Now You're Talking

All about language programs, courses, websites and other learning resources
User avatar
n_j_f
Orange Belt
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 11:41 am
Location: Sydney, Australia
Languages: English (N)

Studying:
French (B1), German (A2)

Up Next:
Persian, Russian

Flirting With:
Sanskrit

On the back-burner:
Turkish, Irish

Bucket List:
Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, Hindi/Urdu, Ancient Greek, Latin, Old Church Slavonic, Modern Greek, Tamil, Sinhalese, Malayalam, Welsh, Arabic
x 170

Now You're Talking

Postby n_j_f » Thu Nov 16, 2017 11:46 am

Some time ago, I obtained a PDF version of Irish on Your Own with audio which, as far as I can tell, is identical to Now You're Talking Irish. Now You're Talking Irish also had an accompanying TV series and the episodes are archived on YouTube. Even if you have no interest in learning Irish, the homely 80s knitwear and the awkward encounters and interviews makes for great entertainment.

Anyway, on a whim, I was looking around for Welsh courses and found out that there was a series called Now You're Talking Welsh. This series seems to be in the same format and from the same era — including the amusing knitwear — as Now You're Talking Irish so I can only assume they were produced by the same people. Despite several google searches, however, I can't seem to find an accompanying book for the Welsh series.

Can anyone familiar with these programmes confirm:

1. Is Irish on Your Own and Now You're Talking Irish identical?
2. Was there a book/guide to accompany Now You're Talking Welsh?
3. Were there other languages in the series?
1 x

DaveBee
Blue Belt
Posts: 952
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:49 pm
Location: UK
Languages: English (native). French (studying).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7466
x 1386

Re: Now You're Talking

Postby DaveBee » Thu Nov 16, 2017 11:59 am

n_j_f wrote:Some time ago, I obtained a PDF version of Irish on Your Own with audio which, as far as I can tell, is identical to Now You're Talking Irish. Now You're Talking Irish also had an accompanying TV series and the episodes are archived on YouTube. Even if you have no interest in learning Irish, the homely 80s knitwear and the awkward encounters and interviews makes for great entertainment.

Anyway, on a whim, I was looking around for Welsh courses and found out that there was a series called Now You're Talking Welsh. This series seems to be in the same format and from the same era — including the amusing knitwear — as Now You're Talking Irish so I can only assume they were produced by the same people. Despite several google searches, however, I can't seem to find an accompanying book for the Welsh series.

Can anyone familiar with these programmes confirm:

1. Is Irish on Your Own and Now You're Talking Irish identical?
2. Was there a book/guide to accompany Now You're Talking Welsh?
3. Were there other languages in the series?
World cat has an entry for 'now you're talking: the easy way to learn welsh'

http://www.worldcat.org/title/now-youre ... c/33021679

EDIT
And a set of VHS cassettes.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/now-youre ... c/40626398
2 x

crush
Blue Belt
Posts: 514
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:35 pm
Languages: EN (N), ES, ZH
Maintain: EUS, YUE, JP, HAW
Study: TGL, SV
On Hold: RU
x 953

Re: Now You're Talking

Postby crush » Thu Nov 16, 2017 7:43 pm

I'd be very interested in finding more about the Welsh course as well, in particular if there is still any place you can find it for purchase (at least the book).
0 x

Ingaræð
Orange Belt
Posts: 170
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:34 pm
Languages: English (N), German (heritage)
Learning: Russian, French, German, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish.
Mostly forgotten: Italian, Welsh.
x 377

Re: Now You're Talking

Postby Ingaræð » Thu Nov 16, 2017 10:46 pm

I thought this sounded familiar - I have the vaguest of recollections of this being on TV in the '90s... The 'down with the kids' baseball cap and dungarees combo that the presenter wears would have looked ridiculous even back then! :lol:

Having scanned through a number of the videos, this is not a resource that I would recommend to someone who wants to learn Welsh, mainly for two reasons:

  1. It's highly reminiscent of what/how I was taught in school: stock phrases in artificial situations. I was able to ace every test, yet after 5 years I still couldn't even hold a real conversation.
  2. The male voice-over doing the recaps has a clear English accent, in both phonemes and prosody. I actually find it quite bizarre that the programme-makers would chose to have such an integral part of this in a 'foreign' accent. Some of the interviewees also have English accents, but I think that is less of an issue.

The 'cultural' bits about the towns may be of use in a rose-tinted travelogue sort of way (when it comes to any of the docks in South Wales, 'bustling' is sadly not a word that comes to mind...).
3 x


Return to “Language Programs and Resources”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests