Hello! So I’ve just completed week one and the first 2 challenges and something has become apparent to me very quickly… my particular natural learning style means I’m struggling with remembering the English whilst I’m trying to repeat it in Welsh… Alla’ i ddim cofio Saesneg!
If I pause and write the English down, I can ei ddweud yn Gymraeg dim problem!
At work last night I was practising putting sentences together from what I’d learned with 2 Welsh speakers so I know the information is going in, I’m finding I’m recalling a lot from school (I’m 29 and I learned to GSCE level) but I’m just not sure the format of how we learn with SSiW is right for me and I wondered if anyone here may have experienced similar and how they overcame it? Currently I’m filing a notebook as I go along
Yes, I’ve had that problem with the longer English sentences - for want of a better plan, and thinking I can always repeat the challenge if needs be, I’ve been just trying to repeat in Cymraeg the part of the English that I do remember, without pausing and worrying about the bits of English that I can’t remember, and that seems to work for me - though my learning style might well be quite different from yours, of course - let’s see what @aran suggests!
As Gareth said, one way around this problem is to start saying the Welsh as soon as the first English phrase is complete. It is actually possible to hear the rest of the sentence while you’re speaking, so you take it in chunks. If I waited to the very end, I wouldn’t be able to repeat the sentence in English so there was no way I could say it in Welsh.
Being unable to remember the sentence is why I bounced off SSiW hard on my first two attempts over a period of years. It was only because I’d seen people being very successful with the method that I came back to give it a third try and this time found a method that enabled me to use the system.
Interestingly, my auditory memory improved somewhat as I worked through the challenges. I’m now working through the Say Something in Spanish challenges and, though I do have to repeat each challenge several times, it is finally sticking. (I’m trying a pattern of 1,2,3,2,3,4,3,4,5 etc.)
I find this sometmes happens with some of the longer sentences, but like others, I try to start to translate it before it is complete. Occasionlly, if part of the sentence has been used before I just make sure I concentrate on saying the new phrase or word that is being introduced. I think it becomes easier as you progress through the lessons.
Okay - that’s great news - because that’s absolutely par for the course - EVERYONE has trouble with the long sentences - so you can choose how to play it - either what-the-heck and just say whatever you can think of, or take extra pause time for the longer sentences - I’d tend to recommend what-the-heck and then listen carefully to the models.
There’s a bit in a video online somewhere of me doing an intensive day of Manx with our Manx lessons when I start saying ‘Oh come on, that’s just too long’ - so it really, really isn’t the end of the world if you just say whatever comes to your mind for the long ones…
I went through the entire three levels without being able to remember what the end of the long sentences were in English.
I think the main thing is to give a go at the bit you remember. This helps you to build sentences, well actually - to “say something in Welsh”.
Towards the end of the course, I often misheard a word in the second part of the sentence, so came out with the “wrong” sentence in Welsh.
The thing is, as long as you say something, you will learn to build sentences in Welsh which is all you will need to make your own conversations in time.
