We lead pretty boring lives down in southern Taiwan. I love my TV.
Why don’t the cable channels broadcast in MTS nationwide?
They leave it up the the local cable company to choose the language. Sometimes my cartoon channel is in Chinese, then it’s in English for a while.
Even the smallest companies in the states broadcast in MTS.
Taiwanese are spending good money on stereo TV’s to watch mono MTV or VH-1. Don’t they care?
Well, so far I can live without tv. Most programs aren’t really that interesting anyway…
Even the smallest companies in the states broadcast in MTS.
Taiwanese are spending good money on stereo TV’s to watch mono MTV or VH-1. Don’t they care? ***
Probably not. Did you notice that in most taiwanese households the aquarium stands close to the tv (same room) and is often noisy enough to not let you understand any wordfrom the tv as long as it is on reasonable volume? Many locals tend to “read” the subtitels instead of listening to the voices, even when it is in Mandarin or Taiwanese.
I think this is at least one of the reasons why (almost) no-one would really demand stereo or bilingual broadcasts.
Olaf
I was thinking of writing to a few cable companies to ask about SAP broadcasts, particularly for the Disney Channel and the Cartoon Network.
I think it would do wonders for the level of English for local children of kindergarten age, if their parents forced them to always watch their cartoons in English. If they started young enough they wouldn’t even notice or complain, and would grow up always watching TV in English.
My daughter (4 years old) speaks Chinese with all her schoolmates and my wife’s family. She only speaks English with me, so it’s not surprising that her Chinese is better than her English. At least if whenever she was demanding to watch cartoons on the TV I would feel it was in some small way educational!!
Maybe if I could rally a whole bunch of bushi-ban owners, and educators together we could lobby the relevant government ministry (the GIO?) to legislate and promote this!
What’s SAP?
My 4 yo was fooling around with the chinese remote control and found a button that lets us watch disney (and espn i think) in english.
Jennifer
Second Audio Program