Languages

I read a comment the other day in Que! I think it was, one of those free news papers. The author was convinced that because she began learning english at the age of 11 and not at 2, she never had a chance to learn it properly.

Umh. Lady. I began my english classes at ten like most other norwegians, and although there are various degrees of level, as in any subject, I think I can claim that all norwegians know enough english to have a enlightened conversation. (that they would Want to have this conversation is another subject..)

Not that I am against beginning early, but at the moment it would be a vaste of time and resourses. Because a Spaniard goes through his/her daily life without hearing a word of english. Unless he or she make an effort and activly search for it.

In Spain the Terminator and Marlon Brando have the same voice. Any snippet of english spoken on interwievs has a voice over translating it. All the series on tv are dubbed. They loose out so much of the interpretation of the actors..I almost feel pity for them if it were not for the fact that they want it this way! "We would not understand what they say" and "one would need to read so fast" and "but the translation to text would mean reducing the words.." These are some of the objections I hear the most. Bullshit. It may take a movie or two to get used to, but the text is there to convey the general meaning, to be filled out by the way the actor speaks the lines. One of the most important parts in the process of learning a language is to listen to it.

So, Lady, all those kids that learn english when they are two will in most cases never use what they learn on a daily basis, and therefore they will not retain it. It would do more good to stop the horrible dubbing, that is how we learn english in my home country. Beginning at 10 years.