Trying to translate real dialogue
Yesterday I was walking around Downtown Disney (a shopping area at Disney World), and I heard lots and lots of people speaking Spanish. Usually I hear Spanish only on television, so I was glad to have a chance to try to translate some real dialogue -- ordinary things like parents chatting with their kids while standing in line to buy ice cream -- instead of telenovela heroes announcing their latest pregnancies or kidnappings and villains proclaiming, "I swear you are going to pay very dearly!"
Well, it turns out that I'm better at understanding telenovela dialogue than real life chit-chat. I can pick out words and phrases, and even whole sentences if they're short, but I still can't follow a simple conversation without stopping to think about what things mean.
It would help if real life came with subtitles. And if kids said, "I swear you are going to pay very dearly!" while standing in line with their parents to buy ice cream.
But if I did understand what I overheard, I would have to stop listening because that would be eavesdropping. TV heroes and villains don't mind if I invade their privacy. So I'm grateful for telenovelas.
posted by NONE @ 6:23 PM
3 Comments:
I do that too, but I have the advantage that my wife and stepson are from Mexico, so I've learned a little bit to understand spoken dialogue. I still need the captions on TV, even though I do always understand vas a pagar muy caro when they say it. Speaking of Disney World, I'm trying to get a trip together for my little family to go there for a few days, but it is ridiculously expensive to fly, hotel, & park tickets. How do so many people go there? It costs a fortune!
I am lucky in that I work with two women from Mexico who regularly and patiently speak spanish to me. When they speak to me I can understand most of what they say, but I know they must be speaking very slowly because when they talk to each other I understand NADA! If the telenovelas didn't have closed captioning I would not be able to do the recaps, period. I would be lost. I wonder how long it will take for me to understand spanish without closed captioning?
On another topic, you mentioned that you didn't feel you are getting to know the characters at all. I feel the same way, but I blame poor characterization rather than the dizzy plot pace (which also doesn't help I'm sure.) As Melinama pointed out, two years later and the entire cast has gone nowhere, except for Gaspar who went to Puebla.
I live a few hours away from Disney World, which helps, but I didn't go into any of the parks on Sunday because it's just too expensive for a day trip. (And Downtown Disney is pretty lame; it wasn't worth the trip.)
Your best bet might be to book the trip through Disney. If you stay inside Disney World, you won't need a car (they provide buses to take you to the parks). You could try to get into one of their All-Star hotels, which are less expensive.
Sylvia, I watched telenovelas for a year before it occurred to me to use the closed captions! So I got a crash course in listening, but now I'm afraid I lean too heavily on the captions.
I've noticed that some people are much easier to understand than others -- Guy Ecker, for instance. I imagine he must have some American accent and that's why I understand him better. I also find the guy who plays Luigi on La Fea Mas Bella easy to understand, but I don't know why that is.
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