I remember a similar moment like that years ago which was based on a misplaced belief that all language had to 'pass' through American English. You're Chinese and yet speaking to someone in French? Without going through English first?
Tony Randall once told a story on Carson about listening to some piece of classical music in which Latin was spoken/sung with a German accent. Tony thought this was hilarious, and Johnny though Tony was hilarious.
Speed bumps.
In one of the damned threads here this weekend, someone posted a link to part of Jarmusch's Night on Earth. The Youtube clip featured Benigni and it was in Italian. But no problem, it has subtitles. Wait, the subtitles were in French! My mind had trouble with that.
Yup, I did a doubletake once in a Chinese restaurant in New Zealand at the guy behind the counter with an NZ accent for similarly irrational reasons.
Now, this thing particularly, I was a little better justified in being weirded out, because I think there's some fair expectation that someone with a "Learn Spanish" radio show should sound like a native speaker of Spanish -- a "Learn Spanish" show that was conducted mostly in accentless American English would also be kind of pointless. And boy, these two sounded very Scottish, like, no chance at all that they were native Spanish speakers. (To be precise, they didn't sound very Scottish. They sounded very 'grew up Scottish but are now approximating BBC English for the radio.' But not Spanish.)
What dialect were they using? Don't Brits learn Castilian?
I've heard that one too, LB. They are also discussing Spanish spanish, rather than any variant from the Americas. So it's probably doubly jarring for, say, a Californian used to hearing (but not understanding) Mexican spanish
Yeah, there was a funny moment with the lisp on 'cena' where I did a doubletake -- "thena"? What's "thena"? Tonight I'll go find myself some nice Latin American podcast with no Scots.
I.e., "debeis aprender espanol inmediatamente."
Incidentally, the vosotros really is pretty awesome. One of those things I wish New World Spanish would incorporate because it's weird to go from informal you, to formal, plural you, when really all you want to do is talk to youse guys. Feels like I'm giving whoever I'm talking to a promotion just because someone else walked into the conversation.
I've listened to those podcasts, too, LB! And I had the same reaction. I was similarly nonplussed at being taught Mandarin by (I think) an Australian? Or something?
I once went on a tour of a winery in France with a group of American students, and the French winery employee conducting the tour began speaking in English. It quickly became apparent that she had learned English in Scotland, so she spoke English with a Scottish accent layered on top of a French accent, making her nearly incomprehensible. Someone quickly told her as politely as possible that we would prefer that she speak in French.
13: I had a professor who was from Poland and learned English from the various Dutch people he worked with in the Netherlands. He was almost completely incomprehensible because he was also very arrogant and talked as fast as possible.
When I took Spanish in high school, one of the teaching aids they used was this terrible 1970s language-educational Spanish soap opera - except it was British-produced. The Spanish parts weren't so bad (in terms of accent), but dropping out of the enrapturing story for a discussion of the language mechanics with an English accent was too much for that part of my brain.
Ye gods, it's on YouTube. Of course. With great shame for somebody, I present Zarabanda.
FWIW the few times I've had to listen to language tapes with American English on them it's been similarly jarring. I mean, if they can't even pronounce the English properly...
Of course, on the upside, I now know the Spanish for "haggis" and for "a good stomping."
una bolsa hecha de la carne and
forma correcta de hacer frente a un americano, respectively.
The Youtube clip featured Benigni and it was in Italian. But no problem, it has subtitles. Wait, the subtitles were in French! My mind had trouble with that.
I posted the French-subtitled version of that clip because all the English-subtitled clips of that scene that I found on youtube omitted the critical humping-on-the-Vespa shot near the beginning.
Oddly enough, I first saw Night on Earth in a German cinema with German subtitles, with my then-girlfriend who spoke no German. She did OK through the LA and NYC scenes, and was competent enough in French to get the Paris scene, but then was out of luck by the time the Rome scene with Benigni came up. I tried translating for her on the fly, but I was doubled over laughing and couldn't keep up. By the time it got to the Helsinki scene, she was frustrated with me and told me she wanted to leave.
Don't tell me you know Finnish, too, KR.
Don't tell me you know Finnish, too, KR.
No, I don't. It was subtitled in German. We went to that movie because it was the only one being screened Original mit Untertiteln, but we hadn't grasped that "Original" didn't necessarily mean English.
Among the English teachers I knew in Tokyo, there were probably a dozen or so different accents. Must have been confusing for the few students who bounced from American to English to Antipodean English.
My then-gf there took me to see Project A, which was in Cantonese with Japanese subtitles. I spent a little while unsuccessfully trying to figure out the story by reading, but finally gave in and just waited for the stunts.
This video will help you learn Spanish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fda4_wo6JI
I saw Armor of God without subtitles or overdubbing. The movie was incomprehensible, but it turned out later when I saw it overdubbed that I really only needed two sentences of background to understand the movie completely.
My Calculus III professor was a visiting Russian whose second language was French and who had learned English in the UK. It was impossible to parse anything that came out of his mouth and he habitually wrote on the board in nonsense Frenglish. He very quickly realized our plight and made everything open-book.
I watch films in Czech with no subtitles fairly often. I don't understand Czech anything like well enough to follow a film but luckily my language consultant usually clues me in enough to get the gist.
Check out spanishpod.com - or, if you're interested in Chinese, chinesepod.com
good stuff
I saw Cinema Paradiso with French subtitles. It's actually a Franco-Italian film, and one of the important characters was French. I'm told that his Italian accent was flawless.
i am learning Spanish on my own as well. I recommend:
A Podcast by a teacher from Spain, that is has short blog-like clips, with an accompanying English translation on the web site. Very nice if you know just a little Spanish.
Also, you might want to check out this free video series, Destinos, done in the form of a telenovela, or Spanish soap opera, but for beginners. By the end of the 34 episodes, you are able to understand a great deal of spoken spanish.
Mark
OK, all you smarties. I'm an intermediate spanish student (vocabulary of a few thousand words, comfortable hearing most any grammatical construction), and I'm particularly weak in listening comprehension. What I'd love is some *good* spanish language entertainment with spanish language subtitles. Algo existe?
The simpsons has a spanish dub + spanish subs on the dvds, but unfortunately, the subs are direct translations, and the dubs looser, so not amazingly useful. (Tambien, no me gustan mucho las voces de los actores hispanohablantes.)
LB, use this. My friend (and occcasional unfogged commenter) JP is one of the folks that runs it. He's the smiling Filipino guy in the picture on the front page there.
Hey, he's the guy who wrote the post that set off our last bout of whiteness-related navel-gazing. I will check it out.
36: He is? I thought Ogged got that from Megan.
(That said, he is a most awesome person and has written many excellent posts.)
No, the one before this one. JP was guesting at your place, and wrote something that got me vaguely thinking about whiteness as an ethnicity, and I put up a couple of posts that weren't a response or all that closely connected to what he wrote, but were vaguely suggested by it. A year or so ago.
Huh, so he did. That JP. Asian people are so clever.
39: Ah. In any case, see his current top post and the brief mention of us at the end of the post below it here. And then shut up and eat your fusion cuisine.
I downloaded some Spanish language podcasts but had to stop listening to them because I developed an intense dislike for the protagonist of the little episodes. "I want a room. I want aspirin. I am here on business. Where is my towel. I am not hungry. I am thirsty. Give me a bottle of water. I am American. I am from Ohio. I am called Jennifer. I want a taxi." How boring you are, Jennifer.
Going to bed now, but I guess this is the right thread to ask; does anyone know any good sites that could help me improve my French? Scots speakers are no problem. Just something interesting enough that I will visit it, unlike the 5 books of verbs that I let collect dust in the hall.
the podcasts at http://www.notesinspanish.com/ are light-hearted and enjoyable, but may emanate from the wrong side of the Atlantic for your taste
Penny, have you tried reading French blogs? There are a couple of interestingly chatty ones -- the European blog awards at AFOE would be a good place to start looking.