Latin American English vs Spanish English

[Redpossum]

As an EFL teacher, I found this story amusing, in part because the author claims that Latin Americans speak English better than the Spanish do. He says this is in part due to a Franco-era Spanish law that all foreign TV must be dubbed into Spanish, whereas Netflix Argentina, for example, broadcasts US/UK TV in its native English, and relies on subtitles. This is actually very relevant to what I do for a living, as I always tell my students that watching movies and TV series in English is very helpful to learning it.

The EU wants to turn off Brit TV, as they’re angry over Brexit. But they’ll be sorry when a Maltese gameshow replaces The Crown

Post-Brexit, Brussels bureaucrats want to reclassify UK TV content as non-EU and promote homegrown shows in a move that you can bet is being driven by the French. More than 440 million viewers should prepare for a boring future.

www.rt.com

 

[¡Sencillamente yo!]

As an EFL teacher, I found this story amusing, in part because the author claims that Latin Americans speak English better than the Spanish do. He says this is in part due to a Franco-era Spanish law that all foreign TV must be dubbed into Spanish, whereas Netflix Argentina, for example, broadcasts US/UK TV in its native English, and relies on subtitles. This is actually very relevant to what I do for a living, as I always tell my students that watching movies and TV series in English is very helpful to learning it.

The EU wants to turn off Brit TV, as they’re angry over Brexit. But they’ll be sorry when a Maltese gameshow replaces The Crown

Post-Brexit, Brussels bureaucrats want to reclassify UK TV content as non-EU and promote homegrown shows in a move that you can bet is being driven by the French. More than 440 million viewers should prepare for a boring future.

www.rt.com

Dealing with real life situations is the absolute best way to learn a language.

Second to that, direct, one on one conversation with a SERIOUS language partner.

But I defer yo you. as you are the teacher!

JMTC

 

[dilmah]

English is not native for me as well, I'm an immigrant to the US.
And large contributor to better English for me were (and still are) watching movies and news in English with English subtitles and listening to talk radio.

Notice that I consider important to have English subtitles matching English audio.
Subtitles that do not match audio (e.g. Spanish subtitles) are far less worthy for the purpose of learning the language.

 

[Alby]

I think subtitles on television shows (especially sitcoms and dramas) are an excellent way of developing vocabulary for the spoken version of the language. I remember years ago watching an episode of "Friends" where Rachael asks Phoebe "Am I a pushover?" and the subtitle chosen for "pushover" was "sumisa". And it stuck. I think whenever I hear or say the word "sumiso/a" an image of Rachael and Phoebe appears in my mind's eye. Lots of other words too have stuck because of their association with a particular TV show. In fact, the vast majority of my Spanish vocabulary I can trace back to its source: where I read it or heard it spoken.

Subtitles often don't map one on one with the words uttered by the actors. That is because the actors speak faster than we can read and so the subtitler has to abbreviate in order to give us something we can absorb. An average viewer can comfortably read in six seconds the text written on two full subtitle lines, where each line contains a maximum of some 37 characters, i.e. a total of 74 characters. This computes to a (rather low) reading speed of some 145 words per minute (about 2.5 words per second), or 13-14 characters per second. Some broadcasters however rely on reading speeds of around 160 words per minute, using lines of 39 spaces. For DVD it may be as much as 180 words per minute or greater.

 

[FrankPintor]

As an EFL teacher, I found this story amusing, in part because the author claims that Latin Americans speak English better than the Spanish do. He says this is in part due to a Franco-era Spanish law that all foreign TV must be dubbed into Spanish, whereas Netflix Argentina, for example, broadcasts US/UK TV in its native English, and relies on subtitles. This is actually very relevant to what I do for a living, as I always tell my students that watching movies and TV series in English is very helpful to learning it.

The EU wants to turn off Brit TV, as they’re angry over Brexit. But they’ll be sorry when a Maltese gameshow replaces The Crown

Post-Brexit, Brussels bureaucrats want to reclassify UK TV content as non-EU and promote homegrown shows in a move that you can bet is being driven by the French. More than 440 million viewers should prepare for a boring future.

www.rt.com

But surely that's right, all Spanish people speak English like Manuel from Farty Towels,