Remember watching Beverly Hills 90210 on Simulcast?
For the youngsters and the non-South Africans, let me explain. Beverly Hills 90210 was a show based in the USA, in English. But for broadcast in South Africa it was dubbed into Afrikaans. And for those who wanted to listen to it in English, there was a radio broadcast of the show, in English, at the same time as the show was aired on TV. So you could tune in your radio, turn off the TV sound, and listen to the show in English. Sometimes the speech and pictures would get a bit out of sinc, but that was just par for the course. Some TVs even came with "simulcast" radio featues, where the TV itself could be tuned in to the radio and you could get your sound from the radio station automatically.
Remember?
Now lets think about this for a moment. The programme came over to us from the US in English. We then dubbed it into Afrikaans and broadcast it in Afrikaans. And made secondary provision for those who wanted to listen to it in English.
Wow, what a mission.
But it just goes to show that people were serious about promoting their language. And it also goes to show that it is quite possible to find innovative ways of including many languages, if we care to do it.
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3 comments:
Ah yes - simulcast! We were talking about that the other day. My dad always had to get the radio so he could watch the rugby in English. Simulcast is quite a strange concept when you think about it - I wonder if they still do it in other countries?
I noticed that in many countries in Europe, like France and the Czech Republic, instead of just adding subtitles, they actually dub all the Hollywood movies and TV shows into their own language, and then add English subtitles. I'm sure it must take a lot of time and money to do all that - but I guess it shows that they take a lot of pride in their language.
Wow Laura that brings back memories. As a child when I used to watch cartoons on TV2 (SABC1) it was simulcast in Sotho. Ya Beverly hills 90210 I watched in Afrikaans because I am afrikaans speaking but refused to watch ALF in Afrikaans.
Those are the days.
Farrel Wentzel
Hearhery! I know, I wonder if they do it anywhere else in the world? Or is it a peculiar South Afican invention??
Farrel, I used to refuse to watch Liewe Heksie because it was in Afrikaans!! My mother tried to encourage me to (I think she thought it would help me learn Afrikaans) but I just was not interested!
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