Comments on: Books Rise in Spain as Subtitles Appear on TV!

By: EJ

EJ — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:53:01 +0000

@Edith: In Holland everybody speaks a minimum of German and proper English, so that makes three. The’ I always get my sin’ joke is famous (and old…) joke, but not a representation.
Subtitling is a brilliant improvement for maintenance, and therefore an adequate learning tool.

By: Edith

Edith — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:38:35 +0000

Some Dunglish gems can be found here:

http://www.dunglish.nl/?p=142

Which proves that subtitles are not an adequate learning tool.

By: Edith

Edith — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:33:26 +0000

@ EJ,

Top be honest, I don’t know many Dutch people who speak ‘at least three languages’.

And on average, the Danes and the Swedes speak much better English than we do. Ever heard about ‘Dunglish’? ‘I always get my sin’. …

By: EJ

EJ — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:40:39 +0000

Subtitles; great improvement for the Spanish in particular. Look what it did for the Dutch: a smaller country than Spain but we all speak at least 3 languages and do business with every country on an equal level.
Wil they subtitle Catalan into Spanish?

By: John Ross

John Ross — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:17:56 +0000

About Ben’s article, just a couple of comments
i) I have attended the Feria del Libro practically every year for the last two decades, and it has always been packed at weekends, nothing new there. The main reason is that Madrid parents are always desperate for something to do with the kids, as far as I can see.
ii) There is probably a bit of a boom in the bookselling sector, El País says stallholders think it will be a record year. I imagine it is because of lack of money, which I know sounds paradoxical. But if you can’t afford a new car, or a second home, or to have your bathroom remodelled (the top three on the Spanish how-to-spend-your-hard-earned list), suddenly you find you have actually got more money in your pocket than before.

By: John Ross

John Ross — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:07:40 +0000

@Pepino
>> I’m really surprised that reading to such an extent is only a fairly recent thing. I see so many people sat in parks reading, on the metro reading, on the bus reading, even on the gym running machine reading, that I just assumed Spain had always been a country of book fans.

It has. You know what the press is like, they like superlatives in their headlines – if Spain isn’t top, bottom is the next best thing. In fact, looked at objectively, the (real) low literacy rate in the past was mostly a post-Civil-War legacy – there was a generation which missed out on the education train altogether (especially if they were in Republican parts of the country). My parents-in-law, for example, received literally no education beyond the age of 6, I am not exaggerating here. They were intellectually ambitious enough to get over that on their own account to a large extent, millions weren’t. Most foreign visitors would never have been aware of this, it mostly affected countryfolk, not town dwellers, and like I say it was a post-war thing. That generation doesn’t count for much demographically any more.

By: MrMark

MrMark — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:40:27 +0000

One thing I loved about Spanish bar-cafes during my time there was the way 90% of them provided newpapers and/or sports papers such as Marca, As etc for reading material. A good tradition, and one I hope continues into the future. Maybe 5% of British pubs do this, although I see nowadays that if you’re rich enough to patronise the likes of Cafe Nerro/Coffee Republic, you can also read the paper there.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:59:45 +0000

@Bill, I think you hit the nail on the head re the combination of the free books from newspapers and the dreaded ‘mueble’!

@Billy T. – As for the Coldplay song, just heard it on last.fm, not bad!

@Redhand, hopefully our next, decent TV will let us do that!

By: Redhand

Redhand — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:22:21 +0000

Last time I was in Spain, watching TV on my girlfriends parents new TV with a digital box I found that you can switch to V.O for American imports and they have the subtitles in English as well if I remember. But have to agree it annoying and pointless in the long run not having subtitles on the programs.

By: Billy T.

Billy T. — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:56:13 +0000

Ben – I know I am off topic, but what do you think of the new Coldplay, “Viva La Vida?”