Are English language movies readily available in Germany? How many of you have found them useful in your study of the language? Here in the U.S. German language movies, at least in the mainstream video outlets, are few and far between. I'm curious as to how often one finds that they're listening to English as opposed to German on a day to day basis. If English is widespread (or not), is it a good thing or a bad thing culturally, economically, etc.? Any comments?
-Chris
Availability of English language movies and/or television
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Rehpotsirhcj
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Nitro991
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Re: Availability of English language movies and/or televisio
Hey Chris.Rehpotsirhcj hat geschrieben:Are English language movies readily available in Germany? How many of you have found them useful in your study of the language? Here in the U.S. German language movies, at least in the mainstream video outlets, are few and far between. I'm curious as to how often one finds that they're listening to English as opposed to German on a day to day basis. If English is widespread (or not), is it a good thing or a bad thing culturally, economically, etc.? Any comments?
-Chris
Since DVD's are spread all over it's much easier to ger english movies because if you buy the german DVD it's mostly also in english. For a beginner this doesn't help too much because movie-english is really fast and sometimes not really well to understand but it can be a good way to study some 'new words' at least. And it's more interesting than studying books. I think english is really widespread here and that's good because you can communicate much easier in foreign countries. Most people outside Germany won't speak german so english is a good language to create a basis for communication. No bad thing, you just get to know other foreign cultures better - my opinion
Stefan
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Baschtel
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Well, generally the proffering of movies needing the english language are necessary to my mind, especially for pupils or students - for this poses a good help for the so-called acoustical types particularly to learn english.
For example, I regret I abstain from watching english films or tapes in spite of being a visual type actually, at least my parents say that.
Thus I partly have vast difficults as regards the english language and I dare say the pupils of my english basic course hardly are adept at speaking that main foreign language.
To put it bluntly, I think english primarily supports to understand the culture of foreign states, because thereby, one is in the position to catch up on alien movies and literature.
I am of the opinion this language sways the own cultural. In this connection, I would like to take the television as an example which is stamped relevant by the american trends, at least in the so-called private television, and presents a reason for the prolonged degeneration and, consequently, the disinterest for ones own culture, so to speak the fun society or the like.
In relation to the economy, english has been instrumental in communicating and trade a long time; consequently, it is a basis for that market.
For example, I regret I abstain from watching english films or tapes in spite of being a visual type actually, at least my parents say that.
Thus I partly have vast difficults as regards the english language and I dare say the pupils of my english basic course hardly are adept at speaking that main foreign language.
To put it bluntly, I think english primarily supports to understand the culture of foreign states, because thereby, one is in the position to catch up on alien movies and literature.
I am of the opinion this language sways the own cultural. In this connection, I would like to take the television as an example which is stamped relevant by the american trends, at least in the so-called private television, and presents a reason for the prolonged degeneration and, consequently, the disinterest for ones own culture, so to speak the fun society or the like.
In relation to the economy, english has been instrumental in communicating and trade a long time; consequently, it is a basis for that market.
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Anachronist
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As far as I know english movies are quite common. This is especially true for younger people. First: Every german DVD has - as mentioned above -also the english version of the movie on it. Second: Many people are downloading movies from the internet and the english ones are a lot more common and therefore a lot easier to get than the german ones. It`s really amazing how many movies are on some HD`s; most of them in e
English.
About the question wether this is "good" or "bad":
In my opinion the advantages suceed the disatvantages by lenghts (..is it possible to say that "to succeed sth. by lenghts...hmm...never mind
). English is THE language to get in contact with foreign people in Europe and, of course, the US.
The possibility to cross the lines between nations - and not only cultural ones, emotional too - is amazing. I guess I never learned something this useful again in my whole life. In fact English was the first subject which showed me that school might be better than i had thought at the 5th - 10th grade.
Of course it is true, that English was the language which made the whole globalization stuff possible. And I agree with Baschtel if he uses the term "degeneration" in connection with the "so-called private television" and sure you could say, that this degeneration is more or less a consequence of the globalization.
But i won`t blame the english language for it. I blame it on the fact, that the economical system is the one system in our societies, which was the fastest and most succesfull in getting globalized. A shared language is the needed condition for the globlisation and money is the most easiest language in the world. 1 € is about 0.98$. That`s it. That`s the grammar and the words.
As a consequence of this, only the cultural aspects of societies, which can be tranfsormed into an economical factor, are ex/imported. But broken down to it`s basics the economical system knows only two things: Making money and not making money. The economical system percieves everything, culutral stuff too - as things, wich could be used to make money or not. This reduction of culture to it`s financial worth and ìt`s transformation into something with financial worth is the process i would call "degeneration".
A shared language surely was a condition for this but, as I said, I consider the advantages of this shared language outweight the disatvantages (Even if I wrote ten times more about the latter. This is kind of a special topic for me. I`m always getting in far fetched speeches as soon as it`s on
.
So, I hope I didn`t make too many mistakes and said something useful to you. I`m out of school since six years an my only practise in English was watching movies and reading books. I`m surprised it was still possible for me to get some of my thoughts straight.
Jörg
PS: Is it possible to say "common language" instead of "shared language" or would this sound somehow devaluating?
English.
About the question wether this is "good" or "bad":
In my opinion the advantages suceed the disatvantages by lenghts (..is it possible to say that "to succeed sth. by lenghts...hmm...never mind
). English is THE language to get in contact with foreign people in Europe and, of course, the US. The possibility to cross the lines between nations - and not only cultural ones, emotional too - is amazing. I guess I never learned something this useful again in my whole life. In fact English was the first subject which showed me that school might be better than i had thought at the 5th - 10th grade.
Of course it is true, that English was the language which made the whole globalization stuff possible. And I agree with Baschtel if he uses the term "degeneration" in connection with the "so-called private television" and sure you could say, that this degeneration is more or less a consequence of the globalization.
But i won`t blame the english language for it. I blame it on the fact, that the economical system is the one system in our societies, which was the fastest and most succesfull in getting globalized. A shared language is the needed condition for the globlisation and money is the most easiest language in the world. 1 € is about 0.98$. That`s it. That`s the grammar and the words.
As a consequence of this, only the cultural aspects of societies, which can be tranfsormed into an economical factor, are ex/imported. But broken down to it`s basics the economical system knows only two things: Making money and not making money. The economical system percieves everything, culutral stuff too - as things, wich could be used to make money or not. This reduction of culture to it`s financial worth and ìt`s transformation into something with financial worth is the process i would call "degeneration".
A shared language surely was a condition for this but, as I said, I consider the advantages of this shared language outweight the disatvantages (Even if I wrote ten times more about the latter. This is kind of a special topic for me. I`m always getting in far fetched speeches as soon as it`s on
. So, I hope I didn`t make too many mistakes and said something useful to you. I`m out of school since six years an my only practise in English was watching movies and reading books. I`m surprised it was still possible for me to get some of my thoughts straight.
Jörg
PS: Is it possible to say "common language" instead of "shared language" or would this sound somehow devaluating?
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Rehpotsirhcj
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Money as the universal language
Thanks to the three of you for your opinions!
My apologies for taking so long to respond…life is busy.
I may have been overestimating the influence of language over that of money Jörg. I think you're right that money i.e. economics is the universal language. The universal language that drives wide spread commercialism, some arguably immoral, in the form of television, movies, and print that leads to degradation in some of the more regional and cultural aspects of society as Baschtel suggested. I'd like to think that there are core values within people that would prevent such degradation from occurring, but I've seen no evidence of that. On the contrary, we (at least here in the U.S.) are bombarded daily by relentless advertisers who would gladly hang billboards from the white house rafters if they thought they could get away with it. In retrospect, the English language is merely the wrapper in which commercialism is delivered.
From the standpoint of language alone, I can see the positive influence of a common language. (Jörg, "common language" sounds much more natural to my ear than "shared language" but either will work.)
As the world becomes smaller as a result of increasing technology a common spoken language is probably inevitable. My own selfish concern is that by the time I get to Germany, I'll have no one to speak German with.
A final side note: I'm very impressed at how well the three of you get your points across in English. Well done.
-Chris
My apologies for taking so long to respond…life is busy.
I may have been overestimating the influence of language over that of money Jörg. I think you're right that money i.e. economics is the universal language. The universal language that drives wide spread commercialism, some arguably immoral, in the form of television, movies, and print that leads to degradation in some of the more regional and cultural aspects of society as Baschtel suggested. I'd like to think that there are core values within people that would prevent such degradation from occurring, but I've seen no evidence of that. On the contrary, we (at least here in the U.S.) are bombarded daily by relentless advertisers who would gladly hang billboards from the white house rafters if they thought they could get away with it. In retrospect, the English language is merely the wrapper in which commercialism is delivered.
From the standpoint of language alone, I can see the positive influence of a common language. (Jörg, "common language" sounds much more natural to my ear than "shared language" but either will work.)
As the world becomes smaller as a result of increasing technology a common spoken language is probably inevitable. My own selfish concern is that by the time I get to Germany, I'll have no one to speak German with.
A final side note: I'm very impressed at how well the three of you get your points across in English. Well done.
-Chris
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Rehpotsirhcj
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Hi Jörg.
It means that there are no moral boundaries among advertisers as to where they would place their message if they thought there would be no public outcry. Hanging billboards from the White House rafters was an exaggeration of where you might find ads if commercialism were to run even more rampant than it is now. (Hard to believe it could get any worse)
Hope that helps,
-Chris
It means that there are no moral boundaries among advertisers as to where they would place their message if they thought there would be no public outcry. Hanging billboards from the White House rafters was an exaggeration of where you might find ads if commercialism were to run even more rampant than it is now. (Hard to believe it could get any worse)
Hope that helps,
-Chris
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