Hello, I’m Sara from S4C. At the moment I’m working on improving the services we offer to people learning Welsh, and so I want to learn more about you – who you are, what you are doing to support your learning, and so on. It doesn’t matter how long you have been learning, how you’re going about it or even where you are in the world - I want to hear from everybody!
Would you be so kind as to click on the link here and fill in a short survey? It should only take a few minutes, and it will be enormously helpful to us in making sure we are meeting your needs. Each pages is in Welsh and English together (so a chance to practise your reading, perhaps?)
The survey is completely confidential (but there will be a option for you to give us your email address, should you want to take part in further research), and the opportunity to take part will finish on the 8th of May.
Hi @sara-peacock-1 Could I make a suggestion, please, for something that might be helpful for viewers and that you might be able to help with Would it be possible to make it easier and less obtrusive to turn subtitles on and off on S4C Clic, please? After progressing from needing subtitles all of the time, I only need to pop them on occasionally these days, and only then for very short time. There used to be a little “speech bubble” field for this that popped up in the corner when you selected the icon, but these days it takes up the whole screen and really interrupts viewing. I think that works OK if you just want to set up your preference for the whole programme at the start and not change it, but its a real pest if you want to flick them on and off every now and again. Could something be done to make it easier/quicker/less obtrusive to toggle the subtitles on and off at all please?
I struggled with the new version of subtitles myself!
However then I realized there’s a better trick (at least in the meantime).
Under the description you can just tick/untick the boxes of subtitles and they appear/disappear quicker than ever!
Thanks so much for the suggestion, @Cetra (and thanks for the helpful tip, @gisella-albertini - I didn’t know that!)
I don’t know the reason for the subtitles options coming up across the whole screen, but I’ll certainly pass the suggestion back to the relevant people! It may well be one of those things where it hadn’t occurred to them that viewers might want to be toggling them on and off (rather than just setting them once and going from there).
@sara-peacock-1
I’ve just done the holiadur but had a couple of points it didn’t really cover (inevitably):
I had to give a slightly out-of-context free text where they asked about any other apps that you use bc I couldn’t see a better way to say “I used to use the SSiW app and I use several of the others as websites rather than apps”. I suspect that out-of-context free text is actually a bad & annoying way of doing this. Sorry
I couldn’t find anywhere to comment that I often use Welsh subtitles but pretty much only use the English ones when Welsh isn’t available.
I wish the Welsh subtitles were available on more programmes - I realise that’s not practical on older programmes, but they’re also not available on some contemporary teen/YA programmes (eg Itopia).
The “main reason for watching S4C” allowing only one choice kind of forced me to say that it was “to improve my Welsh”, when it’s also true that I enjoy the content!
Thanks for taking the time to complete the questionnaire, @RichardBuck, and for bringing these comments back as well. I’ll pass them back to the research team (which will hopefully help them to improve their survey-building for the future!) All information is useful, so if you’ve been imaginative as to where you squeeze it in, that’s marvellous
Regarding subtitles, we’re at the tail end now of a massive ramping-up of subtitle provision - we’re doing an enormous amount more now than we were even a year ago. The ideal end-point will be that absolutely everything has subtitles, and we’re almost there with pre-recorded things (live programmes being a whole other beast…) You might be pleased to hear that the second series of Itopia does have Welsh subtitles - and YA content is now a priority (because they’ve cottoned on that young people tend to watch absolutely everything with subtitles on, as a matter of course).
And thank you so much for the comment about the content - that’s the really important bit, isn’t it!
Yes of course! The old version worked better when watching full screen.
However I suspect they may have changed it for those who watch videos on a smart phone or pad as the old version was probably impossible to use on a small screen.
Which also brings a question: I might have seen an app mentioned in the survey (or somewhere else). If there is one, why isn’t it available outside Wales or the UK @sara-peacock-1 ?
There is an app (the Clic Player), and that is a very good question to which I must confess I don’t know the answer.
The web-based version of the app is certainly available (as outlined on the S4C website here: Rhyngwladol | S4C). So it doesn’t seem logical that there would be one rule for an app on the web and another for devices. I found it by going to the Apple app store and searching on “S4C clic” - I presume the same would work for Android. But of course that’s the UK version. Would someone from outside the UK try the same thing, and let me know what they find? And if it’s not there I’ll go back to our tech people / legal department and see what they can tell me.
(Haven’t worked out how to share screenshots on here yet, so here’s a link to my appstore search instead: s4c clic - Apple (UK))
Just wanted to let you all know that I had an email this morning at 9:15 from the researcher completely shocked at how many responses this survey had had already. Great work, dysgwyr! Please keep it up
I just tried and it let me download and install the S4C Clic app from Google Playstore. I’m not sure why, but sometimes my phone does seem to think it’s still in the UK, so I guess that’s why, even though Google Maps has my home address as here.
Thanks for that, Deborah - useful. I’ve raised it this morning and someone far, far more technically minded than I am is going to look into why it is (and whether it’s something we can change).
The closing date of the survey appears to be last year.
A good deal of the material for learners is not available to those of us who live outside of the UK. Copyright will sometimes be the cause. At other times some of the material is made available.
Is there some opportunity for greater flexibility of access?
I am currently teaching rather than learning Welsh (so the survey dumped me quite quickly ). I have used selected short clips from S4C with the class, thank you. I do however find the ‘Learners’ materials a bit beyond early learners - my group is at about Mynediad Uned 9 but struggle with Clic materials. There are some (Coginio gyda Nia) on the Youtube channel which are more accessible for them. My appeal would be for some short, slow speech, programmes for beginners. However, I do recommend / urge the group to try to watch, e.g. Tywydd, sport…and use subtitles where available. On screen translations such as in Yr Wythnos, are a very good idea. Pob lwc with your role with S4C.
Complete proofreading fail on our part - so embarrassing! (And now it’s up, we can’t change it, apparently…) Sorry about that.
The issue with material for outside the UK is always about rights - licensing material for international rather than domestic use is much, much more expensive, as @siaronjames has kindly explained to us elsewhere on the forums. We honestly do try to make as much as possible available, but we also have a famously small budget…
Yes, we did want to focus on learners rather than teachers - but your comments as a teacher are really helpful, thanks, and I will make sure I pass them back.
WRT making programmes for beginners available, that’s something I’m working on so watch this space…
Would it be possible to make it easier and less obtrusive to turn subtitles on and off on S4C Clic, please? After progressing from needing subtitles all of the time, I only need to pop them on occasionally these days, and only then for very short time. There used to be a little “speech bubble” field for this that popped up in the corner when you selected the icon, but these days it takes up the whole screen and really interrupts viewing. I think that works OK if you just want to set up your preference for the whole programme at the start and not change it, but its a real pest if you want to flick them on and off every now and again. Could something be done to make it easier/quicker/less obtrusive to toggle the subtitles on and off at all please? 
). I have used selected short clips from S4C with the class, thank you. I do however find the ‘Learners’ materials a bit beyond early learners - my group is at about Mynediad Uned 9 but struggle with Clic materials. There are some (Coginio gyda Nia) on the Youtube channel which are more accessible for them. My appeal would be for some short, slow speech, programmes for beginners. However, I do recommend / urge the group to try to watch, e.g. Tywydd, sport…and use subtitles where available. On screen translations such as in Yr Wythnos, are a very good idea. Pob lwc with your role with S4C.