I was wondering if you could offer me some advice. I am thinking about doing the intense six month paid course offered by SSiW. I did the mynediad course about four years ago (I joined half way through as I already knew some Welsh) and I have done some sylfaen recently (I did about half the course on and off but missed lots of classes due to personal and work reasons) and I have done about five of the free SSiW audio files. I feel I am missing a lot of vocabulary and don’t have a lot of confidence speaking. Do you think the six months’ course would be a good idea? I don’t know all the patterns that were taught during sylfaen as I missed a lot and definitely not the vocab and have forgotten a lot of the stuff taught during mynediad. I am quite good at grammar (I studied languages) but I lack confidence.
Hi Moochi
Speaking as a fellow learner:
It all depends on how much time you have. If you are really stuck for time, then the six minutes (average per day) might be an alternative. But I’m guessing: Yes, I think so; go for the Six Months Course. It will fit around your work and other commitments, so that is good.
You will end up going over those first few free Challenges again, but you could treat that as a springboard revision lead-in.
The stuff that you have already learnt in Welsh for Adults will also help you, but dont stress over it, as SSiW doesn’t require any prior knowledge or studies. I came from a similar background (although the older version of Welsh for Adults) and it certainly didn’t hinder me in any way.
The difference that you will have noticed with SSiW is though, that you don’t need to retain all that vocabulary from each lesson before moving on to the next, because the patterns will be repeated as revision a number of times as you progress.
So, for what my opinion is worth: I’d say, Yes, go for it.
Thank you John! The facebook page says you can get the SSiW 6 months’ course for free when you sign up to the SSiW 6 minute course, or maybe I have totally misread it. I am not entirely sure how that works though. Do you?
We’re currently running a competition - if you sign up with the name of one of the referrers (in this thread: Share our biggest discount ever and get LOADS of prizes :-)) then you can get access to the 6 month course while just paying subscription for the 6 minute a day course…
I paid for the 6 minute course through paypal and it did not give me the option to fill in the form and put the name of the person in. Can you sort it out for me? I wanted to put John Young down as his name is on that thread and he answered to my question
I’ll ask Ifan to add John as your referrer, to figure out the Paypal hiccup (thank you!) and to set you up with access to the 6 month course (and then you can see whether 6 month or 6 minute pace suits you best ).
I have tried to learn without much success until SSIW, I have enjoyed trying to learn and have learned more in 12 weeks than in the previous three years . Go for it , you will not regret it. I am confident I will speak welsh by the end of the six months
Hi @Moochi. I would say a very definite Yes! I’ve just started Level Two and I’ve loved every minute so far (well, not challenges 12 & 13, but they passed!). I’ve mastered sentences I never expected to, had hours of fun reading and commenting on this forum and Slack, joined in with group chats on hangouts and enjoyed chatting one-to-one with some lovely women, mostly in Welsh!
I find the lessons interesting, enjoy the pace and feel very cherished by Aran, Iestyn, Dee, Nia and many others.
I’ve (apparently) got O Levels in French and German and I studied Spanish and Italian for years.
I can honestly say that I’ve learned to speak a wider range of sentences much more confidently, in Welsh with the SSiW 6 month course, in the past 13 weeks.
It’s fun, interesting, friendly and professional and you learn to speak a beautiful language.
If you want to practice speaking Welsh when/If you sign up, message me and I’ll be happy to speak to you. Good luck
Thank you @Oddsandgirl and @lin-2 for your input. It is good to know you have had good experiences with the course. Speaking practice would be good eventually for sure But at he moment I just don’t feel confident enough to speak but I hope that will change in the future.
Croeso @Moochi. No problem. I started by stammering my way through ‘Linda, dw i’! No need to worry, a couple of words is enough at first and really helps build confidence. Lots of my conversations are in Wenglish anyway!
Have fun and enjoy the amazing process
I too had no confidence to speak to anyone in welsh, but am gaining a bit more, the more you feel are learning the more confident you will get.
I started just be saying Bore Da ! and just one or two words a day, I also say Dw’n dysgu cymraeg and find that everyone is very helpful.
You will get there.
I reckon that’s a normal piece of self-defence from your brain - it knows you don’t have what you need for a long conversation yet, so it’s trying to save you from being caught out. But as @Oddsandgirl said, the more you learn, the more confidence you’ll build, and then micro-steps to start using a word or two will help you begin to break some of the barriers…
Please don’t set “confident enough” as a goal post - it’s one of those goal posts that has a sneaky tendency to move further away! (“fluent enough” is another one - that one is even more like a rainbow!)
The chats and hangouts on Slack are an excellent way of building confidence because there are plenty of lovely, patient, encouraging people who’ve been in that situation themselves, know what you’re going through and will let you go at your own pace with whatever vocab you’ve got, even if it’s only a couple of words.
In fact I’ve often chatted to people who truly believed they only had a couple of words they could say yet they are able to carry on a perfectly good conversation for 30 minutes or more (without even realising how long they’ve been speaking!).
I don’t want to make light of not feeling confident - I still have confidence issues with certain things - it can be a difficult ‘comfort blanket’ to shake off. I work through it by saying to myself “ok, I’m not confident, but I am capable” - and I’m sure you are more capable than you think even at this early stage
Snap! I start hearing (and fine-tuning and correcting-in-anguish!) my words about half a second after I say them every time I’m talking to a chaired bard…
