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The benefits of learning Spanish

29/12/2014

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As a student of languages, I would always urge anyone to take up a second language. Not only

is it an enjoyable and fulfilling experience, it has also been proved to increase your brain 

capacity and memory. As an extremely passionate student of the Spanish language and 

Hispanic culture, I have been asked many times just why I enjoy it so much and why I believe it 

is such a good choice of language to learn.

Firstly, after Mandarin Chinese, Spanish is the second most natively spoken language in the 

world, being the national or an official language in 23 countries including Spain, Argentina, 

Mexico and Cuba, and is also a commonly spoken language in a number of other countries 

including the USA, Brazil and Italy, bringing the combined estimated total of Spanish speakers 

to around 500 million. Spanish is a major language in 3 continents, unlike Mandarin Chinese 

which is only widely spoken in China.

Many of the Spanish speaking countries have truly fascinating cultures making them wonderful 

places to visit. Learning the language will enable you to communicate with the locals, enriching 

the experience of a visit to almost all countries in Central and South America, some of the 

Caribbean Islands and Spain.

Spanish is considered one of the easiest languages to learn for native English speakers. This is 

because pronunciation rules are consistent. It is an almost phonetically perfect language; every 

letter of every word is pronounced and there are no silent letters. This also makes it much 

easier to spell Spanish words. As a romance language, the ability to speak Spanish makes the 

process of learning any other romance language, for example Portuguese and Romanian, much 

easier. 

It is also an extremely accessible language. In the last decade the amount of Spanish courses 

available has hugely increased, with lessons being offered in every level. There has also been an 

increase in the demand for the media to be delivered in Spanish; many websites, newspapers 

and magazines are now translated into Spanish, mainly due to the huge Hispanic population 

within the USA, greatly increasing the availability of resources useful to those people learning 

Spanish.

Many Spanish speaking countries are undergoing huge economic growth and so are attracting 

lots of interest from English speaking countries, meaning there are constantly exciting new job 

opportunities being made available to those who are bilingual in English and Spanish. So, if you 

are thinking of taking up a second language but are unsure which to choose, I would definitely 

recommend considering the numerous benefits of choosing Spanish. The wonderful new 

cultures that you can experience, it’s fairly simple grammar and phonetics, and it’s ability to 

open up thousands of job opportunities, are just a few of the advantages that cannot be 

ignored.
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What You Need to Know about Voiceover in Film or TV Shows

11/12/2014

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A voiceover is a method of audiovisual translation where the new soundtrack is carried out by several people or one person with absolutely no attempt at lip-synchronisation. The original sound is either very low or not heard at all. In some cases, the original sound is heard at the beginning and the end of the speech.

There is a very thin line between a voiceover and narration. While narration is a translation of the whole programme, a voiceover may refer to a single monologue. Voiceovers are usually done by specialist voice actors or by someone who appears elsewhere in the production, and is commonly used in news reports, documentaries and films.

Important facts about voiceover

One important aspect of voiceovers and other methods of re-voicing are that the language of the original production is usually foreign to the intended audience, thus necessitating an interpretation. Whether the interpretation is executed perfectly or not usually depends on the experience of the voice actor, his level of proficiency in a foreign language and how well he understands the cultural setting of the film/production and the characters.

Voiceovers have existed for a long time and have been used in many films and TV productions for foreign audiences across the globe. However, they have not received significant attention like other modes of audiovisual translations like dubbing and subtitles. However, they are easy to write and sometimes very direct and don’t require a lot of resources and time. The actor’s voice is recorded over the original soundtrack, and the narrator doesn’t have to lip-synch the original speakers or rely on any visuals as he does the translation.

Voiceovers have a few problems though. They are often riddled with errors of translation because non-native speakers may face difficulties in understanding foreign language vernacular, culture references and idioms. As such, some important content is usually lost in the process. This might be disastrous if the lost content was critical to the interview/film or documentary. Translation problems may cause confusion to viewers by giving the unintended impression. They may also fail to bring out the necessary emphasis or appropriate emotions.

It is important to note that even the most experienced voiceover translators are not 100% accurate. Highly regarded translators have in a number of occasions made translation errors. However, many people contend that the creativity of a good interpreter can make a film much more fun to watch.

Preferences of audiences across the world mainly depend on the kind of audiovisual practices they are used to. Viewers in subtitling countries will usually prefer a subtitle and the same is true for those in dubbing countries. Other factors that may influence the attitude of viewers include education, age and social-economic class. The younger and well educated populations will usually prefer subtitles and not the dubbed version because reading is not a problem to them.

Since the beginning of this mode of production, males have dominated the scene especially because of their close association with power and conveyance of truth and perspective. However, things are changing, and women are slowly finding their way into the world of voiceover narration.
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