Beginner forum thread? | If SSIW is helping you, why not help us? Get DAILY lessons: Become an SSIW Member!

[ontariowelshlady]

This is an interesting thread, esp being one of the newcomers! I felt warmly welcomed in my first couple of posts. A large part of what will keep me motivated is community interaction. Welcome goes beyond responding to the first post. In a face-to-face situation, if someone were to join a group or try out a church, get a warm reception and then be ignored, they would not stay. So it is in online groups. Although learning Welsh is the main draw on SSiW, and there are some who will work away at the lessons without ever wanting to post, there are many who will drift away when they feel no connection.

On a technical level, I find the site very easy to negotiate and I'm no computer whiz!

I find the lessons challenging and fun, although I was getting annoyed with myself for some basic mistakes on my 4th run through lesson 2. Instead of forgetting to take off the "n" before "iesha", I often forget to put it on, I'm getting "aros" and "mynd" reversed quite a lot, after the first "achos" I have no ch left because now my throat has been cleared. And something very odd is happening sometimes. If I'm not paying close attention, I don't recall if I heard the sentence in Welsh or English. It seems there may be another benefit to learning Welsh. I have a great deal of trouble paying attention for very long. Going back to school, this is a big issue. Last week I was only doing a few minutes before stopping for a minute, then continuing. I am able to concentrate much longer! Today it was 12 minutes before I needed my mind drifting minute!

Anita from Ontario

[Anita_Midol]

I'm glad this is helping you, Anita! I feel the same as you do. Keeping the connection alive can keep the motivation up, even beyond learning to speak Welsh. We all need to feel connected, and I think the SSiW forum does a good job of it.

I, too, had the difficulties you speak of but I think you will find they are short lived. What works for me is to spend a few sessions just listening to the lessons and not trying to speak. It only took a couple of times before I found myself saying the sentences out loud anyway and before I knew it I was saying them before Cat. I was even admonishing myself to Shh!! and just listen, but it didn't turn out that way. LoL
One time I put the lesson on and thought I would just listen to it in the background while I charted out a needlework design for a friend... the design still isn't finished but I know how to ask you if you speak Welsh! LoL

I defer to Aran & Iestyn here, but for me I've found it's sometimes better to let the lesson go than to carry on and get stressed over my mistakes. Sometimes coming back to it later gives me a fresh approach.
Thanks for posting! And Croeso!
~ Corinne

[Aran]

Thank you for that very interesting post, Anita Ontario... I think you're entirely right about interaction going beyond just the welcome - but I hope you haven't felt that people haven't been interacting with you subsequently? I'm not aware of having seen any threads where people don't get answers (it's one of the things I love about the forum...).

It's great that you're enjoying the lessons - the more fun it is, the easier it is - and on that note, please please please don't get annoyed with yourself for making mistakes! Mistakes are all part of the fun of learning - the chance to go back and be a child again and just play with language - the more mistakes you make, the faster you will learn...

So get out there and go make some mistakes...

Fascinating to hear what you say about concentration - that is certainly how it's meant to happen, and how meditation is meant to work as well, but that's a huge increase in such a short time - and it will certainly have a very positive impact on your learning...

[DESMOND WOODS]

S'mai everyone and especially oldish beginners like myself

The idea of a beginner thread sounds great and hopefully it will come to pass.
However although I go to Club y Bont in Ponty on Mondays ( you couldn't meet a nicer bunch of folk in amonth of Sundays BUT ALL SO FLUENT!)I think it would help my confidence to meet up with a few folk doing the beginners course at lessons say 5 to 10/12 for a drink or a coffee. If they were Cardff (or near) it would be perfect !

Any takers??
Desmond

[OogieM]

I think it would help my confidence to meet up with a few folk doing the beginners course at lessons say 5 to 10/12 for a drink or a coffee. If they were Cardff (or near) it would be perfect !

Well I'm a beginner, and I'm coming to Wales in August. At this point I'm staying in Llanvetherine near Abergavenny from 4-6 Aug, Brecon 7 Aug and then will be down in Wincanton Somerset from 8-10 August.

Not very near Cardiff at all and I won't have a car but if there is a way I'd love to meet someone who is also a beginner.

[Elmo]

As a beginner I really like the variety and weath of information on the site - but then I am well used to sifting through lots of info on computers (one of the joys of the education system ). I especially liked the chatty feel to it, not only informative but entertaining and friendly . However I would imagine that new users who are not used to using computers/forums would find it all quite daunting, so maybe having more topics to organise threads into to make it easier to find relevant stuff? With any that are particularly useful for certain levels highlighted? Plus, i think having a thread for each lesson would be a great help. Save time on the sifting...

[Aran]

Thanks for that useful input, Elmo...

I particularly like the idea of a thread per lesson.

[debw12]

If it could be managed, I think a thread for each lesson would be really helpful. I haven't had much success with finding answers putting the particular lesson into the search box, I have to use something else from my question and it can take a bit of looking which can be frustrating when you have a full day ahead of you and you have a few minitues to sit down at the computer and would love to read something helpful about that bit of lesson whatever that is tripping you up. My lessons are always with me on the mp3 player so I can usually always do lesson work during the day wherever I am but when I need a question answered I find I have to schedual computer time and it would be so nice to have somesort of reference guide. It seems like it would be terribly complicated to sort out all the variuos posts into lessons threads but the brilliance of everyone here is so amazing, perhaps? I don't think it would be necessary or even advisable to make separate north/south threads.....Long live SSIW! Debby

[debw12]

Ask and ye shall receive.................dioloch yn fawr iawn

[Aran]