WTF is my kid watching?

There’s a show that follows Teletubbies every morning that my kid likes to watch. It has a pair of siblings dressed up as a rabbit and a bear teaching English. It’s not the terrible accent that bothers me, but the terrible grammar. The sentence this morning was:
There are seven corns in the cornfield.

How hard would would it be to get a native English speaker to proofread the script?

Are you talking about the copy of Dora with the two cartoon characters? Many of these Asian made shows use sub-standard English.

I don’t know if it’s a copy of Dora. It’s called Doby & Disy.

I would – no kidding – not let him watch it, if possible, though kids acquire more language from live voices than they do from video/audio sources.

It has too many scene cuts per minute even per second.
The facial expressions are almost completely featureless.

I don’t know if this is really bad for a kids development, but my gut feeling tells me that it’s better avoided.

Honestly, what are you expecting when you put your children in front of the TV?

That’s the one, cuteness overload, poor English, copy something but make it worse and cheaper, par for the course isn’t it.

I expect him to be entertained and hopefully learn something. I think teletubbies is an excellent show and I like the singing and dancing bit on Momo. What I’m not expecting is them to be taught horrible English.

I expect him to be entertained and hopefully learn something. I think teletubbies is an excellent show and I like the singing and dancing bit on Momo. What I’m not expecting is them to be taught horrible English.[/quote]
Liar. You like the girls on Momo, but fear not. You are not alone.

Teletubies is already pretty bad with all the baby talk.

I expect him to be entertained and hopefully learn something. I think teletubbies is an excellent show and I like the singing and dancing bit on Momo. What I’m not expecting is them to be taught horrible English.[/quote]

Children are not ‘miniature’ adults who need entertainment and learning. They are human beings at a certain stage of development who need to play all day long with parents, siblings and friends… face to face, not face to screen. I find it interesting you complain about others (here, TV entertainers) for not doing your parenting job well. May I suggest you turn this TV off and sit with them or just let them play?

I expect him to be entertained and hopefully learn something. I think teletubbies is an excellent show and I like the singing and dancing bit on Momo. What I’m not expecting is them to be taught horrible English.[/quote]

Children are not ‘miniature’ adults who need entertainment and learning. They are human beings at a certain stage of development who need to play all day long with parents, siblings and friends… face to face, not face to screen. I find it interesting you complain about others (here, TV entertainers) for not doing your parenting job well. May I suggest you turn this TV off and sit with them or just let them play?[/quote]

You must not have any children.

Are you kidding? Do you realise how much that would cost? The script is obviously written by someone with PhDs in English Literature, Education, and Navel-Gazing Studies. He’s much cleverer than those silly foreigners who just come here to steal our jobs and our women.

I wouldn’t worry too much. As ironlady said, kids actually get most of their important input from live interactions rather than passive sources, and in any case he’ll move on to different shows soon enough as his interests (and language development) develop beyond that particular one. Personally, I’d be more concerned about the shocking depiction of bad agricultural methods. How are the poor creatures supposed to survive on that sort of yield?

I expect him to be entertained and hopefully learn something. I think teletubbies is an excellent show and I like the singing and dancing bit on Momo. What I’m not expecting is them to be taught horrible English.[/quote]

Children are not ‘miniature’ adults who need entertainment and learning. They are human beings at a certain stage of development who need to play all day long with parents, siblings and friends… face to face, not face to screen. I find it interesting you complain about others (here, TV entertainers) for not doing your parenting job well. May I suggest you turn this TV off and sit with them or just let them play?[/quote]

You must not have any children.[/quote]

WOW! This is the most @#$%^* reply I could expect.
So let me reply in the same style: You must not have been a child before.

I expect him to be entertained and hopefully learn something. I think teletubbies is an excellent show and I like the singing and dancing bit on Momo. What I’m not expecting is them to be taught horrible English.[/quote]

Children are not ‘miniature’ adults who need entertainment and learning. They are human beings at a certain stage of development who need to play all day long with parents, siblings and friends… face to face, not face to screen. I find it interesting you complain about others (here, TV entertainers) for not doing your parenting job well. May I suggest you turn this TV off and sit with them or just let them play?[/quote]

You must not have any children.[/quote]

WOW! This is the most @#$%^* reply I could expect.
So let me reply in the same style: You must not have been a child before.[/quote]

Ok. Do you have any children?

@Keroliver, there are times when a parent really needs a break to get other stuff done such as housework, cooking baby’s food, preparing lunch, whatever. Please don’t judge someone by the fact that their child watches a bit of tv and it’s a little unfair to imply that someone is not doing their job as a parent by allowing their kid to watch tv. My kids watch about 30mins of tv a day but I’m lucky I have two of them and when mum or dad have to get the dinner on they entertain eachother.
I think the OP is just unhappy that this show their child loves is actually crap!

My 9 month old watches The Wiggles on the Australia Network, that way she learns proppa English with the correct accent. She’s so excited she’s jumping up and down and dancing along to the music.

She also likes watching Bloomberg or CNN with me and smiles at the presenters and claps her hands when she recognizes a face she likes.

If I put one of the kids channels on, she can’t make sense of what’s going on - talking cars, rabbits talking to bears, sponges and octopi, strange objects zooming around at a hundred miles an hour only to disappear and be replaced by another strange object before she can make sense of the previous object…?

OK, so she’s not a super-genius, so we’ll stick to The Wiggles, and the business and news channels until she can grasp the talking sponge thing and the rabbit in a spaceship issue.

The talking sponge is good stuff. Also, I recommend showing them:

  • Adventure Time
  • Phineas and Ferb
  • Gravity Falls

I expect him to be entertained and hopefully learn something. I think teletubbies is an excellent show and I like the singing and dancing bit on Momo. What I’m not expecting is them to be taught horrible English.[/quote]

Children are not ‘miniature’ adults who need entertainment and learning. They are human beings at a certain stage of development who need to play all day long with parents, siblings and friends… face to face, not face to screen. I find it interesting you complain about others (here, TV entertainers) for not doing your parenting job well. May I suggest you turn this TV off and sit with them or just let them play?[/quote]

You must not have any children.[/quote]

WOW! This is the most @#$%^* reply I could expect.
So let me reply in the same style: You must not have been a child before.[/quote]

Ok. Do you have any children?[/quote]

I have two children, 7 and 10 years old. Thank you for asking.
FYI, we don’t have TV, computer or any electric toys. When I want a rest, I sit with them and play, read or just talk.
You will have time to rest after they have left the house in less than 20 years.

Yes, it’s tough to take care of children.
But they are your children, and they need your attention, your love and your common sense!
TV (and all these very useful modern accessories) is a money making business. Who cares about your children?
Even if you consider the program is ‘good’, think about all the ads your children have been exposed to!

If you can not get it, nah, it’s ok. Keep on watching TV. Let your children enjoy the intense pleasure to sit and watch.

[quote=“irishmoe”]@Keroliver, there are times when a parent really needs a break to get other stuff done such as housework, cooking baby’s food, preparing lunch, whatever. Please don’t judge someone by the fact that their child watches a bit of tv and it’s a little unfair to imply that someone is not doing their job as a parent by allowing their kid to watch tv. My kids watch about 30mins of tv a day but I’m lucky I have two of them and when mum or dad have to get the dinner on they entertain eachother.
I think the OP is just unhappy that this show their child loves is actually crap![/quote]

May I suggest you do this other stuff altogether? Housework? Give them a broom. Cooking food? Bring him/her next to you until he can help. Wash clothes? The same. Do it together. And so on… FYI, yesterday after dinner, we prepared compost with our leftover. We don’t need TV. Neither do you.