Thank you to Aran and the team for the encouragement and guidance emails. They are really useful. I’m so glad I signed up. It makes a real difference. So, I took up the challenge. Five challenges, no pauses. I did three this Sunday finishing on challenge 19. I feel drained and worked really hard. But, it has been fun. (I think). I have indeed learned a lot but there are things that I just don’t get. I can’t get my ears or mouth around “a few friends” and “a couple of drinks”. Gracious Me! I hope this will come in time. There were moments of sheer joy (“I’ve been learning for about a month”) that made me laugh out loud and those sentences which just seem to flow out even if they are new. When “The Terror Strikes” it’s complete brain freeze and I can get almost nothing out. However, I am going to take “the test” and go back five challenges and see how it feels. But I think I’ll do that tomorrow. I’m now going to have a couple of drinks with a few friends… Simon
Superb work - well done! And from that set of descriptions, you’ve nailed it, and the first of the five will seem oddly easier when you revisit.
Don’t worry about ‘a few friends’ and ‘a couple of drinks’ - it took me 16 months to get ‘to watch the football’ and ‘at the weekend’ on the Manx course - and that was 16 months without doing any Manx at all - so really, the less you worry about it, the easier it will be - they’ll click for you at some point… 
OK. So I revisited challenge 15 and it was a lot better than I thought. Not perfect but I heard and understood all the sentences. I did not get it all correct and there were still a couple of brain freeze moments. I pressed on and did two more challenges today ending at Challenge 21. Oops. Overload! I don’t think I can remember anything from 21. I’ve done the listening practice and tried to make up sentences. Should I go back and revise one or should I just keep on going? My gut is telling me to repeat/revise but I know (from one of your excellent emails) that we should tell our gut to keep quiet. I would really like to get to the end of level 1 by the end of this week but don’t want to overdo it. Thank you again. Simon
Keep on going! What you describe of 15 is terrific - heard/understood everything is genuinely excellent…
During 21 - were you saying things in the gaps? Or does ‘overload’ mean a complete blank?
OK. Thank you. Not a complete blank. Full sentence about a half of the time. The rest was full of partial sentences with some complete blanks. There some things: (“I shouldn’t”, and the formation of the possessive concerning brother, sister, mother and father) that threw me completely and I sat there with my mouth opening and shutting but with nothing coming out but gibberish! I did the next challenge today and found it, well, challenging. I felt I needed a word list… I could not help but look at the vocabulary lists of those things I just don’t get. However, I am doing the listening practice which I find very helpful - and have noticed that you slip the odd new word in just to keep us on our toes. 
Once I have done 25 (and I intend to get there this week) I was going to go back to 20 to see how it goes.
That sounds fine to me!..
Yes, I think that’s very much the right approach for you. Let us know how it goes!
I just wanted to say that I finished challenge 25 today. Cripes! Your sentences at the end were also a challenge but, as always, encouraging. I’m going to spend the weekend doing 20 - 25 just to see how they feel now and as a bit of revision. Next step, Level 2. Thank you. Simon
Well DONE!
Looking forward to hearing how that goes for you…
Thank you. I’ve learned an enormous amount and it would be too easy to focus on mistakes and what I don’t know. I think you are right to warn us that we might feel discouraged. And, to be honest, I was a bit. I wish I was more able to respond more quickly and more accurately. I guess that’s a part of the learning process and a reflection on my own impatience with myself…
But, and this is a BIG but, I started on this journey with no Welsh at all and looking back even now I can see that I’ve come a long way. Next up: level 2.
Thanks once again for this fantastic resource and the encouragement that you and the forum gives. It’s really, really good to see people helping out and encouraging one another.
We ALL wish that - because it’s such a movable goal…
The journey is all about letting go of that urge to measure and condemn yourself as much as possible (try seeing the sentences you can’t do as a flaw in the system!) - so that you can spend more time going through the process, feeling happier about it…
You’re genuinely doing brilliantly to have got through Level 1 
The magical shrinking of time (for thinking) phenomenon…
By way of revision, I have just almost finished re-doing Level 1 without using the pause button—well, almost, I maybe lapsed 6-7 times for 4-5 seconds in 22 lessons. That’s a personal best, and proof SSiW really works if you stick at it, because I have done this a few times and can measure my own progress this way.
Oh, I am not perfect but just give it a good try. Some of the negatives or use of ‘na’ still trip me up, but no worries—when I go on Slack, with practice that too will fall into place, and if not, some nice person at the 10th Anniversary party will help as I try to say “My mother told me, I shouldn’t (na) drink too much.”
There is something very liberating and satisfying about this ‘hands free’ approach—it certainly gives those little grey cells a workout. Although it has taken a while, for me it seems to have paid off to go right through first, then try ‘once more from the top…’ Different strokes for different folks 
Hywl,
Mari
Hi Mari,
Thank you very much for the encouragement. I find this forum very uplifting when I think it’s all a bit too hard. I sometimes just can’t get the words out quick enough and Cat has finished just as my mush-like brain tells my mouth to move. I do absolutely agree that the “hands free” approach is liberating and makes the brain work hard. I really think it works. So, I started level 2 today. Hands free, no pause.
Simon
Brilliant Simon,
I hope you enjoy this next Level and always have a little reward waiting as a treat at the end of each lesson—I do, it works wonders
Let me know how you get on—I am just behind you…
Mari