The popular free online Welsh course SaySomethinginWelsh.com has responded to requests from learners by agreeing to run week-long residential Bootcamps. Learners who attend the Bootcamps will stay in dormitory-style accommodation and will be banned from using English for the entire week – but they will, course creators claim, reach the end of the week having made a huge step forwards in their use of Welsh.

‘This is a very different approach,’ says Aran Jones, ‘but we know it works. We’ll provide learners with a small prompt card with a few vital phrases on it when they arrive, and that’s it. By the end of the week, each learner will have taken part in so many different activities, needed to communicate so many different things in Welsh, and spent so much time laughing, they will have forgotten what it’s like to feel nervous about speaking Welsh. If they don’t feel they’ve taken a huge step forwards, they can have their money back – we actually guarantee it.’

Bootcamps attendees will be staying in the Canolfan in the pretty seaside village of Tresaith in Ceredigion, and the main intention is for them to have such an entertaining time that it feels more like a holiday than a Welsh course. In fact, course creators are adamant that it is not a course at all.

‘This isn’t a Welsh course,’ says Iestyn ap Dafydd. ‘It’s something completely different – we think of it as ‘Welsh in the Wild’. It puts people in situations where they have to communicate by using Welsh, but where they are having such an enjoyable time that the usual barriers people feel about speaking Welsh are broken down. Once those barriers are broken, they remain broken, and people who come on one of our Bootcamps will feel massively more relaxed about speaking Welsh for the rest of their lives.’

It is recommended that anyone who wants to come to SSiW Bootcamp works through as much of the free SaySomethinginWelsh.com course as possible before attending – but learners of any level are welcomed. ‘The more Welsh you’ve learnt, the more you’ll benefit from SSiW Bootcamp,’ says Iestyn ap Dafydd, ‘but whatever level you’re at, it will make a huge difference. Even though we won’t be running any formal lessons at all, you’ll still pick up new words and phrases, and you’ll use everything you do know so often that it will start to become second nature.’

SSiW Bootcamps cost £250 per week (not including food, which is arranged per group), and a full refund is offered for anyone who feels that their Welsh has not been improved as much as they hoped. More details can be found at www.SaySomethinginWelsh.com/bootcamp as well as the dates for Bootcamps in February, March, April, May, June, July and August. There are places for a maximum of 40 learners on each week, on a first-come first-served basis.