I went to a presentation by the BBC Wales Bitesize team yesterday, and hadn’t realised how comprehensive and contempory their resources are. There is a fantastic range of videos and worksheets which is targeted at first language and second language school pupils, free to access, and high quality.
The only trick is finding it! There is a direct URL to Welsh-language content here, https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/levels/z8w76sg ; without that you have to go to the Bitesize homepage https://www.bbc.com/bitesize, then change language in the top right to Cymraeg, and then choose Uwchradd (secondary education), and then TGAU (which is Welsh for GCSE level).
There are specific sections for Welsh and Welsh second language, but you can also learn about history, science and all sorts of other subjects through Welsh, with subtitles in the videos.
One question: is this page aimed only to UK citizens because when using the first link you’ve posted I get this:
Well, when I use the second link I get the page though. So might be there’s something wrong with the first link itself.
EDIT
to add that @brigitte and I had discovered that all works well until you come to the videos but playing the video content is GEO-restricted so this part of resources is useful/works only for those residing in UK.
Checking on YouTube I also found out that Bitsize doesn’t have its own channel but is a part of BBC one and there are no videos from the page or they’re “invisible” to us not living in UK.
As the BBC is funded by UK TV license payers, and the content is aimed to students studying for UK exams, then I understand why they geo-restricted the content.
However this is easily got around by using VPN (Virtual Private Network) software. There’s heaps of companies that offer free plans, and the Opera browser has a VPN built in- you just press the button in the browser window. VPNs route internet traffic through their own serviers; many people do this for privacy- ie they don’t feel the need for their ISP (Internet Service Provider) to know that they shop for polka-dot socks, but they are also handy in these situations. Using a VPN which has servers based in the UK allow your internet traffic to appear as originating from the UK, and the VPN securely pipes it back to you.
I know about VPN but I didn’t know Opera has it built in. Also i don’t usually discuss such things on here as gping aroubnd geeo-restrictions count as illegal and it’s understandable not discuss them on this forum. I’ve pointed the subject out just to allert people outside the UK that not everything might be accessible. There also are some other reasons why I usually hesitate using the things like spotshields an similar things, but this is not the place to discuss them though.
No worries @tatjana- I wasn’t aware that Bitesize was geo-restricted, and I know how important finding Welsh-language resources is to our many amazing international users of this forum.
Just FYI, VPNs or the use of them isn’t illegal (ie breaking a law) in Europe or America, and many companies business models is based solely on retating VPN services. However, the website you are going to may have in its terms of service that access is only permitted to users located in a certain area; if however that was important to them then they could block serving content to VPNs, but generally websites don’t, so it’s not a big issue.
Yeh, Opera is a pretty cool browser; Chrome and Firefox have lots of third-party VPN extensions available as well.
Uhmmm…I’m not too sure it’s legal using VPN to see geo-restricted content - being a copyright related matter: after all, if it was ok to see it anywhere it wouldn’t be geo-restricted in the first place!
BBC in particular in fact does its best to block content that they suspect is being seen outside the UK.
Then of course it’s not a secret that any system has its weak spots…but oh well! Like @tatjana I think it’s probably better to avoid discussing these things in the Forum.
At least, until a lawyer can assure us there can be no negative consequences for anyone and for the Forum especially!
p.s. at the same time, of course I agree resources to learn should be available everywhere in the world; especially for minority and less spoken languages!
Well, I know this from the past that we’ve got unwritten rule not to discuss VPNs and such matters on this forum and if I’d dig a bit deeper into the threads, I’d find where we discussed and were warned not to do so. That’s why I’ve said what I’ve said.
I understand BBC, the funding system and copyrights, as we have similar to this too in Slovenia just not with so many programs to watch from national TV. Don’t worry, we’ve got geo-restricted programs for those outside of Slovenia too.
However I was surprised that Welsh language practicing resources are restricted as the language surely shouldn’t be something learnt only in the country of its origins and only by the people residing there. I’ve seen resources from BBC in the past to be available Internatinally so I was even more surprised to find out this particular one is not.
BUT Hey! You never know @neilrowlands when they’d be opened (what can prety easily happen too) so the resource is great and besides … I believe Parallel Cymru is aimed to those in their own country Wales to get as many resources as they can get and only after them we’re the ones to grab them.
Well, things get prety fast on YouTube sometimes by their creators or “owners” themselves and since BBC has the channel on there too, you never know.
Yeah, we’ve been advised to avoid this kind of discussion, because some of the grey areas it gets into a potentially problematic for certain possible partners, so in general terms we are very grateful if people can steer clear of this topic…
