French Televison...

Ok, so I don't have a lot of time to write about my second visit to Paris (we visited Notre-Dame, Eiffle Tower, Invalides and Napoleon's Tomb, and Sacre-Coeur), nor all the foods I have tried since last writing (which include, but are not limited to: escargot, rice pudding, paté, many cheeses of which I love Camenberet and Pont L'éveque, sushi, duck, and muscles in cream sauce), so, I'm going to write about a subject which has greatly fascinated me for a while, French television.

Ok, so French TV is very interesting, almost all the sitcoms are American shows that have been dubbed, or are shows created in imitation of American shows (for example, the European version of American Idol is simply called Idol). So far, I have seen CSI, Spongebob Squarepants, Fear Factor, The Nanny, Friends, and a bunch of kids shows like Arthur. As exotic as it sounds, it's very hard to watch any TV show in French. Try it some time. Grab your favorite boxed-collection, and put it on "French," or, if the DVD doesn't have any foreign languages, try muting it and watching for half an hour. It's impossible.

Speaking of not being able to understand the TV, the worst part is the news. I know about Katrina, it's been the first thing on the French news every night for a week, but that doesn't mean I know any details (it goes without saying that the French have been very sympathetic, not to mention those of other countries. I was at the Eiffel Tower the other day and Sophie and I where talking in English and a couple behind us asked "Oh, excuse me, but do you speak English?" and we're like "Yeah" and it turns out they are Austrailians, and, after I explained that I was an American exchanger and they said, "Oh, it's terrible about Hurricane Katrina" after which I explained that I can't understand the news very well, which they responded with a general summery of what had happened, and, as it was time to go up the Tower, wished me luck etc). It is so frustrating to see and not be able to understand! It's even worse when they start interview the victims and I get a phrase of understandable English in before the French dubbing starts and I can't understand another word. This applies to the newspapers as well, it's just all above my head.

French Commercials.

Ok, so French public TV, has commercials only once or twice during a show (which would be nice, but at this point, the commercials are easier to understand than the shows, so...) and they only last for 20 seconds. They're pretty amusing, more so because I can't understand them, and the best ones are the American commercials (like the ones for hair care products) that have been dubbed in to French.

French Shows Part 1: The Copy-cats.

Ok, so in France, there are a lot of shows that are copy-cats of American shows, ex. Survivor (which is in it's first season here), Who Want's To Be A Millionaire (when they asked which actor played James Bond in Goldfinger I almost died! Sean Connery of course!), a few soap operas, and a French version of that show with a pretty girl who has to pretend to marry an actor who does everything to be rude, immature, and basically unbearible, etc. Most of these are pretty boring, but then again, I don't watch much TV anyway and a show in French is hard to enjoy this early.

French Shows Part 2: Star Academy:

OK, this isn't a real French show, it's Spanish, but it's dubbed in to Fench and all the kids like it, that is, except me, as I don't understand it, but it's about a bunch of friends in a dance school and their troubles.

That's about it. Next I'll write about school and my new friends, etc.

Tara