I first visited a Buddhist temple when I was 12 and we lived in Sri Lanka. I have faint memories of the colours and the waves of incense, and of feeling relaxed even though I was usually shy and awkward in public. 

It would be another forty years before I started to pay serious attention to meditation, though. As is true for many people, it was an experience of suffering which brought me to that point – but the more I found that meditation helped reduce my suffering, the more I began to realise it could be a very helpful tool for language learners as well. 

The SaySomethingin Method (as you may already know!) puts your brain under a considerable amount of pressure – this is how it triggers the synapse growth which gives you the ability to speak a new language. People respond to this experience in two main ways. Some people find it playful, and we often see those people achieve confidence in their new language remarkably quickly.

Others, however (and it’s a more common experience) find it frustrating whenever they don’t say the same thing as the model voices – they see that as ‘making a mistake’, and feel bad about it. 

Every person I’ve talked to who has given up on a SaySomethingin course has given up because they become too frustrated with ‘making mistakes’.

Ironically, this is quite frustrating for me, because I know that the process of making mistakes is an extremely important part of the learning journey, and I know that everyone who keeps on playing the SaySomethingin game will eventually achieve the confidence they’re looking for.

I used to see this regularly when I was coaching celebrities for the S4C programme ‘Iaith ar Daith’. It’s pretty high stakes when you know that if you give up, your episode gets cancelled. I would try and help the people who were struggling by offering them insights into the learning journey – I was always trying to get them to understand that they should celebrate their ‘mistakes’, because if they did, the journey would become fun and successful.

Sometimes that was helpful. It was always very joyful to see someone suddenly change their perception, stop beating themselves up, and start enjoying the process.

But sometimes it wasn’t helpful. 

Try as I might, some of our celebrity learners found the whole journey extremely stressful, and beat themselves up very badly about it. That was a very distressing experience for me as well – sometimes I just wanted to hug them until they stopped hurting, as I would with one of my own children.

So where does meditation fit into all this?

When I was trying to help learners feel better about making mistakes, I was working directly with their emotions. Messy, complicated old things, emotions. It’s not impossible to work directly with emotions – all the best coaches do to some extent, in whatever field. But it’s a tough gig.

Meditation, at the very heart of it, is an exercise designed to help you become more familiar with the difference between two levels of your mind – the part which is aware, and the part which contains all your thoughts and feelings. It’s a subtle difference, but the easier it becomes for you to switch between those two levels of mind, the easier it becomes for you to deal with difficult emotions. 

There is a moment in the meditation journey when it becomes suddenly clear to you that when you are focused intensely on something – your breath, a candle, an apple, it doesn’t matter what – you are completely in the aware mind, and you don’t experience thoughts or feelings unless you let your focus go back to them. 

I think this might be what people are describing when they talk about ‘flow’, particularly in sports. When your focus is absolutely and entirely on the game, you don’t have room for distracting thoughts and emotions, and you operate at a noticeably higher level. 

Meditation isn’t a short-cut, though. It can take years!

I thought I might be stuck. Either I would have to work directly with people’s emotions, which can be a long, difficult path – or I needed to persuade them to trot off and spend a few years training with a Zen master before I tried to teach them a language. 

Neither of those fits very well with TV deadlines…;-)

Then I saw another option.

If I could help our learners become familiar with one simple instruction, I might be able to turn the language learning journey into its own kind of meditation. The learners would gain confidence in speaking their new language, and they’d also gain a new command of their own mind. 

The instruction is this:

The moment you notice yourself having a negative emotional reaction, place all your focus on the next voice you hear. 

That’s it.

That’s all it is.

And it’s extremely similar to the meditative process, where you bring your attention back to one particular thing whenever you notice your mind beginning to wander.

If you’re focusing properly, deeply, on the next voice, you’ll find that you don’t have room in the aware mind for the negative emotion.

If you’re experiencing the negative emotion, you’re not focusing on the voice (which will also damage the learning process). 

If you turn every negative emotion into a reminder to increase your focus on the next voice, you’ll be turning yourself into a super learner – you’ll become an absolutely unstoppable language learner. 

I’ve only just had this idea, and I’ve only just started using it in my coaching work, but I’m already seeing some very encouraging results. I think there’s something clear and simple about it that is much easier than trying to do the complicated work of changing emotions. I’ve got a crazy idea that I’d like to go and spend a month in a Buddhist community to see if monks would find this familiar enough to become incredibly fast language learners. If I ever manage to arrange that, I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes. 

Catrin and I are just back from a week in Paris with the kids, and I’ve been forcibly reminded of how tough – and then how magical – the journey from intermediate to advanced is. For me, intermediate means that you can hold a conversation, but you’re still conscious of your limitations, and it can still feel like quite hard work sometimes – and you can’t easily follow radio or TV or podcasts.

That’s almost exactly where I am with my French – I can have extended and enjoyable conversations in a 1-on-1 environment (which mostly means down the pub with my friend Dave) but I’ll often need to ask first language speakers to slow down or repeat themselves, and I can’t follow podcasts in any detail. 

Thrown in at the deep end with Parisian taxi drivers, that meant a range of experiences – when I was feeling high energy and cheerful, I had some interesting conversations about Paris and politics and colonialism and the joys of being a parent. When I was feeling tired, or not sure how friendly the driver was, it meant some fairly extended silences (with bits of Welsh with Catrin and the kids in the back, just to make sure the driver knew I wasn’t being silent in English ;-)).

It’s a roller-coaster of a learning stage. I came out of some of those taxi rides absolutely buzzing with enthusiasm and excitement, wondering how soon we could arrange to move to Paris permanently. After the mostly silent ones, though, I felt frustrated and self-critical, and grumpy that I couldn’t see any magic buttons I could press to just BE a French speaker already, without all the bloody effort. 

By the end of the week, though, my main sensation was of being tantalisingly close to being able to slide into Frenchness – and experience all the fascinating cultural shifts that open up with that linguistic sidestep – in the same way as I can move between Welsh and English. 

That last little step, though, is all about building a large enough database of listening recognition – and I haven’t found any short-cuts for that yet. It took me about a year in Welsh of listening to Radio Cymru for about an hour and a half in the car every day of the week (as well as having more and more conversations with more and more people). I can’t increase my number of daily French conversations in the same way (what with not living in Paris yet, and having a post-lockdown hatred of Zoom calls). I think I’ve got a new level of motivation to do an hour or two every day listening to French podcasts, though, fuelled by my love for Paris and how much we would all like to be able to visit more often. It’s going to be interesting to see how that works out over the next year or so.

What’s more, the kids seem up for putting in the hard yards with the new SSi French course, because they had a great time in Paris as well, and they could see (even without me preaching!) what a difference it would make to be able to understand the language. 

If you’re at this stage with Welsh, I sympathise with you. It’s brutal, because you won’t notice any change in your ability after listening to a podcast for an hour. You won’t even get to the end of the week having done an hour every day and suddenly notice a change. The only thing you’ll get – and it feels like a pretty small reward – is occasional moments of realising that you’d understood a sentence or two without needing to think about it. And then, agonisingly slowly, you’ll start to get three or four or five sentences in a row – and (as I keep reminding myself at the moment) that means you’re close to the tipping point. The journey from understanding five sentences in a row several times an hour to understanding almost everything is much, much shorter than the journey from understanding five words in a row to understanding five sentences in a row.

I’m sorry that we haven’t solved this for you with SSi yet, too. Really sorry. Throwing yourself into the app can get you to intermediate, and interesting conversations, very quickly – but it doesn’t help much with the leap onwards to the comfortable advanced levels of understanding that most people call fluency. 

I do have some ideas about what we might be able to do, though. We might have some test material that you could help us assess in the course of 2025. I’ll keep you posted 🙂 

But in the meantime, if you’re listening to as much Radio Cymru and as many podcasts as possible, keep going. If you bring the raw determination, the magic will eventually happen. Bonne chance!

The EdTechX Awards celebrate the companies that are making a substantial impact to the digitisation of education, training and work sectors. 

SSi are very excited to be selected as a nominee for their 2024 Language Learning award.

It is always wonderful when our work is appreciated by prestigious “movers and shakers” in Ed Tech, so we are pretty chuffed to have been selected, especially as other nominees come from all over the world and cover some amazing language ideas.

To check out all things about the awards and all nominees in each category go to https://impactx2050.com/edtechx/awards-finalists2024

The awards are announced on the 18th of June – we will tell you how we do.

SaySomethingin was honoured to be nominated for the Best EdTech Award at the 2024 Wales Technology Awards.

Their selection criteria was:

In the ever-evolving landscape of education, technology plays a pivotal role in transforming the way we learn and teach. The Best EdTech Application Award recognises the most exceptional and ground-breaking contributions to educational technology.

This award celebrates innovations that have a profound impact on educational processes, ranging from personalised learning solutions to cutting-edge teaching tools. We honour the visionaries who are enriching the world of education with their EdTech applications, making learning more engaging, accessible, and effective for students and educators alike.

Even though we didn’t receive the award, (congratulations to Animated Technologies, who did,) they are some very important selection criteria, and we appreciate all those who felt that we were one of the greatest examples of them for 2024.

In the week that the Wales XV travelled to the Aviva Stadium for their third match of the Six Nations Championship, a SaySomethingin team of Aran and Nick were also in Dublin to share SSi technology and methodology with key Irish language bodies.

Thanks to help from the Welsh Government’s Agile Cymru initiative, SSi has been able to build relationships with the Irish Government, the Irish equivalent(s) of our National Centre, Conradh na Gaeilge, Foras na Gaeilge, and the AI-driven digital language experts at ADAPT, who are based at Dublin City University.

There is a strong desire to use proven methods to increase the use of spoken Irish. The reaction to our presentations where Welsh was taught using SSi methodology was just brilliant.

Whilst it is still early days, SSi is confident in delivering an Irish course for English speakers with the help of these partners by the end of the year.

So, unlike the Welsh XV, the two SSi’ers came back buzzing with positivity.

SaySomethingin are honoured and proud to have gained Living Wage accreditation.

The Living Wage is an hourly rate of pay, independently calculated each year based on the real cost of living in the UK.

It is higher than the minimum wage and applies to all workers over 18, included contracted staff.

The Living Wage movement is made up of a wide range of businesses and organisations in every type of sector.

Those who have gained the accreditation include small independents, FTSE 100 companies and household names like; IKEA, Nationwide, Aviva, Everton and Chelsea Football Clubs, Majestic Wine, LUSH, the House of Commons and many more.

Everyone at SSi supports this initiative and will happily promote the Living Wage with all our learners, contacts and partners.

Check out the movement for yourself at www.livingwage.org.uk

The dramatic new Welsh language musical ‘Branwen: y Dadeni’ has just come to the end of a very successful run throughout Wales, selling out everywhere and gathering positive reviews, particularly for its scope and ambition. 

We followed its journey with particular interest (and with some free tickets as well!) because the Millennium Centre had asked SaySomethingin to help Rithvik Andugula prepare for his role as Matholwch, the King of Ireland (who marries Branwen and then imprisons her). 

Rithvik’s family come originally from India, but he lived in Cardiff for much of his childhood and got his GCSE in second language Welsh. He wasn’t a confident speaker, though, and Matholwch is one of the main parts, so he had some understandable nerves at the start of the process.

Fortunately, in a couple of intensive days with Aran, Rithvik turned out to be an extremely fast learner and to have a very good ear for the language. He was one of the fastest learners Aran has worked with, right up there with Carol Vorderman and Jeremy Vine, and his confidence improved dramatically as he saw the progress he was making. He was left with a mountain to climb with the script itself, but he worked his heart out and did superbly – he was convincing and entertaining on stage, bringing his natural swagger and rhythm to the role.

Rithvik is a very grounded young man, full of positive energy and compassion for others, and we’re looking forward to seeing him build a hugely successful career. He’s got all of Matholwch’s charm and humour, but without the tendency to imprison innocent Welsh women – we hope to see him continue his journey with the language and star in many more Welsh language productions in the future.

As Storm Debi threw rain, wind and freezing cold at all of us this week, The National Centre for Learning Welsh held an event that warmed all who attended.

The Norwegian Church Arts Centre, on the banks of Cardiff Bay, was the location for the official launch of a Learn Welsh resource to the skills section of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

The Centre developed the resource, covering 13 units that combine online self-study with practical tasks to introduce words, phrases and language patterns around themes such as Welsh music and culture.

To illustrate how learning the Welsh language can transform young lives, a panel of four recent learners described their learning experience and what it meant to them to enter the “Welsh Language World.”

Their open and honest descriptions of their Welsh language journey and how it has made their lives so much more rewarding were truly inspirational. As was the fact that all spoke so clearly and well in Welsh, a language none of them had spoken only two years before.

When asked about language tips for new learners, one of the panel, (with absolutely no prompting,) highlighted the importance of SaySomethingin to build confidence for spoken Welsh. He loved using the SSiW app whilst washing-up and in the bath!

SaySomethingin are happy to help any Welsh language learner wherever and whenever we can!

Llywodraeth Cymru Rhyngwladol | Welsh Government International 

SaySomethingin participated in the recent trade mission to Tokyo, Japan, organised by the Welsh Government.

We wanted to investigate potential uses for the SSi English facility we plan to build for Japanese speakers in 2024.

Working closely with Welsh Government representatives that are based in the British Embassy, meetings were held with officials of Japanese Prefectures, trade associations, educational experts, and language entrepreneurs.

We are extremely excited about the possibility of helping enhance spoken English for a range of Japanese audiences, and we will be closely monitoring this in the New Year since there appears to be a genuine need for this kind of service.

One unexpected initiative that surfaced while in Japan was a sincere, if modest, wish for a Welsh-to-Japanese module as well.

This extended to an association that oversees all cultural matters for the indigenous Ainu people of Hokkaido who identified several connections between Ainu and Welsh history and culture, before commenting they would love to connect languages as well.

Who would have guessed that a strong desire to learn Welsh could exist so far away!?

In 2022, I had one of the more unexpected and entertaining experiences to bubble up out of working for SaySomethinginWelsh.

One of our Iaith ar Daith graduates, Joanna Scanlan (who won a best actress BAFTA for her hugely powerful work in ‘After Love’) messaged me to ask if I would help out a friend of hers who wanted to make sure that the north-east Welsh accents were right for a stage production of ‘The Corn is Green’ at the National Theatre in London. 

I’ve been working hard on saying ‘no’ to projects which aren’t on the main path for building SaySomethinginWelsh – going in too many different directions at once has always been a weakness of mine – and I managed to message Joanna back to say I didn’t think I was the right person. Saying ‘no’ felt like an important step forward in my personal development.

It was only a very small step, though. Joanna is not very fond of the word ‘no’. She called me, and I discovered that my new skill only stretched as far as written messages – on a live call, my ability to say ‘no’ vanished like the morning mist. 

I’m so glad Joanna didn’t accept my ‘no’! I ended up visiting the National Theatre three times during rehearsals, and getting to work with the extraordinarily talented Penny Dyer, who has done all sorts of fascinating projects, including ‘The Last Kingdom’ (which Catrin and I loved when we’d run out of ‘Vikings’) and once lying underneath a table just out of shot to coach Tom Cruise on his Russian accent. It was a steep and fascinating learning curve.

I felt full to overflowing with imposter syndrome the whole way through, but it was a glorious experience. Penny told me that the director, Dominic Cooke, was well-known for only working with friendly, positive people, and the atmosphere at rehearsals was a joy to witness. I embarrassed myself mildly by being slightly starstruck by Richard Lynch – when I explained to the others that he was a very well-known baddy in Pobol y Cwm, he said ‘I prefer to think he’s misunderstood’. Richard was a genuinely wonderful person, and ended up providing a new recording of our southern course, which has been enormously valuable. I also blotted my copybook by not knowing who Nicola Walker was, and telling her after one rehearsal that I thought she was building towards a really powerful performance. Putting that down in words makes me wince all over again.

All the actors I worked with were so friendly and positive and hard-working, by the time Catrin and I went down to watch the opening night, I was a bag of nerves, wanting them all to be absolutely perfect. When Richard nailed ‘Nos dawch’ instead of the more normal ‘nos da’ for him, I may even have given a very little fist pump quietly to myself. And the transformation from the last rehearsal I’d seen to the first night was breath-taking, all the playing with space and structure and props that I hadn’t seen before. I knew immediately that I wanted to come down for the last night as well.

David Marsland, the stage manager, was so kind that he gave us an extra couple of tickets for Catrin’s parents to come with us to the final night. Catrin’s mother Rose, who was 90, turned out to remember the film of ‘The Corn is Green’, so that became a mad-cap family trip to London, arriving out of breath just before the curtain went up. Then, thanks to David, we were able to take Catrin’s parents through to the after-show party, where her mother held court. The cast were delighted to meet their ideal target audience, a 90 year old Welsh speaker who remembered the film and had come all the way from Pwllheli to see the production – that was why they’d worked so hard on their accents – and they were all so lovely to Rose. Nicola Walker even gave Rose her leading lady flowers! When the party spilled out onto the South Bank, we could see people walking past wondering who Rose was, surrounded in her wheelchair by stars of stage and screen. It was very hard to persuade her to leave. 

I told Joanna that she’d gotten me well and truly bitten by the theatre bug, although it might be a little late in life for me to change careers. At the moment, I’m doing a bit of work with Rithvik Andugula, who is pushing himself extremely hard with his Welsh for a lead rôle in ‘Branwen: y Dadeni’, and once again I can’t wait for opening night. I told Joanna that I’d loved the experience so much, it had made me want to try and write for stage – she warned me that wasn’t going to be a very fast route back to the National Theatre! I don’t know if I could actually learn to write for stage, but I do know that any bits of coaching I get to help people with theatre productions, I’m always going to love. 

Oh, and several weeks after I thought all the fun was over, I got a postcard from Nicola Walker. ‘I love every second of Welsh language speaking we get to hear on the stage, it’s completely thrilling.’ Penny was right about Dominic – he only works with the loveliest people.