyn,” at which he also looked a bit confounded and said (in English) that he used to be fluent when he was at school and did all his GCSEs in Welsh. That was it, but it was my first encounter with a Welsh-speaking person “in the wild” (I live in Bristol) and it made me smile. And him too, which was really nice.
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Da iawn Ruth! I hope you see him again and you can have a brief Welsh exchange with him. It might encourage him to try and remember more!
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I have a small breakthrough to report: I can finally read Lois Arnold’s learners novel Sgŵp! fairly well. There are still words I have to look up as I’m reading, but I’m no longer stumbling over syntax and Welsh constructions in every other sentence. Hŵre! I’m in the middle of Level 3 and the Cwrs Sylfaen, at a point where it’s harder to discern progress in learning than earlier, so this discovery cheered me up.
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Dw i wedi cwpla’r crossair yn Lingo am y tro cyntaf ddoe. Doedd dim angen i defnyddio’r geiriadur chwaith!
Cofion cynnes
Tony
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Thrilled to have my first ever poem written in Welsh printed in Lingo Newydd and then to see in the following issue a letter from a lady thanking me for my poem and saying that she was going to use it for her Welsh group. A very nice compliment 
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I had a reply to a tweet (yn y Gymraeg) “liked” today by Arthur off Rownd a Rownd 
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I watch Bing on S4C for listening practice and when Bing managed to blow a bubble for the first time, I cheered because I understood “Dw i di naid e” (spelling, no idea!).
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I made up a limerick in response to a given first line on Bore Cothi this morning, and while it wasn’t particularly funny, it did scan & rhyme, & got read out on air.
I also managed to get my mean score on Wordle Cymraeg down to exactly 4 today, which makes it marginally better than my English average of 4.1 guesses
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I’ve got my ‘mojo’ back! Not really a breakthrough…, but the pandemic, coupled with the sudden loss of a very dear fellow SSIW’r in 2020 just sent me off the boil.
The other day I caught myself thinking in Welsh, and once I started I couldn’t stop. Great feeling to be getting going again. 
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This certainly feels like a breakthrough concerning my mindset while doing challenges: It’s been almost two years since I last did a challenge and because I always want to get things super right I felt like I needed to revisit all the challenges I had already done, I know it’s not really necessary, but I couldn’t help it. Normally before starting a new challenge I would prepare for immediate almost painful brainmelt, tried my hardest to stay super focused so that I might get through the sentences without ending up completely lost. But now, while „just repeating old stuff“ I thought I could as well do the dishes or clean a bit. AND I WAS SO RELAXED, the whole time, words and phrases just came to me quite naturally, I finally didn’t worry so much (just like Aran keeps saying hahaha) and it was just so easy going and fun and felt like I could just go in for hours. Best part: I got to keep that mindset even for new content. And I just feel so proud!
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That’s brilliant, @hannah-deuchler! It really is amazing what the human brain is capable of, if we just relax and allow it to do it!
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During my recent intensive Mynediad course, I was struck by how great it is to genuinely laugh in your target language. Not an embarrassed laugh but a full-on got-the-giggles. It felt like such a huge breakthrough.
- During a listening session, in which a restaurant manager recommends that if a complaining patron wants a quick dinner (and not to wait for his table) to go to the chip shop round the corner.
- Robin Radio thoroughly putting his foot in it about his mate’s new job
- Reading a short story, understanding a pun/dual meaning (never forget the to bach) and absolutely creasing up
- Acting out the Dysgu Cymraeg sgwrs in-class, and finding genuine comic timing and amateur dramatics in the group
I recognise that my Cymraeg has developed well over the past year, but these few instances have really made me feel like I’m making progress.
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This is a very small victory but when I try to throw in a bit of Welsh with total strangers (e.g. a receptionist or admin person) I usually end up mumbling it unconvincingly because I feel under-confident.
Today, though, I had to phone an organisation and I managed to give them a couple of full-throated, well-pronounced pethau o Gymraeg and felt mildly proud afterwards. Take your wins where you can!
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Outstanding, Alan - that stuff REALLY matters 
Well done, @reesgilbert - laughter is one of the most powerful ways to accelerate learning 
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My ‘small’ success is having Welsh phrases pop out at random times (even if only in my head)… The other day, I was doing one of my cleaning jobs, and the lady I was cleaning for was apologising for the extra crumbs etc as her grandchildren had been to visit. In my head, I thought ‘Dyna blant i chi’!!! 
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Sorry, this is a longer post than I originally intended. I think I can finally say I’ve had a bit of a breakthrough moment! I finished level 3 at the beginning of the year but must admit I didn’t do as much as I should have afterwards, so started to go a bit backwards.
I’d been thinking since lockdown about doing a trip to Wales focused primarily on trying to speak as much Welsh as possible and last week I did just that. It definitely started off slowly, a couple of days in Swansea and Llanelli (also to watch rugby!) didn’t offer too many opportunities, and I was too shy to make the most of the chances I got beyond ordering a beer or food, or the odd shwmae.
I then went to Carmarthen and met @margaretnock who very kindly gave me a very interesting tour of the town, mostly in Welsh. I don’t think I necessarily gave the best account of my speaking or listening skills, but I understood more than I expected with my lack of recent practice - it almost felt like a reset button had been pushed and stuff slowly came back - I hope she doesn’t mind me saying, but can’t really thank her enough for giving up several hours of her day to provide me an opportunity to practice. It was so helpful, and gave me the confidence to try and speak more, initiate conversations and ask if people spoke Welsh even if they started a conversation in English. Without that I might have spent the week muddling through greetings and simple transactions.
I got more chances to try speaking as I went deeper into Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, though not everywhere I expected to. Please be assured I tried to sell SSIW to any aspiring or current leaner!
I had a couple of great nights towards the end of my stay in a pub, talking in Welsh to the locals and the staff. I spoke with one lady for an hour and a half about her former life as an opera singer. She was really kind to speak slowly and clearly with me and overjoyed that I was learning even though I don’t live in Wales.
The next night in the same pub I spoke to a local builder with a thick accent and fast talking pace. I probably only understood 50% of what he said first time round but he understood me and was happy to repeat himself. He was so enthusiastic that halfway through our conversation he stopped to phone his partner to tell her “theres a man in the bar from Yorkshire who’s speaking Welsh!” (I’m originally from Yorkshire)
Later on another lady asked me if I was the Welsh speaking Yorkshireman (I assumed that was me!), as I had spoken to her daughter the previous night and she’d told everyone about me! (Hopefully all positive!)
I was genuinely surprised, not by the friendliness, but by the enthusiasm towards me - an outsider and still very much a learner - that so many people showed.
I’m sorry, this has been a really long read, but the experience has genuinely made me so happy. I can’t thank Margaret, all the people who put up with my dodgy Welsh and of course SSIW enough. I really recommend people to get out there and try something similar. Its super scary but its so worth it
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Shwmae @charlie-o, I’m glad I was of help, and even gladder of the responses you had later on. Dal at i, keep up the good work!
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