Iaith ar Daith Series 1 - what did you think? Questions?

Diolch! I will try that and see what happens.

Belatedly caught up with this and it’s loverly isn’t it! I positively wept at times, Carol’s rediscovered love for Wales and Welsh bubbled off the screen so much.

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It’s ridiculous isn’t it. I tried to use it in Dublin and even though I signed in with my BBC account registered at my home in England and I pay a license fee to the BBC I still wasn’t able to watch anything.

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Ieeeee, I’m seeing tonight episode live and it starts in Ceredigion. Da iawn!
Best accent in Wales of course! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
This deserves a glass of Penderyn at first ad break.

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Great that you can watch it live. I enjoyed the trip with Colin and Eleri through Ceredigion and back to Cardiff. I felt his pain (as I am sure all learners of welsh did) when trying to get words from brain to mouth. Making mistakes is the best way to learn but allowing yourself to make them is so difficult at first. His sister is a famous actress who has also learned Welsh so hopefully he will continue his journey with her.

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I really enjoyed this episode. I related so much more to Colin. Carol was so good it was like she’d been learning for years but when Colin said he couldn’t remember I knew exactly what he meant. Another beautiful view and an interesting story. The poems are beautiful. I tried to watch without subtitles but couldn’t manage it yet.
I know what he means about wanting to be right too. Mae rhaglen yn grêt!

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Just ditched BBC and watched it on S4C. Loved it!

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It was very different to the previous week. I know that they mentioned Colin’s need for perfection and to me it showed because he didn’t seem to thrown himself into it like Carol did (he may have been worrying about getting things wrong - it must be very intimidating being filmed too). It does make you realise that @aran is so right about not worrying about allowing yourself to make mistakes.

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I did manage the second episode without any subtitles, but I struggled with it more than I did with the first and can’t understand why.

I agree with some previous posters that it was generally easier to relate to Colin because of his nervousness and reluctance to be wrong. I also found the second episode harder to understand overall, but I couldn’t pin down the reason for that.

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Is there somewhere we can see the poems which have been written for the participants?

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I loved it, and have started the ssiw course since watching it. I’m not expecting to learn as quickly as Carol, but I’m definitely excited as i really do think that I’ve got a good chance of learning Welsh now! I would absolutely love to be a real Welsh speaker!

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Interesting, as I found that too - that the entire episode was harder to understand. Maybe because Colin was less confident and so there was more narration. With Carol I could see the same patterns in the sentences as we’ve learnt in the early challenges in SSiW and she said lots of them, so the patterns were recognisable. And when Carol was in the shop you could see the things they were talking about. Also I thought Carol’s friend was very good at keeping the level of Welsh just right for her and using similar patterns of sentences to those in the course. I’m trying to watch with no subtitles first then with the Welsh and then English if there’s words I don’t know - but it takes a bit of time to do that! Colin’s experience is perhaps more like those of most learners.
i do think it’s a fab series and can’t wait for the others - particularly keen to see how Adrian gets on as someone who didn’t grow up in Wales.

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I don’t know if there is anywhere to get the poems but I watched colin’s episode as a recording and paused it so the poem reads
gam wrth gam mae’i dysgu hi’n ara bach
agor byd o gwmni
Ac ar ben taith dy iath di
cei wlad tu hwn’t i’r clwydi.

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Thanks @sharonmonks. It looks as though all five participants will receive a poem so I’ll pause the recording on Clic and get the text in the same way. I don’t know enough Welsh poetry so am making my own collection for reading aloud (to myself) and learning by heart.

I think Colin’s friend wasn’t as good as Carol’s at keeping to his level of language skill with the result that he struggled more and it was much harder for us learners to follow. (She seemed stunned when he failed to understand almost the first thing she said to him)

Agree Ross. Especially in the beginning, Colin’s “mentor” seemed more interested in making the most of herself on TV rather than supporting Colin to learn. We saw and heard far more from her, especially the face to camera/ vlog style pieces that we did with carol’s mentor (who, if I remember correctly didn’t do any). I think by the end though she was taking his learning more seriously and it showed in his confidence and ability.
But I think that’s what made this episode less learner friendly than the first.
It felt slightly dismissive of the viability of learning and achieving fluency. Whereas the first episode demonstrated that it can be done (though likely in a longer time for mere mortals than it will for Carol).

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I don’t think it’s the friend’s fault. They just seem very different personalities here:
To me, Colin seems a more self-conscious and self-judgmental type. Therefore he doesn’t dare as much as he probably could otherwise with his friend, just like with all the other people he meets, during challenges, and when he speaks vlog style too.

The fact that we hear more from her mentor is the producers choice, and I would guess the reason why there’s more of her is that Colin just didn’t speak Welsh as much as Carol did, so they had to put something to fill the length of the programme.

Also, Eleri is just less outgoing and flamboyant than Owain so the duo is less explosive than the first two who seemed really confident with the camera too and just being shamelessly silly and funny all the time.

I mean, I’m still waking up with “un a dau a thri prosecco” popping up in my mind! :rofl:

But I like the fact that they’re all different, cause more people can more easily relate to one or the other or recognize different phases of their learning in them.

We’ve all been Colins in the beginning and then more or less quickly moving towards being more Caroly, ain’t we? :wink:

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I agree. Much, much respect to Carol, but I felt Colin’s struggle was more representative of the process learners go through. Let’s hope he continues. He has such a great personality. And it was great to see him with his sister at the end of the programme.

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I followed your advice @sharonmonks and managed to get the text by taking a screenshot of each englyn


I can’t understand why this font was chosen - certainly not for its beauty.

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