NationStates Jolt Archive

The exclaimation mark did it for me: I had to tune in to see what constitutes Armenian Saturday-night primetime T.V. :)

It's a sort of hobby of mine to do this - if you live in a multi-ethnic metropolitan area, as I always have, you probably have dozens of chances each day to check out what kind of t.v. programming your neighbors are watching, and to learn a little about what makes them tick culturally in the process. If I'm intrigued by what I see, I like to do some reading about what I've seen and sometimes learn a bit of the language so I can understand a little more each week. Sometimes I don't learn much, but other times I learn things that make me ashamed not to have known them in the first place!

So my question is: do you ever tune in to the local programming of your foreign-born neighbors? Who lives near you? What are their programs like? Have you seen or learned anything interesting?

--- Intermission ---

Sorry about the length. There's no need to read further unless you're especially interested in Armenian t.v. ;) But please share stories!

--- Act II ---

So tonight, I learned that:

My neighborhood has an Armenian theater! This month it's featuring a man playing a double-reeded woodwind instrument that I had never heard of - and I've been playing woodwind instruments since I was a kid! Turns out the guy is Dijvan Gasparyan, a world-famous musician who did some of the music for the movie "Gladiator," among other things. He plays the duduk.

Here's a bit of him playing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDmeeGXip6U

It looks like a recorder with two alto sax-width reeds at the mouth, but sounds like something I can't quite describe. I would think an instrument that short would be higher pitched, like an oboe, but he gets an amazing tone out of it. It's impressive, to say the least.

The main feature tonight on Armenian Entertainment was a pretty standard-seeming soap opera or short film. 90% of communication is non-verbal, right? I believe so, anyway. I think I "understood" the show, even if I didn't "understand" it exactly. What stuck me is that the Armenian language apparently has an amazing range of possible accents. The young man and his kids spoke with very little "accent" (from my perspective) and an American English-type cadence, while the middle-aged man spoke almost entirely from the back of his throat, almost like throat singing, with some gurgle. Another woman sounded like she was speaking Polish, and was the only one in the family to speak with any "szcz" sound that I could tell, and the mother (I think) sounded almost French with her intonation. Wild, yeah? :)

So that's a little bit of what I learned about several thousand of my neighbors in 60 minutes. Not that I'm an expert now, but given that the only Armenian I knew before tonight (besides some kids I went to school with) was Aram Khachaturian, I consider it time well-spent! I hope I'm not alone in my enthusiasm for local programming - it really is a window to the world, I believe.

Edit: Poll Option 2 looks a lot like Poll Option 4. The difference is that you may be exposed to ethnic t.v. regularly, say, if you have relatives from another culture. If you watch it with them but think it's "gibberish" as some people I know do, the that would be option 2.

So my question is: do you ever tune in to the local programming of your foreign-born neighbors?

Yes, yes I do SBS is the main channel I watch which shows programs from all over the world.

Of course it could be said that the American and British TV shows that I watch are also foreign.

I also watch many foreign films that's not including those foreign films out of the USA which I enjoy and many a quite good.

Who lives near you?

Well first there is Jim down the road....

No really, I have an old Greek couple living next door to me, whom I enjoy talking with as they have many stories of their lives and of Greek culture and of the country, there are a few Yanks, a few poms, some South Africans some Asians amongst others.

What are their programs like?

Some excellent viewing though some isn't that great a lot is much better than some of the American shit that many of our channels broadcast and for some reason people enjoy it.

Have you seen or learned anything interesting?

Yes it gives an insight into the culture especially the documentaries it also helped me develop my German.

i live in new mexico. we get half a dozen (maybe fewer since i dont watch them) "local" spanish language tv stations. i catch sabado gigante at the inlaws house now and then.

there is a navajo radio station out of arizona but i have to be farther west than this to hear it. i dont know what they are saying but it seems to be typical radio announcer talk given that some of the words are in english.

We get two Spanish channels, but most of them are just soap operas (telenovelas?). Not really interested.

When I lived in Northern Virginia, the housemates and I would turn on the Nasa channel on Saturday morning to help cope with the hangovers we were nursing.

After about half an hour of watching space (no sound, so it was pretty easy on the hungover psyche), we'd swich over to Azerbaijani TV, which as far as we could tell was a guy in a turban playing a sithar whenver they were on the air.
We had no idea what he said in between songs, but we always had cravings for naan and hummus after watching that. Good times!

When I lived in Northern Virginia, the housemates and I would turn on the Nasa channel on Saturday morning to help cope with the hangovers we were nursing.
It's such a pleasant watching experience, isn't it? Everyone's so polite and cordial, thanking their team-mates and ground-crew for every last thing.

And you get t see cool space-walks.

Living in HK I have the choice of cable and terrestrial. I'll admit to watching cable more, if only because it runs the Premiership - I'm watching Aston Villa play Liverpool now - but I have to watch terrestrial to keep up with the local news.

HK is quite an inward looking city, it has its own film and music industry that is good enough to enter the wider world, from Bruce Lee to Chow Yun Fat and directors such as Wong Kar Wai etc., It has a lively political scene and plenty of criminal intrigue - The Departed was based on a HK movie.

So just knowing international news would cut me off from everyone I work with and hang around with.

It's hard, I wasn't brought up here so I don't have many cultural touch points, those news stories that make up a city/country's history.

I was thinking the other day of all those stories that happen around the world, that bind communities and how much we must miss living within our own culture.

Can't really answer the poll...
Filipino stations - not so much
Japanese programs - yes
Korean programs - yes
Hawaiian Programs - not alot
Local Programs - Yes
Chinese programs - hit or miss

Can't really answer the poll...
Filipino stations - not so much
Japanese programs - yes
Korean programs - yes
Hawaiian Programs - not alot
Local Programs - Yes
Chinese programs - hit or miss

Neat! And don't worry about the poll. :tongue:

I haven't seen any Hawaiian programming. What's that like? We do get a good deal of Korean and Filipino t.v. here. The Korean is a bit hard to understand (for me at least) but the Filipino is interesting, I think. I like Game Ka Na Ba, the quiz show on The Filipino Channel. Given the number of English words they use, you can usually play along, and the questions are often related to American movies or t.v., interestingly. :)

I grew up in Fresno, CA. I went to school with Armenians, had Armenian neighbors and took Armenian Studies at Fresno State College (Cal. State Fresno, now). I even learned a couple of phrases in Armenian, but I never tuned in to Armenian TV. I guess I missed something.

I have tuned into Japanese TV, where I was introduced to The Yagu Conspiracy and a couple of semi-historical accounts of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Those were interesting, if only you could ignore the English subtitles. Japanese game shows are hysterical and, occasionally, embarrasing.