Had to look that up… Not this year, no. 
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Sorry, please ignore that. I’ve realised I’ve confused the words for “something” and “what”. Back to it!
Peter
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This is very reassuring! Emma (my partner) and her mum very rarely use “hi” for it. They mix Genders a lot (and subsequently I do too). So it’s just reassuring to have the “it’s not a big deal” reinforced. Diolch! 
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Hi everybody 
My name is Claudia and I’ve just started learning Welsh. I’m 15 minutes into lesson 4 (level 1) now…and honestly, I’m getting close to desperation. I must admit that I’m quiet a perfectionist, most unfortunately, and having a hard time to relax and accept that often enough, I cannot…just cannot remember words and expressions. I’m feeling like being completely out of control. Maybe I’m just too stupid for this course and need to repeat challenges (even though it’s considered bad). 
Is it really “normal” and good to carry on, even though I feel that the more new words and expressions I learn, the less I can remember? I feel like a fraud…a dumb fraud! 
Please forgive my poor English.
Claudia
P.S. I’m so sorry, I forgot to mention the most important thing…I love Welsh and I love this course…and I’m very grateful for it! 
I feel like the fact you’ve asked us to forgive your English may be an indicator that you’re aiming for perfection…(I can’t see anything wrong with your English).
It’s normal to think you should be learning every phrase and sentence verbatim - that’s not the end goal. The end goal is make you a Welsh speaker, therefore, you’re being taught patterns and sentence structure. So push on, it will come! The lessons build on each other.
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Thank you very much for the encouragement, Anthony, I really needed to hear that! Oh yes, I am a perfectionist…sigh
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Trying for perfection is very tempting, but it is better not to! Is it the Challenges you are doing? Oh, Welcome, Croeso to the Forum! Where do you live? Apologising for your (excellent) English suggest you are not in UK!
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Thank you very much for your reply and the welcome, henddraig! Yes, I’m doing the challenges. You’re being very kind…it’s just that compared to native speakers, my English is quite limited and simple. I’m living in Zurich, Switzerland; and to my delight, some of the difficult sounds of the Welsh language are similar to sounds we have in Swiss German. 
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@Claudia_Beryan Welcome to the forum, Claudia! Your English is perfect, so don’t apologize!
I, too, am a perfectionist. I understand your discomfort. I can tell you thought, that the method works. The spaced repetition means that you will keep practicing the words and patterns that you are learning as the lessons continue, and at some point you will discover that the things you were struggling with earlier fall into place. That said, if it’s making you so crazy that you would consider quitting, there’s no reason why you can’t repeat lessons. But I’d recommend you give the method a chance first. Do the first 10 lessons without repeating, and then go back a bit if you still feel you need to. I’ll bet you will be surprised at how much easier you find those lessons if you go back
Come ask questions any time - lots of friendly people here who are happy to help!
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Your experience sounds completely normal. Very impressed that you are taking Welsh lessons in English when English is not your native language!
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Hello AnnaC and rebecca
Thank you very much for your answers, I’m grateful for your feedback and advice! I wish I was cool, could just lean back, relax and enjoy the lessons. But no…every time I cannot remember a word or an expression, my mean inner voice starts to scold me, to cause stress and stir up the feeling of being stupid. But your own experiences really help me to silence that devilish little voice and to start trusting the method!
At the moment, I still don’t have difficulties following the English instructions…but I’m sure that, as soon as the sentences get more complicated (both the English and Welsh sentences), my brain will go into overdrive…
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@Claudia_Beryan If you manage to carry on with the challenges as you are without seriously considering giving up, that is great! But if ever you contemplate stopping, instead have a go at the old course, the Lessons, which are a bit more conventionally structured. It is easier to see what one is learning, if you see what I mean. You can return to the Challenges with a little more insight maybe? I am one who began before the Challenges existed and found progress easier than it was when I switched to the Challenges! Lwc dda!
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@henddraig Oh, yes, I noticed that there are different Lessons listed under section “Old stuff”! I will heed your advice and try out Lesson 1 tonight. Diolch yn fawr iawn!
A couple of hours ago, I listened to the “Listening practice” of Challenge 5 and realised, to my huge surprise, that I was able to understand quite a bit…and quite easily. It’s all “in the head”, isn’t it? I didn’t expect to understand anything and just wanted to casually check it out, so my mind was relaxed and open.
Did you complete all Lessons before you switched to the Challenges?
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If you’ve got through the first 5 challenges and had that HUGELY significant success with the listening exercise, I would strongly recommend that you keep going with Level 1…
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It is hardly necessary to say"I agree with @aran!" I didn’t realise you had done the listening practise successfully! That seems to show the information is going in and your poor results in the memory test haven’t proved a disadvantage! I didn’t finish the lessons. I switched when the Challenges arrived and Aran advised us to move to those. I did find them harder, but maybe the long term result is.better, it is hard to tell with a sample of one!
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@aran Thank you very much for your reply, aran! You know, I still cannot always remember and often mix up rhaid i fi…mae gyda fi…dw i newydd…dw i wedi and dw i wedi bod…but I will try to make it through Challenge 5 of Level 1 tonight (and check out the older Lessons, as well, as I’m a curious person)…
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That’s okay, it’s part of the process - it happens to everybody…
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Geez, yes, my spatial sense and the memory for it defy description. Thank goodness that this doesn’t apply to languages, as well.
I’ve just printed out the Listening practise and will read it as many times as possible on my way home (without using the English translation, of course!).
Thanks again for your kind and precious support and advice, I appreciate it very much! 
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The old road signs say ‘Sir faesyfed’ [Radnorshire] and ‘Sir frycheniog’ [Brecknock / [Breconshire] so it may be something to do with the old old counties. Whereas the old county names are not such as Sir Gwynedd, Sir Powys and neither are the current ones.
Was there a re-organisation before the old old counties? and what happens when they change them next time?
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How old old are we talking?
Here is some stuff going back to the 13th century:
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