It took me and N 15 years since we emigrated to lose the need for Russian-language TV. As everybody knows, the deepest need of an immigrant is for the home country food and the second deepest is for the home country television.
But we watched our last Russian TV series in 2014 and never felt the need since then.
However, my love for Latin American soap operas that brought me to this continent and into a career in Hispanic Studies (seriously, it’s no joke) continues unabated. I’m finishing my current novela called La taxista (A Cab Driver) and looking for a new one.
My favorite telenovela back in Ukraine was Venezuelan, made in 1995. I never finished watching it because I emigrated. This was back when Venezuela could make soap operas and not only create horror stories like right now. It’s unbelievable how something as silly as a soap opera completely changed my life.
I am addicted to Turkish dizi and have even figured out where in metro Istanbul I would like to live and where I would take Turkish lessons.
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“addicted to Turkish dizi”
Turkish telenovelas have largely displaced Latin American ones in Poland… I remember decades ago reading an article (maybe in the Christian Science Monitor) about how culturally influential Mexican telenovelas were in places like Turkey and South Korea, both of which have gone on to become major soap opera powers on their own.
I used to have a channel that showed South Korean soaps (with English and Chinese subs) but they don’t anymore… they were…. sometimes disorienting but often great fun.
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The Korean ones are supposed to be great. Now Mexico and Colombia buy novelas from Turkey to dub and remake
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Some 15 years ago, I started watching telenovelas to learn Spanish. One of them “Hasta que el dinero nos separe” was a comedy and one of my favorites shows ever. I did it for about 3 years, then I went back to work and had no time for anything. I started with basically no knowledge of Spanish, now I can read short stories, watch movies, listen to the radio. Knowing a new language is like getting a new freedom. I don’t have any TV channels now. I wish Netflix had telenovelas. I feel like I finally have the time to commit to some 300 episodes.
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I wish my students understood this. It’s the best exercise for listening comprehension and day-to-day vocabulary.
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Any Spanish-language shows you’d recommend as appropriate for children? I’d like my kids to get more practice listening to people actually speaking Spanish, but there are some content issues for six-year-olds, and the specifically-kids’ shows I’ve run across are… awful.
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I’d watch Dora la Exploradora on Univisa on Saturdays. I love Dora.
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I dunno. I can’t stand Dora in English I was kind of hoping for something non-animated, where people have something like normal conversations with each other?
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I’ve never seen it in English. Perhaps that’s the key. The language probably sounds dumb when it’s your native language but if you have to strain yourself to understand it’s just fine. And they repeat everything over and over and over.
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Point taken. I’ll take a look and see.
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Have you ever checked out Korean dramas?
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I’m not interested if I don’t speak the original language. I only watch for the language.
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