I like the situation in Romania, where television shows and movies aren't dubbed, they are broadcast in original language with subtitles. Might do a world of good if Spain and Germany (and France?) did the same.
Most high schools in Europe have mandatory foreign language classes, primarily English. I think a pidgin European English is on its way to being developed already. It's just primarily spoken by the younger generation and politicians tend to be older.
Chirac and Schroeder and I think maybe even Berlusconi and Putin speak English. Does Merkozy or Merkel? I don't know.
Pax Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian
On dubbing: it's rather similar to simultran in that subtitles (which I always prefer even when I don't understand a word of the original soundtrack), demand concentration, and most people want easy listening/viewing from their TV. Good dubbing (and movie dubbing in France is, with a few exceptions, first-rate) can bring things to the attention of a much wider audience.
Either way, translation is not just a technical word-for-word exchange. It always bears a more or less important layer of cultural transfer, by which I mean that entire elements may be transposed into frames which are readily understandable by the target cultural group. Who the furriners are, and what frames they think in, may get fogged in the process.
In other words, whether you simultran, subtitle, or dub, the result in terms of genuine exchange of ideas depends hugely on the intention (make it easy or make it right?) and the expertise of the translator. Same would be true of more ambitious automatic tran software. It's the quality of the human expertise that goes into software that makes it good. (I still regret that artificial intelligence and expert systems, which were supposed to be the coming thing in the late 1980s, got scrapped because of high R&D costs and because Bill Gates had a fortune to make forcing everyone to pay a toll for his pretty stupid software.)
Merkozy and Sarkel? (If those two get in, which God forbid, I think that's what we'll have to call them ;-)) Sarkozy likes to show he speaks English. I imagine Merkel speaks it too.
This is also a deeper reason why 'artificially intelligent' translation based on the symbolic manipulation of abstract concepts can, like AI in general, only go so far. I think it's clear at this point that it's not just a question of funding. (I agree that MS programs are pretty stupid, BTW; and paradoxically, in part because they try so hard to be 'smart' that they end up just being infuriatingly paternalistic vis-a-vis the user. A direct result of misguided 'AI' thinking). The world's northernmost desert wind.
A knowledge of English confers great social cachet in most segments of German society, not just among those with higher education. As just one example, trash talkshow host Stefan Raab makes a point of chatting with his anglophone B-list popstar guests in English, live and on camera.
Sarkozy... I don't know why, but my immediate association is "sarcoma". The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
The "English" programs over here are such an abominable laughing stock that I'm often asked to fill out my cousin's and nephews take-home examination papers all the way up to the University level.
After about 8 years of studying "English", I have a nephew (one of the brighter ones) who still can't formulate a complte and comprehensible sentence in English. They earn how to count up to one hundered, rotely repeat a few cordialities and idednditfy a few objects like "the table", "the book" or "the light.
I have to reeducate them constantly.
As far as their attitude to English is concerned, it can be summed up micely be the words of another college-age nephew of mine: "Ahhh, I donìt need it for my work (civil law) anyway." And, of course, I had to admit that she was quite right!!
Why don't the authorities do something about it? Oh right. Berlusconi and his neo-fascist friends have other priorities, I guess. The world's northernmost desert wind.
