Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Globo's Cultural Might

The Power of the media and it's influence on society is unquestionable. It effects everything from the way we communicate with each other to the very way we think and behave. A recent article from the Economist, republished in the Toronto Star, "How a TV network in Brazil has changed the idea of family" http://www.thestar.com/article/602567 brings home the point by presenting evidence that suggests "telenovelas" (soap operas), are partly responsible for several positive changes. One improvement is the lowering of fertility rates which has been linked to lower rates of domestic violence. The article does not mention whether telenovelas have influenced the way Brazilians think, speak and/or understand English. Based on anecdotal evidence, I would argue that the media is indeed influencing English fluency in Brazil. However, unlike some of the positive social trends that are credited to Global's telenovelas, their use of English in Soaps like "America", I would argue is actually a disservice. The characters in these Soaps, when speaking English, for the most part, make no attempt at pronouncing or enunciating English words as "Americans" would. Instead, they often sound like they are talking Brazilian Portuguese in every way (pitch intonation etc.), with one glaring omission. The words are unintelligible as Portuguese and only Brazilian Telenovela enthusiasts would consider them as correct English.
Global please invest more of your vast resources into English Language training whenever your soaps require someone to speak English. You have millions of people watching and listening to every word the characters on your Telenovelas utter.

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