Does watching a show in another language change drastically the way we see it? (movies, films)
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I started watching a Buffy episode in French this morning after waking up from a nightmare. It is a kind of a self diagnostic since if I was still dreaming, I ought to be hearing, understanding the French in crystal clarity. Fortunately, I did not (DOGGONE IT!It would be nice if I could reactivate those years of high school lessons).
Watching this first season episode in a foreign language, seems to make it much more romantic. I feel more like the art student at the old universe who also does ballet.
Now, we might say, "Well, French is the language of love" but at one point, I was briefly hit with the image that I was watching a Spanish love film even though French was still being spoken.
Or it just may be me since I do have backgrounds of art history and doing ballet at old universities, just not all together at the same time, that they came bubbling to the surface.
But is it possible that hearing something familiar in another language really does make us see it in a whole different light?
Or it just may be that the various fantasies I play, here and there in reality, activated on this particular trigger...............................which means that my self diagnostic is worthless and I still might be dreaming, after all!
Language absolutely influences the way we think and perceive. The average person has no idea of how much their use of language influences and in-forms their opinion and awareness of their universe. When I watch French films with English subtitles I am often distressed at how the intent of a phrase is missed or manipulated in the translation.
Dan Simmons penned a poet's speech in the sci-fi novel "Hyperion" that is alone worth the price of the book. In part, it reads:
"You see, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was made flesh in the weave of the human universe. And only the poet can expand this universe, finding shortcuts to new realities..." The "Word" is the ability of language to symbolically represent aspects of existence. Every symbol, every word, every literary construction selects a portion of existence to offer, examine, and present as a gift of transfer of idea between people. Different languages shade and color those transfers. The absence of gender-neutral objects in French implies a dance of masculin/feminin even between inanimate objects.
Just got done with the episode and was doing it without subtitles because, after all, the purpose was to "test my sound channels".
As to the "girl" or "fille", they were saying that. It just may be a name or the way it is dubbed. Buffy was singing "Macho Man" with English words as well. Further, as I said in https://www.city-data.com/forum/tv/22...-odd-btvs.html
Willow calls Xander a different name than what I would expect in French.
I watch a lot of Korean television dramas and horror movies. For me, watching a movie in a foreign language makes me pay more attention.
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