Dubbed: Television and language

Come on now, admit it. How often do you ever watch a television programme in Spanish? If you don't live in Mallorca or Spain, you're forgiven, but if you do ... . There is one very good reason for not watching Spanish telly, apart from the language issue, and this is that, for the most part, it is unrelenting garbage. Better that you stick to "X Factor" or "I'm A Celebrity"; altogether more culturally enriching.

I'm not going to be holier than thou. I don't watch Spanish telly much. I used to, before I realised just how bad it was. What limited diet I have is largely confined to football. I should make more of an effort as there are some gems of the bizarre, such as the channel which seems to be devoted to a woman reading Tarot cards or human towers competitions replete with slow-mo action replays of a small child slipping and crashing onto the bodies below.

Foreign programmes are usually always dubbed, and there are an awful lot of them. Yes, you can view some in the original language as well, but for the Spaniard the voiceover (VO) is preferable. The Germans do it as well to films and telly programmes. It is so ridiculous that I once saw an interview with the boy who was the German "Harry Potter" and who had become a star in his own right. In Spanish I have watched "The Shawshank Redemption" with a Morgan Freeman who probably comes from Madrid and who almost certainly isn't black.

Dubbing, as opposed to showing programmes in the original language (almost always, therefore, English) with subtitles, may lead to the madness of an actor's personality being stripped away by a VO artist, but it can also have a serious aspect, in that it inhibits the learning of English.

However, the experience in Germany is quite telling. Though German TV dubs, the standard of English in Germany is high, far higher than it is in Mallorca or Spain. Television does have a role to play in teaching English, and no more so than in the Netherlands where, together with an educational system which promotes English from an early age, the watching of shows in English has been established practice for many years, given that the BBC has long been available. But television can't overcome an instinctive problem, one to do with the sounds of language.

There is an article by Nick Lyne about Spanish television, dubbing and language acquisition on the qorreo.com website. It's interesting, but what is even more interesting is a comment about the article. This makes the point that the Spanish language has a "particularly not-rich set of sounds in its register". This means that it can be difficult to pronounce, speak and therefore learn other languages, such as English.

The contrast is made with, for example, Dutch which is a much richer language in terms of sounds. I would guess that the same applies to German. The greater the range of sounds in a native tongue, the easier it is to acquire other languages; or so the theory seems to go. Without getting too technical, Spanish has comparatively few spoken sounds compared with English. A linguist at the Spanish equivalent of the Open University has made the point that Spanish pronunciation of English is poor because the greater number of English sounds are reduced to the few of Spanish. (Incidentally, Catalan has a few more sounds than Spanish which should, in theory, make things easier.)

The imbalance in sound recognition has major implications for the teaching of English in schools. The same linguist has said that no one seems to be bothering to make the acquisition of new sounds a key element of English. The extension of English use in teaching in Spanish and Mallorcan schools is all well and good, but how good are the teachers themselves at speaking it correctly? Despite the number of years of English instruction, the professor of language psychology at the University of Navarra is concerned that pupils leave school still not knowing how to speak English.

Earlier this year, a survey of students at the university in Palma discovered that 68% admitted to not understanding English. It may not be essential for all of them in their future careers that they do, but given the importance of English in international business and in local tourism the deficiency is somewhat startling. By a remarkable coincidence, a survey of foreign language use by students and adults in different European countries by the Eurostat research organisation at the European Commission revealed that 68% of secondary school pupils in Spain learn one foreign language - English. Learn, but can they use?

The same Eurostat survey placed Spain in the bottom three of countries in which adults speak no foreign language. And no, the UK was not behind Spain; in fact the UK does pretty well in this respect.

But to return to television. Much recent debate surrounding language and whether English originals should be shown on TV was kicked off by Fox's decision to broadcast "House" in English with subtitles. So, you'll be able to watch it in English if you want to. The question is: will the Spanish?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.