Challenge 14 Crashed & Burned

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Hi all,

I’ve been doing the 6-month Northern course and until today everything has been going swimmingly.

However this evening I attempted challenge 14 and now my brain is a puddle on the floor and I’ve worn out the pause button on my phone.

Has anyone else suddenly found a challenge way more difficult than the previous ones? And should I try it again, or trust the process and press on?

All thoughts welcome!

Thanks,

Phil

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Importance of lesson 14 level 1
#2

Hi Phil,

Yesssss, a lot of people had their brain melt at some point, and usually around challenge 13-15.
Including myself:

(I link that topic in case you find some of the comments interesting and useful.
p.s. I trusted the process, pressed on and it worked fine. Well to be completely honest, I don’t know if it was more about trusting the process or just dreading the idea of going through all that one more time. :grin:
But in any case, I can tell I eventually learnt those expressions anyway, so…!

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#3

Hi Gisella,

Thank you - it’s reassuring to see that it’s not just me. I think that I did end up just making vague Welsh noises at one point as well!

As I’m not at all keen to re-live the experience, I think I’ll just carry on and see if it gets better. If that means that I’ll never be able to gossip in a pub in Welsh then so be it…

Diolch yn fawr,

Phil

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#4

I’ve recently done challenge 14 as well and I found it the hardest so far (second place goes to challenge 4, which just didn’t feel like it was going into my head at the time). It does get easier again though. Challenge 15 seemed like a walk in the park!

Although the 12-13-14 block is infamously tough, I’ve found that it’s transformed my Welsh ability. I can use much longer and more involved sentences than I would have believed before I started 12. It’s an intense growth experience but you’ll emerge on the other side much better for it.

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#5

Absolutely agree with everything Gisella has said. 13, 14 and 15 should carry a government health warning!:rofl: But believe me you WILL survive! And with a tremendous sense of achievement! dal ati - keep going Philr.x

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#6

Thanks Alan. I’ll be doing challenge 15 in the next day or so. Fingers crossed!

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#7

Thanks Andrea. Glad it’s not just me!

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#8

Some people say that 15 is a sigh of relief after 13 and 14, so fingers crossed… :wink:

But 16 is definitely back into calmer water… :slight_smile:

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#9

I definitely know that feeling! I’m doing South and despite feeling fairly confident so far (turns out the Welsh I’d learnt at school and from listening to family as a child was still buried away somewhere in my head) my brain leaked out during challenge 14! I was doing it in the car so no pause button either… I repeated that week because both challenges had me crying inside. It was still difficult but definitely better the second time. I’ve moved on now, hopefully never to return to ‘he said that she said that the old woman wanted the young man to put your head back together’. I’m still catching up as I’m currently half a week behind where I should be but challenge 16 was lovely in comparison. I’m hoping 17-19 will be the same and then I’ll be back on track with my weeks.

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#10

Hi Aran,

Thanks. I’ve just done 15 and found it much more manageable, with the exception of ‘he said’ and ‘she said’ which for some reason I’ve got a bit of a mental block about.

I might have another go at the last couple of challenges again once I’ve had my vodka :wink:

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#11

Yes, I’ve decided that when I’m yn y dafarn I’m going to stick to telling people that I’ve been learning for about a month, whilst avoiding older people who say that they want to tell me to tell you what to do…

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#12

I’m on level 2 now , but distinctly remember having a real melt-down around that stage in level 1. I’m on ch.13 level2, fingers crossed that 14 is ok!!
Keep going, in a couple of weeks it’ll be like a distant memory and you’ll be sailing again.
Pob lwc!

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#13

Or just polish off the vodka, and crack on with new material, and let he said/she said sort themselves out with gradual repeat exposure over time - sometimes they’re easier to get the hang of when they’re not in the middle of the blizzard… :slight_smile:

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#14

You may have a point. I’m fully on board with any plan that begins with vodka :wink:

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#15

That’s my kind of learner - particularly if it’s Manx vodka :slight_smile:

[Particularly entertaining for the guest appearance at 20.00ish by a weepy ‘I don’t want to go to school’ 8 year old Angharad… :wink: :joy: