Alone On A Sunday Afternoon With S4C

Hello there. Trust you're feeling well today.

I do not in any way have a glamorous job. But it's OK and my work colleagues are nice. Now it does involve shift working early mornings between six and two,sometimes in weekend. Days such as today,Sunday 10th April.

And on days such as these the wife/daughter might spend the day out somewhere. Leaving me on my own when I return home, soon to throw mini pizzas into the microwave for dinner. Which you might consider sad......if it wasn't for the fact that I have the chance to watch my TV recordings in peace.

Since deciding to learn Welsh again I've split how I watch television. One day it's sport. Mainly football of course but also bits of NBA and MLB thrown in (I'm a Red Sox fan. Picked because I follow the Spenser private eye novels of Robert Parker).

But the next day I would watch my recordings of programmes from the Welsh language channel S4C. The idea is as much as possible to immerse myself in the language for that day along with the radio station Radio Cymru.

There is a lot of rubbish spoken about S4C mainly from non Welsh speaking people who wouldn't want to watch it with English subtitles on (presumably they go around Wales wearing blinkers to all the Cymraeg around the place). Those detractors point to the low ratings of some programmes as some sort electronic ammunition to shoot it with. This of course is unfair. Because the biggest problem this one channel faces is that it is one channel. It's expected to be BBC1,BBC2, BBC3,BBC4,Ceebies,CBBC,BBC Parliament and the BBC News channel in just one stream. So a documentary programme about a dead poet in English thrown on BBC4 will rarely have a massive audience then a similar programme made in Welsh is obviously going to have even less than that as even if you're a fluent speaker it doesn't mean you'll want to watch it.

But as I will fight for libraries even though I will never read every book in one then similarly I will fight for S4C even though I will not want to watch every programme in it. For it is the main national promoter of Welsh and any diminution will damage (though will never destroy) its use.

And so today on my list to watch as follows:

Anita: A comedy about a woman and her daughter who moves from Cardiff  to Anglesey to be with her boyfriend and his family. It's funny warm and very amiable. It's also clever being able to combine English,South Walian and North Walian Welsh and yet I feel as  a learner able to understand most of it.

Prynhawn Da and Heno: These are magazine programmes for the afternoon and early evening respectively. They're useful for me  because they cover a wide variety of subjects in a general way. (The worst programmes for me are those that also require a detailed knowledge of a subject. These are pointless to watch. Recently there was a series about angling. Now the closest I get to fish is when they cohabit with chips on a plate before going into my mouth. Needless to say it was avoided.

Pobol Y Cwm: The long running Welsh language soap opera and a favourite of mine. I was a fan of the Sunday omnibus edition which had on screen English subtitles. It also taught me that translations may not give the correct phrase all the time. I remember "he thinks a woman's place is in the home" as a subtitle but I distinctly heard "gegin" (kitchen) and "gwely" (bedroom) being said!

Pobol Y Rhondda: A series spotlighting the people of the Rhondda Valley. A place that I've always believed is the Tuscany of Wales (should you believe that it's Italy with rain). It's a life affirming show. I've shown non Welsh speakers who live there this programme and they have become instant fans

Sport: I've a match of from the Welsh Premier Football League (yes Wales has its own leagues. Something I learnt quickly when moving here. I'll chat about this soon). S4C also shows Rugby at all levels in Wales and it's the only moment when I make the effort to watch it. There is a game with London Welsh in it today (though I can't say I quite understand London Welsh - they don't seem all that Welsh and they don't play in London). I must admit I'm not into rugby as much as football and again I'll chat about this another time.

Well I hope I've persuaded you to watch some programmes on S4C. If you're not in Wales S4C has its own on demand app and you can also watch it on the BBC Iplayer.

But if you excuse me...I've got some programmes to watch.

Until the next time....