Unfortunately, there’s not a great deal of Welsh language media other than soaps (I hate soaps, and I don’t have the willpower to make myself watch them just to pick up language)
I’m sorry, but that is such a sweeping statement I couldn’t let it go unchallenged.
There are, indeed, two soaps on S4C, which could be considered one too many for a single channel. But then at least the north and the south each gets one. So apart from those two (half-hour episodes each), is there just blank airtime on S4C?
I suppose by ‘soaps’ you could have meant ‘drama’, and there is indeed a lot of good drama in Welsh on S4C: Parch, 35 Diwrnod, Byw Celwydd and, of course, Y Gwyll for example. But drama’s not your thing? OK – fair enough.
What about:
Music? Ochr 1, Band Cymru, Noson Lawen?
Sport? Not my thing at all, but there are regular sports programmes like Sgorio as well as coverage of international (e.g. 6 Nations) and national (e.g. Snowdon marathon) events.
Perhaps you prefer ‘reality’ TV such as Doctoriaid Yfory?
Or history? At the moment there’s Darn Bach o Hanes on, but in the past I’ve really enjoyed things like Mamwlad and the various programmes presented by Ifor ap Glyn such as the one about historical monuments or the study of Welsh dialects.
Perhaps you like the natural world? There’s obviously Ffermio, but there are also lovely programmes like Natur Gwyllt Iolo and Garddio a Mwy.
What about comedy? I found both Dim Byd and R’un Sbit really hilarious (but then I’ve got a juvenile sense of humour); if you prefer something more gentle, Anita was a lovely sitcom. I caught an episode of Nigel Owens: Wyt ti’n Gêm? recently. I thought it was going to be really cringeworthy, but it was done so good naturedly that actually it was really enjoyable.
Or do you go for the ‘magazine’-type programme? Again, not my sort of thing but Heno is a little like the One Show and I’ve found some things to be really interesting on it. And there are all sorts of ‘light entertainment’ or competition programmes such as Ar y Dibyn, or cookery programmes.
How about current affairs? There’s always the news, of course, and we usually try to catch Newyddion 9 in this house, but there were some really good political/debate programmes on around the time of the election.
What I think S4C does particularly well are programmes about Wales and the Welsh – stories about real people done in a thoughtful and respectful way. I’ve just looked at the listings for the week ahead, for example, and there is a series about people in Rhondda as well as a variety of programmes commemorating the Aberfan disaster.
So … just soaps then.
A tip for anyone wanting to watch more Welsh TV: If you go to the Clic site there are all sorts of programmes on there that aren’t on the current listings (i.e. old programmes). I have really enjoyed old series of 04 Wal (love to nose around other people’s houses) or the other series that Aled did with the architect chap about the different counties of Wales (the name of which I forget now). There’s all sorts of stuff on there that doesn’t come up on the main page. You can find them, I think, by browsing your way through the alphabetical list.
To be honest, it was very temporary! I ended up very involved in Cons, even as a guest at one in Ireland, although that just showed how desperate they were!! I wrote fiction - amateur of course! I had friends who would have been much better guest speakers than I was![quote=“Karla, post:66, topic:6072”]
we’ll be celebrating with you.
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Yn wir iawn iawn!!! [quote=“sarapeacock, post:71, topic:6072”]
programmes about Wales and the Welsh
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and coverage of Eisteddfodau, Sioe Frenhinol , Sioe Mon etc. etc. I find more variety on S4C than on any one BBC channel, because it has to pack in all types that are spread between, now, 3 BBC channels!
Honestly, none of those things particularly interest me (with the exception of the news, but I don’t live in Wales at the moment and I’m not sure the news ever shows up on clic), which is why I barely watch television at all. Y Gwyll was good, but there’s not much of it. To the best of my knowledge, there’s no Welsh language science fiction or fantasy TV or Films, Y Gwyll is the only murder mystery series I’ve come across in the language, I’ve yet to come across anything akin to Dexter or Hannibal or Gotham in Welsh, or any action or horror movies in Welsh or, in general, any of the kinds of things that I’m actually interested in watching.
It may not be fiction, but Y Cosmos, still available on Clic was certainly science!! I went off Parch because it seemed to be heading in the direction of horror, which I do not like!! Seeing what is not there is either evidence of mental illness or weird and wonderful…horror?
Ah - yes - there’s a reason for that. Those sorts of programmes are very expensive to make, and S4C’s budget is minuscule. Y Gwyllt managed to do what it did because of external, additional funding. You might enjoy Y Llyfrgell if you ever get the chance to see it.
Yes, unfortunately the budget of S4C doesn’t run to such things, which are all very popular, of course.
I saw the film “Ymadawiad” recently, which was classed as a horror- I found it very gripping, but it was - well, more akin to psychological horror rather than action horror. I enjoyed it, though.
Are you sure you meant to pick that one - it’s like watching a new twist on “rent-a-ghost” in welsh. I wasn’t going to say anything bad about anything at all on S4C and then you go and drop that one in - I even have the tune in my head now as well.
@Toffidil. Can you undelete? I’m sure everyone else would be delIghted too.
Siawns am Sgwrs. There is no text book for this and the tutor should make materials according to the students.
What do you want to get out of classes? I suspect you ‘feel’ grammar now but might want to understand why things are the way they are.
Vocabulary? Reading, listening, subtitles, memrise, good old fashioned dictionary.
A chance to talk? Siawns am sgwrs will help, and should be done in a relatively structured way. But there are lots of other ways as well. Your local friendly SSIW group. If there isn’t one, start one. But, the pub, the fish shop, the cor meibion, cymdeithas edward llwyd will probably be better, if more scary. And of course Bootcamp.
Anyway, remember how great yesterday felt, even if you couldn’t understand everything. Just let that be the starting point to more and greater things!
I enjoyed it. The people I was with are all filmmakers of one sort of another and they found things to criticise. But I think it’s enjoyable (and again, with more of a psychological bent).
As admin, I can still (for the time being) read the deleted posts, and I thought they were absolutely fantastic - really inspirational stuff that would be certain to motivate others - and I would be enormously grateful if you’d be willing to undelete them!..
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Sorry it might have come across az a bit full of myaelf, I was just feeling a bit happpy about it and can’t really explain why
[/quote]I think that every other learner that has gone before you has gone through this elation and none of us can really explain why either. It’s a massive achievement and a huge step towards your goal. There used to be a thread on the old forum if I remember correctly that was full of success stories like yours. I’m not trying to belittle your achievement but trying to say that nobody here wants you to hold back on bragging, brag all you like, we love it. Llongyfarchiadau.
Absolutely. I’m well aware that that kind of content is incredibly expensive to make, and that S4C just doesn’t have the funding. That doesn’t change the necessity for that kind of content - and not just because it’s nice for learners. This is the kind of thing needed to actually get people using their Welsh - especially teenagers. After all, no matter how many kids you teach the language to, if all the music they listen to, all the films and television they watch and all the video games they play are in English, then what reason do they have to even think about the Welsh language outside of class?
In a way, it’s a shame that animation is often considered to be just for kids here in the West; that could probably reduce the budget required to make a greater variety of shows. Unfortunately, being considered just for kids, people probably wouldn’t bother watching it.
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