World Cup and random conversations

[gusl]

Aside from Brazil's usual lackluster performance, I'm really happy with this World Cup so far, as most of the exciting teams are qualifying, and the boring giants falling out, and the refereeing is above par. (You'd have to go back to 1998 or 2002 to actually see Brazil playing well)

The best thing about watching games on Commercial Drive is having nice conversations with people that I'd never have otherwise (bus conversations are typically too short). Most of them are immigrants, and I identify with their bicultural background.

I still dislike most of the culture surrounding sports fandom, and I avoid the loud and rowdy crowds, but there are still interesting individuals and groups to meet, with whom I can feel some camaraderie.

By the way, I have a visceral preference for the francophone TV commentators, even though I understand them less. The anglophone ones tend to be British and quite competent, but their flat and sparse narration fails to communicate enthusiasm, danger, urgency, etc. In comparison, their Romance counterparts are overly emotional and can't shut up... which communicates a lot more.

One pet peeve: CBC is broadcasting one game at a time, without any live information on the other game, so as not to spoil the experience for those who want to watch the other game later... but the simultaneity is by design! The teams themselves are hearing about the other game, and adjusting their strategy accordingly. So I'm on the Internet, visualizing the possibilities in my head.

Comments

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

You're not watching the ones in Spanish?!?

Even non-Spanish speakers listen to the Spanish announcers. If you want enthusiasm, urgency, enthusiasm, and more enthusiasm, listen to Spanish-language futbol!

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Being in Canada with basic cable, I don't get Spanish TV (to my knowledge) :-p

[rdore.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I was going to ask which is more available in Vancouver, Spanish or French media. Because I have no intuition on what the answer should be. I guess similarly, which one do you actually run into more of?

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

#1 English
#2 French / Chinese

There are a couple of Chinese radio stations, but no TV station that I know of. I've not seen any Spanish radio or TV stations.

[rdore.livejournal.com]

Duh, I should have guessed there was plenty of Chinese. When I tried picking up broadcast TV here, I got more channels in Asian languages (combined) than in English.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

here?

[rdore.livejournal.com]

Berkeley

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

So you were picking up over-the-air TV signals in Berkeley, and you found more Asian languages than English? How is this possible??

[rdore.livejournal.com]

The only channels I could pick up in English were two of the four major networks (CBS and Fox), and some PBS channel. OTOH, I picked up at least a couple channels in each of Japanese and Chinese (not sure which -- I don't know how to tell them apart). It may also be that those channels are not always Japanese or Chinese, I didn't go back to check.

My guess at the technical explanation is that Asian language channels are based in SF, whereas, say, the NBC and ABC antennas are somewhere farther away (south bay maybe). That's just wild speculating, however.

My guess at the economic situation is that almost all English viewers, especially those worth selling to advertisers, have basic cable. However, there may be enough Chinese/Japanese viewers that dropping a modest signal in SF is profitable, and I'm close enough to SF to pick it up. (Overall, the percentage of Americans with at least basic cable is something insane like 90%, and it's probably even higher for English speaking bay area residents.)

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Japanese and Chinese are really easy to distinguish. Japanese is very syllable-based, sorta like Spanish, with sounds like "chi" and "tsu". Chinese has tones and a sound similar to the English "r", and lots of sounds like "j"/"ch", "way", and "ang"/"ing"/"ong".

[rdore.livejournal.com]

Yea, I can tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese. What I meant is I can't tell the different kinds of Chinese.