Beaches and Sheets

Think they have nothing in common? Think again. Now think grammatically. The long e sound right? Even though Spanish has a similar sound, native Spanish speakers sometimes have a little trouble producing the long e sound in English words usually sounding more like a short i. So today in my lesson on Halloween, when we got to the part about what people who dress up as ghosts wear, it was clearly time to clear up this little mispronunciation. Imagine a classroom full of 13 and 14 year old girls enthusiastically repeating back to you in unison; Shits! “No, sheeeeets” I reply to stress the sound a bit. “Shiiiiits” I hear. So the English teacher for that period asked me to explain the difference. Next, I took a comparative listening approach. Pointing to each word on the board I carefully annunciate, “Sheet, shit, sheet, shit.” They soon join. “Sheeiit, shit, sheeiit, shit.” I decided that was good enough progress for today.

Those that cannot be dubbed

In general, I dislike dubbing over other languages in TV or movies. For me, this is true of any language. I would much rather listen to any foreign language with English subtitles than listen to it dubbed over in my language. The same is true for Hollywood’s habit of presenting films in English set in foreign countries. I would much prefer to see the movie in the given country’s own language, but that’s just me. My taste in film tilts towards linguistic and cultural accuracy over high action, special effects, and the presence of Hollywood megastars.

When it comes to dubbing, there’s not only the obvious annoyance of not getting to hear your favorite character’s voice. It seems like the people doing the voice over can’t quite match the emotion that the actor or actress is displaying. In Spain, you can get a lot of American TV shows, all of which are dubbed in Spanish. Although artistically I dislike dubbing, in this case I can’t deny that if these shows were presented in English, I would lose out on a lot of listening practice. TV is a great tool for learning another language. That being said, I still have my limits when it comes to dubbing. There are some characters on TV or in movies that just need to be heard for themselves. Here are my top five characters I’ve seen on Spanish TV that just can’t be dubbed.

5. Rachel from Friends (Jennifer Aniston)

Ok, I mainly put this one here so I would have five instead of four. I really don’t have many issues watching this show in Spanish. However, I’m sure to any hardcore Friends fan all 6 characters would have made the list. But, I will say that out of all the voices on the show, I seem to miss hers the most.

4. Steve Urkel from Family Matters

At this point it was still more amusement than frustration. However, I’m still trying to figure out if Urkel sounds more like a seven-year-old boy or a 93-year-old grandmother. I'll let you decide for yourself.

3. Homer Simpson from The Simpsons

This is where it really starts to get hard to watch. The Spanish voice of Homer is simply far too dignified to match his actions. How can you show up to a high school reunion with a plunger on your head and not sound the part?

2. Horatio Caine from CSI Miami (David Caruso)

Can he at least say his one-liners in English? The people here just don’t know what they’re missing.

1.  The Dude from The Big Lebowski (Jeff Bridges)

           

This one made my ears bleed a little. I was flipping through channels and saw the movie was on. I immediately changed the channel to avoid the inevitable botching of everything great The Dude represents. But my curiosity for the obscene got the best of me. I don't have anything catchy to say here. It was as expected, truly disturbing. I'm sure The Dude would not abide.

Introduction

I know. Just what the internet needs. Another 20 something American in Europe with little to no adult responsibilities babbling on and on about Spanish tapas. But more on those later.

I know some people have taken a mild interest in what my life is like here in Spain and this seems like a great way to provide a little insight. From October to June I will be teaching English in a Spanish high school. I'm not exactly and official teacher. I'm a "cultural and language assistant" for teachers of English or other bilingual classes such as science, P.E., and music. I plan small activities, help with things like pronunciation, and generally just try to communicate as much as possible in english so the kids can have as much exposure with a native speaker as possible.

The program is done through the Spain's Ministry of Education. They accept around 2,000 recent college graduates a year from mostly from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and to a lesser extent from other European countries who will assist in teaching their given native languages. When applying you're given the option of choosing three preferential regions (basically like states), an urban or rural site, and whether you would like to work with younger or older kids. I was given my first choice of working in the region of Andalucia (the southern most region) and was able to work with older kids. My actual teaching site, however, is very rural. It's a small town of around 2,500 people (nearly 6,000 using the metric system!) in northeastern Andalucia called La Puerta de Segura. At times, I would definitely prefer something a little bigger where there are more things to do and I could be a bit more anonymous. However, everyone I've met has been very friendly and willing to help me with whatever I needed. All and all, I'm happy to be here.

That's it for now. Don't worry, I'll get to tapas soon enough.

If there's anything you would like to know about, leave a comment and I'll try to work it in to a later blog.