Bore da pawb, there have a number of previous ideas regarding this…anyone have thoughts on how to use Pobol y Cwm as a learning tool? via live broadcast, S4C Clic or whatever…good stuff with Pobol last few weeks, the historical bits and pieces…Bow Street being the original model location and as for last week’s saga…the episode with Mark turning up at his own funeral was the funniest thing since Rhod Gilbert got attacked by a bird at Colwyn Bay Zoo.
Apart from just watching them, I’d think that the most fruitful approach would be to try and transcribe particular sections (episodes if you’ve got the stomach) and once you know that you can understand all the content in the transcription, to listen to them repeatedly until it all makes sense at speed.
Interesting topic!
I suppose the main thing to consider is how to use the subtitles.
A lot of people, certainly in Wales, start to watch Pobol y Cwm before they start learning Welsh, always with subtitles, of course.And a lot of people always watch it with subtitles when they begin learning Welsh.
I mean, it’s good that people will be brought in by enjoying the storylines, but “Watching Pobol y Cwm with subtitles” can be a hard habit to break!
Perhaps generally speaking the simplest thing to say about using it as a learning tool is to wean yourself of subtitles as early as possible.
Of course, if you have time, watching it twice, the first time without subtitles, the second with, to catch what you didn’t first time could be an option. Fastforwarding to the necessary bits in the subtitled version would hopefully become more and more frequent, until hopefully the subtitled version would disappear as a necessity all together!
Or just enjoy watching it and not think about it too much, of course. I’m not being facetious here, just sometimes it’s goof to have parts of your Welsh life which aren’t used as learning tools. This could be one of those, if you like soap operas!
What’s good for one person could be different to another.
Just a few random thoughts.
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Oo, sorry Aran, didn’t see your post there!
Shwmae Stuart. Living in an area where practically no Welsh is spoken, I use Pobol y Cwm as a virtual half-hour at the local. No subtitles, no pausing, just half an hour of trying to tune my ear in to everyday, colloquial conversation at full speed, picking up what I can and not worrying about the rest. This helps me to reinforce some of the patterns learned in the lessons and also pick up some idioms along the way too.
Just noticed that I’ve pretty much said the opposite of what Aran wrote! 
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I think this is particularly important 
Oh yeah! Speed reading whilst people are talking at me at work adds up to not being able to read a full sentence!
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Has there ever been a Pobol y Cwm book? or a calendar? S4C may be sitting on a goldmine
Yes, right now there’s a book in the shops celebrating Pobol y Cwm’s 40th birthday. Big book! Looks like it would be most enjoyable if you already knew something about old characters and storylines.
Tahl, newyddion da…any more details?