Great Kids' TV shows for Beginners - Deian a Loli & More!

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Shwmae Pawb! Hi everyone!

Anybody need an excuse to watch cartoons?!? :laughing: Really, though… I find these genuinely helpful when I want to continue my exposure to the language while letting my hair loose a little so to speak, after scrambling my noodle on a particularly hard SSiW challenge, for example! :exploding_head: Keep an open mind! :wink: Get it… open mind… sorry. Hehehe :upside_down_face:

I am still a pretty new beginner with Cymraeg - I have completed the first 12 challenges in Level 1 on SSiW and I’ve reached Level 15 in Welsh on Duolingo - and I am always on the lookout for new ways to expose myself to Welsh as I build my confidence to speak to people in my new language. One way is by listening to music, and I have posted a few songs in the music videos thread. Another way I have been enjoying learning Cymraeg is by watching kids’ TV shows from S4C. I don’t watch exclusively kids’ shows, but they are certainly the most relaxing for the down time learning and are great for hearing what is familiar a greater proportion of the time.

I have checked out several so far, and my favorite is Deian a Loli - not actually a cartoon this time, but a super-cute show about two twins, brother and sister, who have a secret magical powers. I love the stories and I hope I can find an excuse to watch them with my twin nieces when they are a little older - and each episode has a great message and lesson to learn about life. Truly a great show for kids, and big kids learning Cymraeg! Oh, and I just found out a new episode aired today when I went to get you this link!

UPDATE: On closer inspection, all the episodes I watched previously are gone and the new episode has different kids playing Deian and Loli… so we’ll see how this goes and I will get back to you…

https://www.s4c.cymru/clic/programme/796078546

Another cute one, geared to a muuuccchhhhh younger age group but right up my alley in terms of ability level hahahaha… Pen-blwydd Pwy? Bachgen and Pen-blwydd Pwy? Merch. Super cute as well with great little stories that beginners can follow pretty darn well I think!

https://www.s4c.cymru/clic/programme/799815042

https://www.s4c.cymru/clic/programme/799810341

I checked out Asra, and I really like the cooperative team dynamic in the games for the kiddos - the one I saw had a bunch of toddler-astronauts all working together to save the day for the silly-space-adults. Hehehe cute, again.

https://www.s4c.cymru/clic/programme/533017320

This cute cartoon, Cyw, with singing animals taught me that by saying “Brusha brusha” when I groomed my cat was pretty much saying the same thing in Welsh: Brwsia brwsia! Hahahaha classic.

https://www.s4c.cymru/clic/programme/797955401

And there are still so many more I haven’t had a chance to watch yet, so take a look at the S4C international listings if you’re not in Wales, and see what you like! There are plenty of “big people” shows too! I think all of them have subtitles available if you want them. SOOoooooo much cuteness! Enjoy!

http://www.s4c.cymru/en/international/#

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What are you enjoying/learning on S4C Clic? [Non-Drama Non-Fiction]
Getting confused/not remembering
#2

Great news! Deian a Loli is still a great show in my opinion - the new kids are awesome and the story is still great. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

#3

Diolch o galon! I never would have watched this without a link.

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#4

Have fun! I hope they make you smile as much as they did me! :grinning:

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#5

They’re a little older now than when you posted this … no time like the present. The sooner they are exposed to the language the better.

Dal ati. I started, as did a lot of others, by watching kids’ TV, it’s amazing. There are lots of other threads about it too if you can search. :smiley:

#6

Oh THIS is fantastic news! At lastt, they must have figured a solution with licenses! Yes! :champagne: :clinking_glasses:

I had a quick look at Deian a Loli and it seems very nice, thanks for the tip! :wink:
By the way I also noticed that if you scroll down the international list there’s more episodes (that for some reason do not appear with the newest one) with different actors.
https://www.s4c.cymru/clic/programme/535359432

I have to say, that I don’t really find these easier to understand than many “big people” programmes, I’ve been trying to watch, though. :thinking:
And by the way among the not-specifically-for-children in the list I like “Bois y pizza” and “Parti Bwyd Beca”, and “Dianc!” and curious to see “35 Diwrnod” (just to start with).

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#7

I agree that Deian a Loli is above my level still, but more and more familiar words are popping up as I adjust my ear. The ones that are easier to follow are for the really little kids: Pen-blwydd Pwy? Bachgen and Pen-blwydd Pwy? Merch . Even then, I am not catching anywhere near 100%, or even 50% for that matter - but it is more than when I watch “big-people” shows… possibly because the show is geared towards kids who can barely speak Welsh - or any language for that matter - just yet. :wink:

THANK YOU!!! I believe it is important to watch this stuff more than once, and I tell my English students to do it, so I’d better practice what I preach!

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#8

I totally agree! They’re five now, a great time to start learning. They have learned some Spanish, and I play with Chinese and French around them, counting for hide and seek, naming stuff, etc., too. I need to start using my Welsh when I play with them, though! The reason I feel like I need an excuse is so I know what to say to my sister. She’s the boss. :wink: Also, for Deian and Loli, they are still young to understand that show, even in English, so I will start with others on the list. :+1:

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#9

I love the children’s shows on S4C! I found quite a bit of y dywysoges fach understandable. I like Cled, but can only catch odd words. Sam tan is slowly making more sense. I tried Octonots, spynjbob and paw patrol and found them utterly incomprehensible!
In the adults section I enjoy byw yn yr ardd when it is on. It is made up of small sections and interesting enough that I can watch twice without and with subtitles. It even inspired me to do a bit of weeding!
I also really enjoyed Anita when it was on and a bit disappointed not to see it in the box sets. Definitely worth looking out for if it does appear though. The main character is a welsh learner.

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#10

Cool! Thank you for the recommendations! I will be taking a look to see more of what is available. I don’t mind using subtitles at first, but I like to go back a second time and fly free without them if I can! :grinning:

Diolch yn fawr iawn! Thank you very much!

#11

Mae’n drueni, ond dydy’r rhaglenni ddim yn gweithio i mi achos dw i’n byw yn yr Unol Daleithiau.

#12

Try accessing them from the international link, I live in the US too and they worked several days ago. I will have a look again.

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#13

Yeah, that should help. I was able to play the most recent Deian a Loli at this link from the international page:

https://www.s4c.cymru/clic/programme/796078572

#14

I’m afraid that doesn’t work for me either. I get the same message as before, a notice in Welsh saying that I can not see the details of the program at the moment, try again and if the problem persists call the S4C Viewers Telephone and state the code. Thanks very much all the same.

#15

Ok, that message I have received as well, and I have come back later and everything worked perfectly. Try other programs on the international page, and if it doesn’t work, try again later. I am not sure why that happens sometimes.

#16

If it is a regional issue, there is a different message specifically about that - hopefully it will work for you later on. Pob lwc!

#17

There are DVDs of episodes from the first series of Deian a Loli available from various shops. Here are just the first two I came across and they both offer international postage (but other sites I didn’t check could well do that too)


https://www.adrahome.com/en/deian-a-loli-dvd.html

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#18

Yeah! The international link usually works here - although from time to time I get an error - not sure why!

edit: No, actually I checked the error messages again and the one that sometimes appears if I click on International section links (maybe the same as @morganlevans?) is this. And I had kinda guessed it happens when that programme is not available any more (like after a month or so) but they haven’t updated the main page link. (not 100% sure though)
04

#19

Love watching kids tv to help improve my Welsh and they really do work. They are spoken slighty slower than adult tv and very visual to help learn words. Dwylo enfys is a great visual one. A great adult one is Cegin Bryn as he speaks clearly and slowly in that too :slight_smile:

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#20

Thanks @l-jay for recommending those! I haven’t watched either of them yet. :smiley::tv:

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