You do, yes - but don’t confuse that learning process with your conscious control of individual sentences.
The most important elements in each lesson are the new items that are produced - if you find that you can’t remember them in the first set of sentences where they’re introduced to you, then that’s worth focusing on.
But the wide and challenging range of ways in which previous stuff gets re-presented to you is not on your ‘must learn this’ radar - it’s just helping give your brain a headstart on figuring stuff out when you start putting it into live conversations.
When you push on in this messy way, and get yourself into conversations, you will (in due course) find that the collection of things that you’re most likely to need to say will become easy for you comparatively quickly. If you focus on ‘getting stuff right’, you’ll create a sense of failure and stagnation that will make it all much tougher for you.
So, in summary, I strongly recommend that you push on through to the end of Level 2 without repeating, and then if you still feel the itch, come back and re-visit Challenge 2 at that stage (and let us know how it feels for you by then!)…
Okay, so I tried Challenge 3 without repeating, but got barely 5 minutes in before I was completely blank, unable to recall any part of the sentence. For my own peace of mind then I went back to Challenge 2 (I know, I know, but it’s too ingrained in me to change now!) but was still blank for chunks of that too! I feel like whenever something is used but not introduced (‘What are you (pl) going to do yourself?’ and ‘Did you have a good time yourself?’ from Challenge 2 spring to mind) I’m just not picking it up. My hearing of sounds isn’t very good, so unless it’s broken down slowly I really struggle to pick out the consonant and vowel sounds that make up the word initially and so they just don’t go in. Wasn’t even able to complete Challenge 2 today, probably the mindset I’m in, but if I can’t even say half the sentence I start to get frustrated, and then I can’t remember even the easier stuff and get more frustrated and so on in a vicious cycle.
Going back to my notebook and writing down all the things I’ve heard so far, to try to match up what I’m saying with what I should be saying, and hoping that will help.
Everybody has off days - in every field of human endeavour. Ask people who do strength training, for example - some days they just feel stronger than others. Life is ebb and flow.
So when you have a day like that, put it all down, and come back to it the next day.
If it’s still a problem the next day, focus on what you feel when you hear the Welsh (NOT on whether or not you say it yourself in time). If you recognise it (by which I don’t mean understand, just recognise that it’s familiar) then you’re good to carry on.
If none of it sounds like anything you’ve ever heard before, then you probably do need to have another go at some of the earlier ones
In that case, try to be as Zen about it as possible - if you’re recognising it, your brain is forming the necessary structures for memory, and you will reach the point where your production kicks in…
And do NOT worry about minor errors - they will all iron themselves out through usage in due course, I promise
A quick question about “yet”. In Level 1 we learn ‘yet’ - ‘hyd yn hyn’ and ‘again’ - ‘eto’. In this Challenge in (for example) “We don’t have children yet”, ‘eto’ is used. Can anyone explain?
As much as I can recall “eto” can be used for either of them roo. At least I’m using “eto” for “yet” aswell and no one would say it’s wrong. However (of course) I’m not the most relevant “source” of knowledge here.
Coming from the fact that ‘eto’ doesn’t match perfectly to ‘yet’, but does overlap. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have muddied the waters, so if you’d be kind enough to forget it ever happened, that would be lovely…
All in all, is it in Northern version? I don’t remember ever hearing for this (oh, but I don’t remeber many things though. If my nose wouldn’t stick to my face I’d forget it probably somewhere too …)
Aha. I’d have to go and listen to the South version to hear what there is taught. Honestly, I’ve done that Level 1 Challenge 2 Southern, but if you ask me now I don’t know what was taught in it anymore. …
Hyd yn hyn - up to now (perhaps more literally/ up to this, meaning time) so used like thus far / so far. (take my explanations with caution).
so much English does not stand up well to thinking literally about the words so i think as ever
(that’s how it is).
amser hyn - this time, meaning right now is fun as well.
Just had a mini self victory. Following the tweets about a TV show I’m watching, one happened to be in Cymraeg and I understood it! Well minus one bit that I had to look up, but I’ve learnt a word or phrase for ridiculous now (wirion bost) so that’s always a bonus!
I also used to have that problem with the pause button and my phone going to sleep. However, I recently discovered that the earphones I use (that came with the phone) have their own little volume control and pause button on them which works even when the screen goes blank. I also noticed that if you open the app and go into settings it has an option to ‘keep device awake’ which you could try.
Helo! It’s been a while, but I’m back and trying again this year. Been a busy few months with a new flat/job/city, but hopefully I’ll be able to pick it back up regularly. My commute is now on a tram so my previous system of doing lessons in the car won’t work, so I’ll have to find a new routine.
Started with Level 2 Lesson 5, which was a massive struggle, but there was only one word I had absolutely no recollection of so the words are in my head somewhere…
You might try sub-vocalising, if it’s the talking aloud element that you feel isn’t suited to a tram (otherwise, the tram sounds like a great opportunity!).
Was that your first time with that lesson? If so, a) excellent and well done for jumping straight back in at the deep end, and b) new material after a fair break will always feel particularly brutal - but the next couple of sessions should be gradually less painful…
This!!!
When I was living in Kent and commuting/walking to work, I would sub-vocalise when I was learning. The only time I ever used full-vocal was when I was driving to Wales for breaks away and bootcamp!
This method does work, and in the colder months you could use your scarf to cover your mouth so lip-readers won’t think you’re talking to yourself (although they will probably think you’re from another country if they did!).
