I couldn’t have explained it better myself!
Oh, hang on…
2 Likes
Just seen the bit about the ´tale´ — ´tail´ … (but there are ladies present, best not go there)
I wanted to do English Lit in the 6th form, but it couldn’t be fitted in as I was doing sciences. So I went to an evening class to do it. The female Australian tutor there explained to us the reference in Othello to “the beast with two backs”, in straightforward, low-key language. I suspect that would have been glossed over / ignored at my grammar school.
I never knew that the Bard was responsible for that phrase. This board is certainly educational 
Sorry Owain, this really has me flummoxed! Maybe because I think I last read one in Primary School! I didn’t like the 5! I seem to recall the eldest was a boy who thought he should run everything, another boy was a wimp who just followed his senior, there was a hopeless girl who cared only for keeping her pretty dresses clean and being helped over the simplest obstacle and the other girl was so brain-washed, she thought only boys could behave sensibly so wanted to be one! I had most sympathy for the dog! (To be fair to Blyton, I guess she was a product of her era!)
However, the quote I gave was from a famous 3 not 5!
1 Like
It was a joke, Henddraig - the idea of Enid Blyton writing something like that
Firstly, to @owainlurch, sorry, too thick to realise it!
Now, Mike, I do wish I’d had your initiative! I wanted Chem, Phys, History and English Lit, but I never ever thought of evening classes and by then I knew they existed because I got some work being a technician for Physics classes held in our school in the evening! I was told my chosen mixture was:
- Impossible because I’d been made to drop History at O-level
- Useless for getting into Uni, except possibly at Keele, which was too new and odd to be worth attending!
So I did Pure Maths and Applied Maths like a good little scientist!
2 Likes
Is that a camel or have i missed something.
Cheers J.P.
It’s something you could put your knowledge of the birds and the Bees to good use on… 
4 Likes
Well credit goes to my Mother for giving me the idea of evening classes… not in that year, but the previous one, where she suggested going to evening class O level Maths to beef up what I was getting at school. Much better teacher there than at school (he was patient enough to explain it to those like me who took a little longer to get it…the maths teachers at my school were only ever interested in those pupils who “got it” first time…).
So when I realised I couldn’t do Eng. Lit at school, then evening class came straight away to mind. And it helped of course that in those enlightened days, if you were in full-time education, evening classes were free. (It all came under the LEA in those days).
However, don’t envy me Hendraig, because I didn’t finish the course, and I am sure you were a much more successful student than me, from what I have learned from your postings over the years.
Yes, Keele was an interesting place in those days by all accounts, wasn’t it. Don’t know what it’s like now. I did do an OU summer school there in much more recent years, but that’s different of course; I do remember the warm summer evenings passing in a pleasant alcoholic haze … 
I doubt it. I succeeded when I had to! i.e. “Oh dear, only hope of decent job is as a chemist, better get degree then!” “Oh, if I do this course, I can change to Health Physics, so.”…etc. But all my favourite subjects are just hobbies!
Now for something completely different…
When I began this topic I would fret that poor hearing was sabotaging my efforts to learn, but thanks to the patience of my many tutors here who wrote down what I was missing, gradually I caught on and seem to have acquired an ‘ear’ for the language (as well as much better hearing devices).
This week I made two more great discoveries–having cleaned the house top to bottom while ‘plugged in’ to the App over the past few days, suddenly I am on Gwers 18 of the old Course 2. That, together with my ‘dyi bootcamp’ earlier this week makes my goal of finishing the Course by the end of September ‘howddi powddi’.
So discovery #1 is that by listening and speaking while doing the chores actually works and, as Aran says somewhere, it is more relaxed because we don’t fret or try to be perfect, but just ‘live the Welsh’.
The other discovery–my dyi home-style bootcamp for a day was a real treat amidst all the craziness that the ‘back to it’ September mode brings. The trick was getting all the things ready to make it work–including a batch of Welsh cakes to keep up the energy level. Don’t know where they disappeared…
6 Likes
This sounds like a huge level of success, Marilyn - llongyfarchiadau mawr iawn i ti! 
2 Likes
Diolch yn fawr iawn Aran, ac llongyfarchiadau mawr iawn i ti hefyd! Wi’n cael hywl 
1 Like
Thank you for reminding me of this phrase! 
1 Like
Pure Coincidence?
There I was on this tour coach in NZ yesterday, enjoying a lull in the commentary to finish the last lesson in Course 2, when we passed a rural farmhouse with a great big Welsh flag blowing in the breeze. The landscape reminded me of Wales–so did he rain which I like anyway. Seemed like quite a coincidence!
Well, no claims here to have mastered all the lessons, but I reached my goal–completing the course by the end of September. It is true–the faster you go, the more you learn, so now I can relax and go over the bits that do not trip off the tongue fast enough to beat Cat.
Some tips I will pass on since they worked for me:
–keep going and just note the ‘time’ within a lesson where you stumble, so want to go over a few times
–trust there will be plenty of review built into future lessons, so keep moving forward (remember, 80+% is excellent, so forget perfection)
–set a goal and ‘go for it’, enjoying every step of the way
–if you rely on hearing aids (like me) get a gizmo that plays lessons directly into your devices–the quality is so much better, and if you are in situations like on a bus, you can listen and mouth or mentally practice the exercises–it all counts.
‘Down here’ we are a day ahead–it is 29th already, but it is almost exactly a year since I discovered SSiW. I never would have believed I could have learned so much so quickly, especially since I ‘lost’ several months focusing on a Celtic Studies course that demanded all my free time.
Onwards friends…
Marilyn
6 Likes
Penblwydd hapus a llongyfarchiadau mawr!
1 Like
Help please… old Course 3 Gwers 14 @ 11 mins, what is the first word I am hearing in the Welsh for ‘My father’s friend is visiting me’–?? tad fy ffrind yn ymweld a fi.
Thank you,
Marilyn
1 Like
Just guessing as I don’t have the lesson handy. Possibly “Mae” pronounced"ma"?
3 Likes
Thanks John, I wondered if that was it, then started doubting. Phew!
Hwyl,
Marilyn
2 Likes