Bad Dubs

Written on 10/19/11

I remember when I used to be obsessed with Anime in high school and I’d have these discussions about bad dubs with my other Otaku friends. We’d complain about how bad this voice actor or that voice actor was and how it would be so much better if we could just watch shows with subtitles.

Now living in Georgia, I realize that no bad dub I saw back then could ever compare with the terrible dubbing of Georgian TV. Nearly every drama, cartoon and movie on TV comes from abroad. Most are American, but Spanish and French language dramas also seem to be popular as well. Georgian TV dubs all of these, but perhaps for budgetary reasons or other reasons, instead of removing the original voices and getting voice actors to recreate the dialogues, they merely lower the original voice soundtrack and speak over it. The Georgian voices sound as if they are being read from a script without seeing the actual program, as there is no emotion portrayed in any character’s voice. Under the Georgian you can hear people speaking with interesting voices and with emotion, while over the original voices, Georgian is spoken in emotionless voices.

I Love Georgian Dance

I wish I came from a culture that treasures dance like Georgia. Boys and girls alike here take dance lessons and it is something that everyone enjoys. How could you not, just look at this stuff!

 Kids dancing at a wedding

Dancing at a restaurant

The Post Office

Written on 10/28/2011

I had a feeling the conversation would go something like this, but I figured I had to give it a shot.

Me: “Is there a post office here in our city?”

Co-teacher: “Why yes! Of course we have a post office!”

Me: “Oh, really? That’s great. You know I wanted to send a package to a friend in Korea. Do you think the postal system can handle that?”

Co-Teacher: “Oh, you mean you want to send something?”

Me: “Well… yea… “

Co-Teacher: “Oh… I don’t know if the post office is actually open.” She turned confirmed with another teacher in Georgian, then turned to me again and said, “yes, I think it was working 5 years ago, but I don’t think it is working now.”

Me: “So… how do you get mail if there is no postal service?”

Co-Teacher: “Well, we can send things at banks. And we use e-mail.”

Me: “So, if I want to send a package I can go to the bank?”

Co-Teacher: “Hm, I’m not sure, but you can send money there.”

Me: “So, if your relative in America wanted to send you something, could you receive it?”

Co-Teacher: “Yes, Georgia has some problems, I think.”

Sorry folks, don’t expect any post cards from Georgia….

The real reason for fences

Written on 10/20/2011

I was walking home through the village back to my city yesterday with one of my co-teachers and I was asking her some questions about the farm animals that roam about freely.

Me: “There are so many cows roaming around everywhere. How do their owners find them?”

Co-Teacher: “Oh, they go home at night.”

Me: “How do they know how to go home at night?”

Co-Teacher: “Oh, well, Georgian cows are very smart.” (This was a joke of course)

“You know, several years back, you could even see cows in the city.”

Me: “You know, I live in the city and I see cows around my house every day. They just walk around and eat anything they can find, grass, bushes, they even eat the bushes that stick out through people’s fences.”

Co-Teacher: “Yes, that is why we have fences. To keep the cows and pigs out.”

Me: “Not to keep people out?”

Co-Teacher: “No no, no one ever locks their gates here. But if there were no fences, the cows would enter our yards and eat everything.

Ah… Georgia.

Smoking

Written on 10/19/2011

Smoking is everywhere in Georgia. We were informed at the orientation that it would be impossible to expect to find a smoke-free host family. Even if the family members themselves don’t smoke, they said, guests would be sure to smoke in the house. And Georgian houses always have guests coming in and out all day long. Not to mention that people smoke everywhere, hotels, restaurants, bars, internet cafes, in the car, taxi etc etc. I’ve yet to see someone smoking on a bus or marshutka, but I feel that it may just be a matter of time.

I discovered no less in my own home in my first few days after I arrived. Neighbors were always coming in and out of our house, often with a their cigarette butt hanging from their mouth.

But then, after a week of being at my house, my host father announced to me that he had been smoke free for 4 days. My host mother was very proud of him and it seemed to have given her the confidence to make her whole house smoke free.

The next day our neighbor walked into the house again with his cigarette in his mouth and she gave him a lecture about how she didn’t want people smoking in her house. At first he looked at her like she was crazy, perhaps it was the first time someone had ever asked him to step out to have his cigarette. But she persisted, dropping my name in there, perhaps saying that I didn’t want to be sucking in his second hand smoke. She turned to me and said something in Georgian that I understood to mean “Isn’t that right?” and of course I responded “Kho!” (yes in Georgian). He just looked at us, shook his head and stepped out until he had finished his cigarette. But from then on, whenever he came over with his cigarette, all my host mother had to say was no smoking and he now steps out of the house without complaint. It’s good to see that people are becoming aware of the smoking culture and that they have the power to make changes for the better.

School Problems

Written on 10/19/11

The lesson in our book today was to talk about the problems in our school, how we would fix them, and (using ‘I think’ and ‘I believe’) tell what we expect in the future. I have only been at the school for a total of four days so I clearly have a lot to learn. The major problems listed by the students were as follows, and more or less in the following order:

Lack of a gym

The library is too small

There is no laboratory to study science

Students don’t have access to the internet in the computer lab

… and finally….

There are no lights

For some reason they didn’t seem to think that the fact that the school has no running water or the fact that a class of 8 students often shares 2-3 books were problems though.

School Drama

Written on 10/19/2011

The school was abuzz today with news that one of our students got married yesterday. The girl is only 14 and in the 10^th grade and has married a man in the village. I couldn’t figure out how old the husband is, but as he is not a student in our school I’m guessing he must be older than 18. Apparently there used to be a law that once women were married, they could no longer attend public school, but even now that the law has been changed, many girls still don’t go to school once they get married. I’m not sure what this girl will do, but the teachers were quite upset all day that she could have run off and done something so stupid.