We’ve had quite a lot of questions about our claim that it’s possible (starting from scratch) to become a confident Welsh speaker in 6 months.
Some of the emails are just people shouting ‘THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE, YOU’RE LIARS!’ – but the calmer emails often ask how exactly it’s possible to go so fast, and if everyone can do it.
I’ll deal with the second part to begin with – no, not everyone can do it.
*Most* people can – but we find about 5% to 10% of people have issues with their working memory, or with how they build sentences, that makes the SaySomethingin Method a really tough grind for them.
How do you know if you’re one of those people?
There are warning signs – and you’re almost certainly already aware of them. If you had a tough time learning your first language – particularly if you needed speech therapy of any kind – or if you find it hard to remember more than about 3 numbers in a row in a telephone number – then you’d be a better fit for our ‘6 Minutes a Day’ course, which gets through the same material but at a much more leisurely pace.
If that *doesn’t* describe you, then you’re almost certainly capable of getting through the 6 month course.
So how do we get you to go so fast?
After all, not many people believe it’s possible to get to real conversational ability in 6 months, unless you’re pretty much doing it full-time. Certainly not in just 3 or 4 hours a week.
It’s all about cutting out waste.
Most language courses have activities where the pressure on your brain is much less – think games, or waiting for your turn in class – opportunities for your brain to take a breather.
We don’t.
We aim to put the maximum amount of pressure on your brain all the time – every single challenge, every single activity, they’re all focused relentlessly on keeping your brain producing and strengthening new synapses.
And it turns out that the brain can keep on doing this kind of work – with languages, at any rate – for much longer than is usually expected.
It’s possible to spend 12 hours straight putting your brain under this kind of pressure – exhausting, but possible, and if you do it often enough your brain even starts to adapt to that level of pressure.
So the 3 or 4 hours a week we ask you for on our 6 month course is a doddle by comparison (although I don’t think many of our 6 month learners would thank me for suggesting that!).
It’s a ‘doddle’, though, that puts your brain under REAL pressure for those 3 to 4 hours each week.
And that’s why – if you do all the challenges – at the end of the 6 months, you are capable of having real conversations in Welsh.
Which is why we guarantee it.
Interestingly, although some people drop out because the time commitment is too much for them, so far not a SINGLE person has reached the end of the 6 month course and then asked for their money back.
They’re too busy enjoying speaking Welsh…:-)
The 6 month course is here:
And if you’re concerned about previous speech therapy or problems with your working memory, or just can’t commit to 3 or 4 hours a day, the ‘6 Minutes a Day’ course is here:
SaySomethingin 