What are your biggest challenges?
I’ll answer these as a pre-SSIW learner of Welsh and a present SSIS learner of Spanish (if that makes sense). The main difference (apart from being lucky enough to have the SSI method available to learn Spanish) in learning Spanish is that I’ve already learned another language as an adult - as a result I have a much much different attitude this time round than when I learned Welsh.
When learning Welsh the biggest challenge was (if I strip everything back to the core) simply the belief that it would be possible for me as an adult to learn another language.
With Spanish it’s finding someone to practice with and the time to do that!
What has come closest to stopping you learning?
When I originally learned Welsh I didn’t really come close to learning once I finally got underway as I’d reach a point in life where I was sort of ready. That sounds a bit odd as I write it but basically I had gone off travelling and in my travels began to appreciate more my own background and culture. So by the time I came back I was absolutely determined to learn. I was also “unburdened” by a job, relationship or kids at the time so I had plenty of free time to fill! As far as learning a language it was a bit of a perfect storm really. Had I not had the time and determination to study Welsh intensively at the beginning I’m not sure I ever would have succeeded - as it was during this intensive time at the beginning that I began to see the wood for the trees and understand that it’s all about sentence structures and not memorising 1000’s of new words.
Spanish has been totally different - I don’t have the same motivation from an identity point of view and with a full time job, two young kids, an allotment and moving house twice within six months - I have virtually no free time! The initial motivation this time was that I would one day like to spend some time in the Wladfa in Patagonia. However this on its own would not be enough, the major difference is that this time I actually enjoy the learning process and due to travelling over an hour a day in the car the SSIS course suits me perfectly both in the fact that it’s an audio course and in the fantastic way it builds up your ability to use the language. The only reason I’ve had to “stop” learning is waiting for new lessons (disclaimer - I’m not moaning I promise, I appreciate your very busy 
Although what this has highlighted to me that even with a global language such as Spanish there is nothing out there that holds a candle to the SSIS method. I’ve tried and looked for other resources but have soon tired of them. If it wasn’t for SSIS I definitely wouldn’t have persevered with learning Spanish.
What makes you think you might not succeed?
When I first began to learn Welsh the overwhelming barrier was the idea that it would be impossible for any mortal human without a language learning superpower to learn another language once they’d passed the age of 7 years old. I just could not see how it would be possible for me to remember the 1000’s of new words of a new language. I’d always wanted to learn Welsh even before I went travelling but there was a deep seated feeling that I never thought it possible I could do it, which always held me back from really trying. This I believe is wide spread and fed by the poor courses and materials out there and previously poor experience in schools or night courses. The vast majority of language courses seem to be designed the overriding aim of ensuring whoever uses them never succeeds in learning the language and putting them off ever trying again in the future. They seem a bit like as if you go to your first driving lesson and the instructor insists that you wear a bind fold, well of course your not going to learn to drive like that but it doesn’t mean that you’ll never be able to drive, you just need to find an instructor who doesn’t insist you wear a blindfold when he teaches you!
Learning Spanish (having learned Welsh) I didn’t have the problem of not believing whether I was able to learn another language and it’s like the world being lifted of your shoulders. This time I can simply enjoy the journey, laugh at my mistakes and be far more relaxed when I feel like I haven’t quite understood something (confident in the knowledge that it’ll appear obvious at some point further down the line). This time I simply play the CDs in the car to break up the monotony of my commute and enjoy the challenge. I’m off to Majorca next month so am looking forward to my first real experience of using Spanish with native speakers - although I’ll have to learn to apologise for not speaking Catalan first!
(Anyone know what “I’m sorry I don’t speak Catalan” is in Catalan?)
Are your main challenges different now to what you felt at the beginning?
Having learned Welsh and now use the language everyday both at work and at home I suppose the main challenge is the refinement of the written language.
Regarding Spanish, I don’t think I’m far enough down the line yet to have change my main focus which is to reach a level where I can confidently converse in day to day matters.
Was there anything that held you back from getting started? (In general, I mean, not specifically with SSiW).
As I mentioned above really, the over riding barrier was the idea that it would be simply impossible for me to learn another language as an adult. I still remember the sort of Eureka moment with Welsh where it finally hit a after a couple of weeks of solid study where I sat back and thought “hang on, this all just comes down to the different sentence structures and how to change the verbs to express these in the different tenses, which actually doesn’t require you to learn all that much really. The vocab just follows with practice - and the more you speak the more you remember by providing a context for all the stuff your trying to remember”. After that hit me everything got a lot easier!
That’s a hugely generous amount of detail, can’t thank you enough…
