Does watching tv still count as bad for you if you can't understand any of it? Last week I put the tv on for some background noise and to give my computer speakers a break. I watched about 15 minutes of the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away, dubbed in French. Then I was watching a French game show, thinking that with sentences outside of dialogue I may have a better idea of getting some words out of it. Of course, only knowing the French words for hello, goodbye, and the check please, it has turned out be quite unlikely that I will learn any words from watching TV. After giving up on the game show, I was channel surfing the 5 French channels that we get here in the chalet and I came across Will and Grace dubbed in French. Never being a huge fan of the show, it is possible I have seen this episode before, but I still had no idea what was happening. I am wondering if the laugh track is also re-dubbed in to better match the french version of the dialogue. I didn't watch any TV in Russia, but Dana said that the dubbing is really bad, often over top of the English which can still be heard. The French obviously have more time or money, because everything I have seen thus far has been dubbed very well. I guess this episode is pretty funny too, because there is much laughter; it's lost on me though.
So tonight, after losing Jed (leaving Jed, depending on who you ask), Christina and I came back to the chalet after a short stop at the Super U for groceries and wanting to watch a movie, had to settle for French television. I found Veronica Mars, which is kind of a guilty pleasure for me because it comes on after the Gilmore Girls on the WB, and so I started watching it, but soon got bored because I couldn't follow in French. So, I turned the channel and found French Wheel of Fortune. I was kind of excited, because for some reason I think that if the words are up on a board that I will be able to read and then understand them, even in French. Plus, I am a Wheel of Fortune fan from way back. So we are watching the 'French Vanna White' and decide that is like a California tan Pamela Anderson version of Vanna White, and then while talking in French to 'Pat' we hear say something in English; it was a quick phrase but I didn't detect an accent, so now I am intrigued. I google French Wheel of Fortune and after following a line from Google to Wikipedia I find out that she has her own website. She is a Swedish super-model who was once on the Swedish Olympic ski team and then was Miss Sweden in the the Miss World pageant in South Africa in the mid-nineties. She was picked up as a high fashion model in Paris, and while trying to break into acting, she has extended herself into the world of game shows. What you can't learn on the internet...
Also, Wheel of Fortune is just one example of how French tv is one big dance party. After one round, they began playing this famous french pop song that was the subject of one of the rounds and pretty soon 'Vanna' and the contestants are all dancing on the stage. It was madness, especially since, as Christina points out, though the French love to dance, they suck at it. Last week we watched this crazy music special on Friday night with all the really present famous French singers. It was on for like three hours, and each song had it's own theme complete with sets and costumes. It was supremely weird, but also supremely entertaining, and the highlight of the night was when the French sang, in English, the Bryan Adams song Everything I Do and a rockin' version of The Arrow's I Love Rock and Roll, complete with goth makeup and Victorian dresses. The rain makes want to hate this country, but the crazy music makes me love it. (By the way, in case you were worried, Jed turned up and is in tact and just fine; he even had a kebab.)
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