English spoken (not) here!

When I visited Athens, not long ago, I noticed that contrary to Paris, most people under 40 speak some English at least and you always find someone willing to use the little English they know and a lot of them actually speak it quite well.

This is definitely not the case in Paris. There are many reasons – mostly cultural ones – why the French tend to not speak English but one thing is certain is that exposure is a key element to language learning, and the fact is that French (especially teenagers) are actually hardly ever exposed to movies or TV shows in English – everything being dubbed.

When you turn on your TV in Greece, you have a movie in English with Greek subtitles just about every night. In Scandinavian countries they don't even show the subtitles. Even in French speaking Belgium, you see more movies in English than you do in France. This may not change everything and it would certainly nor turn the French into fluent English speakers but it would help some. Being exposed to English on a regular basis certainly helps.

The problem is that most French seem very unwilling to make the effort. While becoming more popular, cable television shows fewer and fewer movies and shows in V.O. (Original Version i.e. in English with subtitles) and just about everything is dubbed.

Recently France launched a somewhat ambitious Digital Terrestrial Television or D.T.T (Télévision Numérique Terrestre in French). It allows digital television to be broadcast entirely over earthbound circuits. As a result it offers a clearer picture, superior sound quality with less interference than analog TV but above all, it offers far more channels AND the possibility of choice of languages for the different programs. But no, all the programs so far are dubbed. Even the French-German channel ARTE, the ‘artzy’ channel for a sophisticated audience, shows fewer and fewer programs in 'V.O.'.

This is really not going the right way, and yet it would seem a fairly inexpensive way to expose people to a language greatly need in today’s world.