Watching videos
Whilst I was in Naryn this month I took the trouble to go through some of the video cassettes and CDs that we have up there.
Some of these, especially the ones in English, are my own which I bought back in the UK on my various visits home when I first came out here – a sort of reminder or contact with home. Others we have bought here. Most of these, of course, are in Russian – but, by no means all of them. For a time it was possible to buy video cassettes in English, presumably stocked by the shops with either the ex-pat market in mind, or else students learning English and eager for materials to help them – these cassettes are usually the ones with subtitles in either English or Russian. (There used to be a small market in English language books – often abridged or with simple notes – published in Moscow and targeted at the same clientele).
The idea of putting the videos up in the guesthouse was quite simple. I remember being in hotels in various places around the world and wondering how to fill the long evening hours after the evening meal. Of course it is nice to go out for a meal, or for a walk afterwards, but that’s not always possible. There are cafés and restaurants in Naryn, but not that many, and not all of them are in easy walking distance from the guesthouse. Of course, it is possible to go out for a walk, but there are a limited number of options for this, especially during the short cold nights from autumn, through winter into spring.
What is more, although it is true that most of our guests throughout the year stay for just the one night, others are there for a lot longer. It may well be that most of these have people to see, work to do, or books to read, to help them occupy their time. Even, so the long evenings can sometimes be hard to fill.
So, we provided a number of board games, playing cards, and then of course there is the ubiquitous television. The problem with that option is that there are only three local channels available – in Russian or Kyrgyz. We have a satellite dish and are able to get a number of channels in different languages, but once again, the choice is limited. So we decided to put some of our small, personal, collection of video cassettes into the guesthouse and let guests choose if they wanted to watch them – free of charge.
In fact, the cassettes get very little use and, to be honest, I probably watch more of them on my regular monthly visits than the guests do.
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Now, I can, and do, watch films in Russian, whether they are Russian films, or foreign films which have been dubbed into Russian.
It is possible to watch a lot of films from other countries here, (e.g. France, Germany, China, India …when I first came here, Bollywood was very popular, but less so nowadays … not forgetting from the US and Britain), either in the cinema, on TV or on disc. Over the years I have watched with pleasure many where the film has been dubbed into Russian.
Just occasionally there is a film which is presented in its original language version, but with subtitles in Russian – for example, I enjoyed watching the Seven Samurai, in Japanese, but with Russian subtitles.
The worst possible variant, however, is where the soundtrack is provided in the form of simultaneous, synchronous translation. The problem is that the Russian translation is read over the original soundtrack, which is still audible – albeit faintly. Sometimes, there is only one voice translating all the parts, which makes it difficult to follow who is saying what, to whom. Often it is a case that they are just “reading the lines” without any form of emotion or “acting”. What’s worse is that, because it is just possible to hear the original, (English), dialogue in the background, both it and the Russian versions interfere with, and distract from, one another. Over the years, I have got used to trying to concentrate my attention on listening to just the one version and shutting out the other – and it’s the Russian version that’s easier to listen for, but there is always a great temptation to try and turn up the volume to see if you can make sense out of the English, (but if you do this, then all you succeed in doing is make the Russian louder … and you still cannot follow the conversation.)
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However, as Russian is not my native language, it involves more work and effort in order to follow the dialogue. Sometimes the language used is unfamiliar and although I may understand the gist of what is being said, it is possible that I miss important points of the conversation. Then again, the sound quality or special sound effects make it difficult to follow the dialogue.
So, to be honest, I would still prefer wherever possible to watch films where the dialogue is in English. Obviously, a film where the original language is English is ideal, (such as a British or American film), but I am more than happy with a film that has been dubbed, or even subtitled, in English.
In theory, in these days of CDs and DVDs, life is a lot simpler. Often, it is possible to buy a DVD with several language versions of the sound track, or subtitles, available. I say, “in theory”, however, because the CD’s are nearly all pirated versions and only contain Russian language versions, (of variable quality), and many of the DVDs available here are produced by studios based in the CIS and so the language versions on them may well be a choice between Russian and Ukrainian or Kazakh – with no English. As a result, I always have to check the box carefully and, (if there is no English version available), ask myself if I am prepared to make the additional effort to sit and watch this, or that, film in Russian.
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Perhaps that is one reason why it is harder for foreign films to be successful in the British and American markets. Apart from the fact that the subject matter is often more “arty”, we just too lazy to cope with the extra work involved in watching “foreign” films.
Bishkek