Do original version films really help learn a language?

A month ago, Education Minister Ángel Gabilondo sparked debate when he said Spain's position at the lower echelons of EU league tables ranking member populations' ability to speak a second language was in part due to its long-standing practice of dubbing foreign-language films and television programs into Spanish.

In reality, the debate is not so much about foreign languages, but English, the global lingua franca, and the language of more than 60 percent of Spanish film and television programming.

"This is a determining factor in the knowledge of languages: in countries where fil...

A month ago, Education Minister Ángel Gabilondo sparked debate when he said Spain's position at the lower echelons of EU league tables ranking member populations' ability to speak a second language was in part due to its long-standing practice of dubbing foreign-language films and television programs into Spanish.

In reality, the debate is not so much about foreign languages, but English, the global lingua franca, and the language of more than 60 percent of Spanish film and television programming.

"This is a determining factor in the knowledge of languages: in countries where films are not dubbed, people speak English better," said the minister.

Since then, the Madrid Association of Dubbing Actors (Adoma), which has some 30,000 members, has weighed in, along with the Cinema Institute (ICAA).

Carlos Ysbert is mainly concerned with protecting the jobs of Adoma's 30,000 members, while Carlos Cuadros, the ICAA's newly appointed head, sees the debate as a chance to end the practice of dubbing.

"More than 80 percent of people want dubbing," says Ysbert, adding: "We may take away an actor's voice, but in return we make him popular." He says that the dubbing debate comes up "every five or 10 years."

According to Cuadros: "We are very pleased to see debate on this question. It reflects the maturity of a country that aspires to cultural development. And that depends on education: society has to step out of its comfort zone.

"That said, I would add that we have a lot of support within the dubbing world."

Ysbert, who dubs the voice of Homer in the US TV show The Simpsons, says he supports any effort to widen the public's choice when it comes to seeing a movie. "But I don't know where Cuadros gets the idea that we agree with his proposals. We met him a week ago and told him that what this country needs to do is improve the teaching of foreign languages in school."

At the same time, Cuadros says that it will take many years before dubbing is a thing of the past.

"This will take at least 15 years. It is a process that has more to do with television than cinema. We need political consensus - we are talking about changing the way that we communicate," says Cuadros.

Judging by the comments of the two main parties' culture spokesmen in Congress, the Popular Party's José María Lasalle and the Socialist Party's José Andrés Torres Mora, Spain's politicians are in no hurry.

"We will look at this in the long term," says Lasalle.

"This is a delicate moment, and we shouldn't stir things up," concurs Torres Mora.

Spain is far from alone in continuing to dub the overwhelming majority of foreign language films: in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium it is impossible to see foreign-language movies in their original version outside a few major cities.

But most people working in Spanish cinema, particularly distributors, say that it will be difficult to win audiences round to watching foreign films in their original version.

"We are still very green," says Josetxo Moreno of film distribution company Golem. "We have studied what happens when we launch a film simultaneously in original version and dubbed. The dubbed film is much more popular. So however much I might prefer it otherwise, especially after seeing the films we distribute in their original version myself at festivals, people prefer to watch them dubbed," he says.

Like many others in the industry, Enrique González Macho of Alta Films, a pioneer in distributing original language foreign films, says that movies are not to blame for Spaniards' failure to learn foreign languages properly. "Cinema is to blame for everything, right? You learn a language not because you hear it, but because you study it properly. And anyway," he asks, "how much time do people spend in the cinema, and how much time watching television?"

But as the education minister has pointed out, cinema's impact on learning a foreign language is minimal: Spaniards go to the cinema on average three times a year; that's around 360 minutes of potential exposure to English.

Instead, the average person in this country spends 300 minutes per day watching the television. So surely the debate on dubbing should involve the television channels?

Jorge Corral, the spokesman for UTECA, which represents Spain's private television channels, says that his members have not been asked to join the debate on dubbing. "If only we had been contacted about this, because we have taken measures, such as giving viewers the option to watch programs in their original language," he says.

Eva Cebrián, who heads Spanish state television TVE's film programming department, says that TVE has no plans yet to systematically broadcast films in their original language. She says that distributors in Spain must take the first step by showing more original-version films in cinemas.

Ramón Gómez Fabra, the head of the Spanish Federation of Cinema Entrepreneurs - the body that represents the country's 3,000 cinemas, with a market share of 90 percent - says that the film industry has other problems to deal with.

"This is a poor country, and the film market is difficult," he says. "The last thing we need is to get involved in the debate about showing films in the original version."

Cinema attendance, he adds, has fallen more sharply in Spain than anywhere in Europe.