Russian TV

I have a television in my room. There’s one in the kitchen, and Galina has a big flat screen in the lounge. This means that there is a lot of opportunity to watch TV. I take that opportunity most chances I can get. This is kind of odd for me, as I never used to watch that much at home. But it has become part of my routine and part of my study. Listening to spoken Russian is just as important as reading it, doing my homework or having conversations – I learn new words, correct pronunciation, stress, grammar, and get to see a few good programmes.
First off, there are more channels to watch in Kazan than in Auckland; at least 15 at last count. They vary between the seemingly nationwide First channel, to news, sport and regional channels. There is something there for most tastes. Provided, of course, you understand Russian; living in Tatarstan, theoretically there are two official languages, but I’ve yet to find a broadcast in Tatar.
Naturally, I have some favourite programmes, as well as a favourite channel. For comedies, I will watch Univer, Наша Russia, and Смеш без Правило (Laughter without Rules). Univer is a Russian variation on Friends, and is set in a university hostel (I think in St-P). The new boy moves into the hostel and shares a room with two stereotypes, one sports-obsessed student and one persistent joker. Across the hall are two girls, the blonde is interested in the highlife and the other a more serious student. The new boy is the son of an oligarch, and this actor plays his part well. It’s worth watching just to see his facial expressions. Tuesday there was a 9 hour marathon, and my bum lasted 4½ hours before I had to go for a walk. But it was good, and fun, and I learnt the back story because I’d missed the first few episodes.
Наша Russia takes the mickey out of Russia and Russians mercilessly. It follows a number of stereotypes in a series of skits, and nobody escapes the barbs. Смеш без Правило is a showcase for new/young stand-up comedians operating under theatre sports rules. I may not understand most of it, but the good ones worth the effort. All these shows are on TNT, whatever that is an abbreviation of.
For main news, I watch channel Vesti, which is basically the Russian version of CNN. If my social life was worse, I’d watch more of this channel, as it has magazine programmes sprinkled through its broadcast on such things as space exploration, sport, and other things of interest. Somebody tell Matt they have a website, www.vesti.ru, which is also in English and should contain articles on cosmonautics. They also give weather reports, but I think their estimates are for “now”, and not tomorrow.
For weather, I prefer to rely on Kazan’s REN TV. It gives accurate forecasts for the Tatarstan Republic and Kazan. The presenters are an interesting couple (they swap every few days). He is about 55, stout, dresses casually and always starts with “Evening good” (of course, he says this in Russian, with that word order, most Russians would say “good evening”). After giving the forecast he then celebrates the birthday of some famous son of the Republic, giving a potted history of their career. I get the impression he knows most of them personally. She is also at least 50, wears Tatar national costume, I think, and is a big girl. My guess is size 20 and a J-cup. If she ever turned side-on, she would blot out half the map. Not something you would see on NZ TV.
Naturally, the Russians don’t produce enough local product to fill all the channels, and imported programmes fill the gaps. These are almost always dubbed into Russian. One annoying feature is that the dubbing is an over-dub with the original dialogue still there. The over-dub often doesn’t completely obliterate the original, resulting in some aural confusion. One film I watched was in French, Polish, Swedish and Russian originally, but we got to see it totally in Russian with snatches of the other languages overlapping the Russian – weird. I’ve found a channel that has Buffy, Angel and Firefly. I’d watch, but I’m just channel-surfing in the ad-breaks during the news, or weather, or something.
I don’t watch much sport, but the local football, basketball, ice hockey and volleyball teams are all doing well. Kazan “Rubin” (Ruby) has won the premier league championship and is in one semi-final of the league cup. The ice hockey team, AK Bars (“Ak” is Tatar for white, and “bars” is either a snow leopard or a winged leopard, I’ve yet to confirm this point) is second in the national league and have a good chance of winning it. But coverage is patchy and I haven’t bothered buying a local TV guide.
All this TV watching falls loosely under the title of “study” or advanced language acquisition. Want to improve your foreign language comprehension? Watch soap operas – they take five minutes covering the one point, and repetition is always useful. Got told my Russian had improved a lot today, compared to a month ago. Felt quite chuffed.
Next post: Culture.