Cymraeg (Welsh) progress. Ugh.

                                        Back in January, which seems so long ago, I proclaimed my desire to concentrate on running and Welsh during this year of twenty fourteen. Most of the time, New Year's Resolutions don't last very long for me although admittedly, this proclamation was more serious than that. It was a true desire that I had to do well with both and succeed. Well, the running did reasonably well for me until just after the Vancouver Half marathon in mid June. My running has taken a bit of a downturn as arthritis and sciatica have taken their toll. Add summer heat and a super busy schedule and it has been less than stellar. But...I knew summer would be a slow season, so that was to be expected while typing in this blog post. I tend to lay low during the summer, sweating it out till fall.

So sure, my running has been less than stellar. As soon as school starts and the temps drop a bit, barring injury, I will be back on schedule and getting my miles in each week.







                                              Now, with the running out of the way and all good there....

                               

                                                My Welsh studies and lessons were really moving along well from January until April. Say something in Welsh course lessons were moving well, I was learning at a reasonable level and satisfied with my progress. For the most part. After starting a Welsh speakers group for the Portland/Vancouver area on Facebook, I was able to learn even more and attune my ear to Cymraeg and pick things up on radio, video and in person with my fellow speakers here locally.
What happened? I lost track of time. Schedules, life, family, other issues...all rushed in to block my time for study. I was weak. And I started to lose some of the words I had remembered, making it necessary to go back and re-listen to previous courses when I should have been moving on. And, my brain simply does retain languages as well as it did twenty five years ago.

So...May, June and July have been a complete waste of time as far as my Welsh goes. And there is nobody more frustrated than myself. I seriously wanted to be done with Course 1 and have completed all 25 lessons. Nope. Didn't even get close. Ugh. Damn. Argghhh. #@!%$&*

                          Yep. That has been ME over the last few months. Yet I didn't do as much about it as I COULD and SHOULD have. I coasted, listening to my lessons for five to ten minutes a day and not getting enough time in. Sure, I learned some new words that have stayed in my brain. But progress: not a chance. I know my sub-conscious will have remembered some of it and that is fine. but I NEED to get working at this and set aside all other hobbies, passions and distractions. This includes all other twelve books I wanted to read this summer. A change of direction is needed for this student and now.

                                                                                       First up: get rid of the disappointment.
 Water under the bridge. it has disappeared and cannot really do much damage any longer, so why hold on to it. That's where I shall start.



      Therefore, I now will start a new schedule for Welsh studies. It will entail an hour a day of study. Minimum. My phone will now have alarms going off when I'm supposed to hit the books, audio lessons or YouTube video study.  First of all, I shall go back to the first lessons and listen to them ALL this week, getting my brain and ears wrapped around the sounds and words again. My hopes are that after this week of back pedaling, I will be up to where I left off by Saturday. It is going to be tough but I shall do my best and succeed.

As I type this, I'm surrounded by books about Welsh, in Welsh and defining Cymraeg words. There is no shortage of books available to me and I'm blessed to have such an expansive library, acquired over the last year.

 Now that I have made a public statement AGAIN as to my studies, I shall begin anew. As the year is not over and quite a bit remains, I still have time to get through course 1 by the end of the year!!! I will no matter what!!! That does not mean I will remember EVERY word from the course nor be the best at my grammar, but that I will have a C average minimum when I end my studies on 31 December. Over the next five months I will be immersing myself again and posting may Welsh related topics and even some Cymraeg language. Bear with me as I do so. I'm sure many will not want to constantly read about Welsh as it is not interesting to them. Totally understandable. And not every blog post will be about this topic. I promise.

                                                             And now...off I go to set alarms!