Heartland

no one, it seems

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/10/welsh_tv/

Apparently, 196 out of 890 Welsh [language] programmes broadcast by S4C in February failed to attract a single viewer.*

........

* OK, as some commenters have pointed out, the stats count anything upto 1,000 as statistically zero. Which means it's possible that up to 1,000 people have been enjoying the delights of Sgorio and Igam Ogam. Or, not.

...maybe they're too busy erm, er, tending to their flocks

Your tax dollars at work!

I've never understood why the government encourages this sort of stuff... shouldn't we be trying to reduce the number of world languages, so we can all start talking to each other a bit better?

Scottish garlic programmes where the bain of my childhood. Want to watch cartoons at the weekend? Tough here is Uchmer Shmuchmer in the Highlands instead...

nodubmanshouts wrote:Your tax dollars at work!

I've never understood why the government encourages this sort of stuff... shouldn't we be trying to reduce the number of world languages, so we can all start talking to each other a bit better?

Cultural diversity innit.

And there is a substantial proportion of the Welsh people for whom Welsh is their first language, so technically it is a native tongue of these isles.

markfiend wrote:

nodubmanshouts wrote:Your tax dollars at work!

I've never understood why the government encourages this sort of stuff... shouldn't we be trying to reduce the number of world languages, so we can all start talking to each other a bit better?

Cultural diversity innit.

And there is a substantial proportion of the Welsh people for whom Welsh is their first language, so technically it is a native tongue of these isles.

they just don't watch tv much

Cultural diversity innit.

Well yeah, but I wonder at cost? I'm down with people learning other languages, but I really wonder if that's where we should be putting our efforts... one man's cultural diversity is another's fragmented society.

And yeah, I would be OK with switching to another language, just as long as I don't need to memorize 3,000 kanji characters

Welsh is the oldest living European language. 200,000 people still speak it after years of suppression. It survived without S4C and without dual language roadsigns, but Welsh speakers deserve the respect of seeing, hearing and being able to read in their first language.

Especially since you're all living in our once glorious Prydain where Welsh was once spoken as far as Catterick.

I might by the way make a compromise on the TV if all the English would f**k off out of Wales (leaving behind only the fit birds under 25)

Edit: I meant 600,000 people

Can't speak much Irish but TG4, the Republic's Irish language channel often shows some of the best American series. Will be ever thankful for them showing Carnivale!

It survived without S4C and without dual language roadsigns,

Not really. It was dying before they came along. Not dead - sure - but definitely dying.

but Welsh speakers deserve the respect of seeing, hearing and being able to read in their first language.

Sure. If they want to pay for it... just don't expect everyone else to!

As any liguistic expert will tell you, language is an evolving thing, and Welsh has one hand on the wrong end of the Darwinistic s**t stick.

nodubmanshouts wrote:

It survived without S4C and without dual language roadsigns,

Not really. It was dying before they came along. Not dead - sure - but definitely dying.

but Welsh speakers deserve the respect of seeing, hearing and being able to read in their first language.

Sure. If they want to pay for it... just don't expect everyone else to!

As any liguistic expert will tell you, language is an evolving thing, and Welsh has one hand on the wrong end of the Darwinistic s**t stick.

Dying it was n't and on the wrong end of the colonisation s**t stick. That it has survived 700 years after the land was conquered would suggest a healthy language (with a bit of balls).

That said I understand why the English don't want to pay for it, but that 's just life in a multicultural democratic society. I have to pay for Eastenders.

Well according to Wikipedia it was on the decline, so it must be true!

That said I understand why the English don't want to pay for it, but that 's just life in a multicultural democratic society. I have to pay for Eastenders.

Doesn't have to be. California is a highly multicultural society, but the government doesn't subsidize to the extent that the UK does. Neither my wife nor I are from the USA (my wife is Japanese), and we're quite happy to pay our way for our own culturual uniquenessess... like, for example, paying a monthly fee for Japan TV. Since Japan TV is a going convern, they have to make sure they deliver programming people will watch, or else the channel will die.

And I agree - those who watch EastEnders should pay for it!

nodubmanshouts wrote:Since Japan TV is a going convern, they have to make sure they deliver programming people will watch, or else the channel will die.

S4C have already taken measures, accordingly ... ...

http://www.s4c.co.uk/e_press_level2.shtml?id=319

Being645 wrote:

nodubmanshouts wrote:Since Japan TV is a going convern, they have to make sure they deliver programming people will watch, or else the channel will die.

S4C have already taken measures, accordingly ... ...

http://www.s4c.co.uk/e_press_level2.shtml?id=319

Thank f**k...

Gollum's Cock wrote:

Being645 wrote:

nodubmanshouts wrote:Since Japan TV is a going convern, they have to make sure they deliver programming people will watch, or else the channel will die.

S4C have already taken measures, accordingly ... ...

http://www.s4c.co.uk/e_press_level2.shtml?id=319

Thank f**k...

Yeah, especially for the sake of the kids ... ...

weebleswobble wrote:Scottish garlic programmes where the bain of my childhood. Want to watch cartoons at the weekend? Tough here is Uchmer Shmuchmer in the Highlands instead...

I would have taken Uchmer Shmuchmer 4-Hour Christmas Special with Celebrity Guests if it meant that Supergran was taken off the air...

I spent a season working at a PGL centre in darkest Brecon about 20 years ago - all I remember of Welsh TV was that every news programme led with a report of a house fire. We weren't sure whether this was because
(a) the welsh shouldn't be trusted with anything more flammable than Angel Delight, or
(b) that were really that many holiday cottages.

Pobol y Cwm was a classic, though - I had withdrawal from that for months after I left the job.

[EDIT] I' think i've just worked out why there are so many house fires in Wales, based on this explanation:

Some bunch of crazy sheep-shaggers who spend most of their days skulled on Brain's SA wrote: As the sun is setting low over IG’S house, she pops up from behind the house. ‘I want it’, she repeats and hooks the string which pulls the sun up and down in the sky with a big stick; then she grabs the string and pulls the sun towards her. ‘Mine’, she declares triumphantly, ‘mine’. IG drags the sun by its string to a cave where she leaves it, deep inside, and pulls scrub across the entrance to hide it.

So, hoardes of juvenile welsh TWOCkers are kidnapping the sun and putting it in their caves. The logical consequence of trying to imprison a giant ball of flaming gas is obvious.

Friggin' taffs.

nodubmanshouts wrote:Not really. It was dying before they came along. Not dead - sure - but definitely dying.

Have you ever actually been to Wales? In some parts (eg Gwynneth), pretty much everyone speaks Welsh as a first language. Okay, that may be an exaggeration from an outsider's perspective but, having holidayed there last year, that's how it appeared. Everyone who wasn't speaking to the tourists seemed to be speaking Welsh and all the signs are in Welsh too. Hardly a dying language.

Quiff Boy wrote:they just don't watch tv much

Or rather they watch the other 694 programmes.

stufarq wrote:

nodubmanshouts wrote:Not really. It was dying before they came along. Not dead - sure - but definitely dying.

Have you ever actually been to Wales? In some parts (eg Gwynneth), pretty much everyone speaks Welsh as a first language. Okay, that may be an exaggeration from an outsider's perspective but, having holidayed there last year, that's how it appeared. Everyone who wasn't speaking to the tourists seemed to be speaking Welsh and all the signs are in Welsh too. Hardly a dying language.

Quiff Boy wrote:they just don't watch tv much

Or rather they watch the other 694 programmes.

I'm from Gwynedd (sorry for the spell check) and yes we all speak Welsh there. I actually felt sorry for the ones that did n't (they were n't that popular - apartheid lives on).

@stufarq: I am not talking about now, I am not talking about pre Welsh Language Act 1993, and pre- all those attempts to stop the language from dying (which it was) since then.

I actually felt sorry for the ones that did n't (they were n't that popular - apartheid lives on).

Yup, That was one of the points I was trying to make by the comment "one man's cultural diversity is another's fragmented society"

nodubmanshouts wrote:@stufarq: I am not talking about now, I am not talking about pre Welsh Language Act 1993, and pre- all those attempts to stop the language from dying (which it was) since then.

I actually felt sorry for the ones that did n't (they were n't that popular - apartheid lives on).

Yup, That was one of the points I was trying to make by the comment "one man's cultural diversity is another's fragmented society"

The Welsh language was not dying a natural death, suppression would be a better description. " WelshNot" and other more subtle ways over the years meant that the language was doomed to failure. Thank f for the Welsh Language Act.

There's nothing wrong with a fragmented society if it's playfully done.

at the risk of sounding racist
you english / johnny foreigner types forget that the uk is 3 separate countries.

england is not britain as a lot of english seem to think.

how many english programmes are broadcast to (english) ex pats in foreign countries (were johnny english is in the minority) at my expense as a license payer.

carry on s4c, BBC wales and all other government funded welsh language programmes.

My school was not funded for allowing me to learn welsh as a child due to english educational pressure.
and my school was as far west in south wales as you could get before falling in the sea.


rant over. gets coat.....

I love Wales, I spent a lot of happy times around Borth and Aberystwyth as a kid. (I actually had my first snog at a hotel in Borth ) I know it's Ceredigion not Gwynedd but it's still pretty much "Welsh Wales" if you know what I mean.

I really hope this doesn't sound patronising and colonialist.

And Nigel: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland... 4 not 3

Wales is beautiful, been there as well - Brecon, Rhayader (Elan Valley), Aberystwyth, Aberdowvey,
Fairbourne, Barmouth, Portmeirion, Porthmadog, Criccieth, Pwllheli, Abersoch, Aberdaron, Nefyn,
Caernarfon, Bangor, Conwy, Llandudno, Llanberis, Capel Curig, Betws-y-coed, Llangollen ... wonderful places ... ...

Thanks for all the compliments

I love England too, Cotswolds, Kings Lynn, Dorset, spent many a great night in Yorkshire, the Dales.

Unfortuately I did also live in Middlebrough for five years

markfiend wrote: Northern Ireland...

We will be taking that back very soon, thanks very much