CCTV 9? - Page 2

CCTV 9?
May 12, 2007 06:05	#11
JABAROOTOO Points: Join Date: Jul 4, 2005 Status: Offline	Good on you Paul, Firstly let me say that CCTV nine offers those of us living here in China, if we can access to the station some relatively good historical, cultural and real life stuff about China, but one has to remember that it is first and foremost an instrument of the government broadcasting to the rest of the world. And yes it gets tediously boring, especially the news and Dialogue (he takes himself so seriously) I also agree with you about the weather man but I'm pretty sure he is Canadian and unfortunately he does not use good 'weather terminology' and his mannerisms are very distracting. I wonder who actually scripts the weather for the presenters. Some of the other native English speakers and you will know who I am talking about here are atrocious, presenting narrations for documentaries with all the pauses in the wrong places and often quite the wrong intonation on words. some of them are quite poorly written and often very repetitive and also use a lot of inappropriate language for the subject matter. If I'm interested in the context I will listen but it is painful to say the least. One example is the current documentary about the tall ship, the Goetteburg from Sweden. At one point they were talking about the strong winds that blow across the southern Indian Ocean which in the English language are widely referred to the 'Roaring Forties' because this is the latitude of the currents and winds that roar across this part of the ocean and sailors used them to advantage. This name was never even hinted at and other discriptions of a marine nature were badly scripted like that of a child writing his first essay. As for being available to the rest of the world, it is a cable or 'pay' TV station so could have limited appeal and access. But one thing is important for any person on the channel, both native or non native speaker, is to have a very neutral accent irrispective of thier country of origin. A good newsreader, anchorman should be very neutral in his accent, as is Edwin Maher, an Australian incidentally.

CCTV 9?

May 12, 2007 06:05

#11

JABAROOTOO
Points:
Join Date: Jul 4, 2005
Status: Offline

Good on you Paul,

Firstly let me say that CCTV nine offers those of us living here in China, if we can access to the station some relatively good historical, cultural and real life stuff about China, but one has to remember that it is first and foremost an instrument of the government broadcasting to the rest of the world.

And yes it gets tediously boring, especially the news and Dialogue (he takes himself so seriously)

I also agree with you about the weather man but I'm pretty sure he is Canadian and unfortunately he does not use good 'weather terminology' and his mannerisms are very distracting. I wonder who actually scripts the weather for the presenters.

Some of the other native English speakers and you will know who I am talking about here are atrocious, presenting narrations for documentaries with all the pauses in the wrong places and often quite the wrong intonation on words. some of them are quite poorly written and often very repetitive and also use a lot of inappropriate language for the subject matter. If I'm interested in the context I will listen but it is painful to say the least. One example is the current documentary about the tall ship, the Goetteburg from Sweden. At one point they were talking about the strong winds that blow across the southern Indian Ocean which in the English language are widely referred to the 'Roaring Forties' because this is the latitude of the currents and winds that roar across this part of the ocean and sailors used them to advantage. This name was never even hinted at and other discriptions of a marine nature were badly scripted like that of a child writing his first essay.

As for being available to the rest of the world, it is a cable or 'pay' TV station so could have limited appeal and access. But one thing is important for any person on the channel, both native or non native speaker, is to have a very neutral accent irrispective of thier country of origin. A good newsreader, anchorman should be very neutral in his accent, as is Edwin Maher, an Australian incidentally.

May 12, 2007 23:12

#12

APAULT
Points:
Join Date: Mar 11, 2006
Status: Offline

Jabarootoo says it so much better than I do! :)

I was not very objective before (shame!) but one of the biggest issue is full stops (perods to our US friends) - they are there for a purpose, and all the other punctuation. The US style seems to be so intent on speed and making it dramatic.

For those who are further interested in improving their oral English, I recommend that you review as many words with two or more syllables and see where the stress is placed and in the future always learn this as part of the word.. your speech is then much easier to understand. (it is in effect a 'tone' like in Chinese. Stress in a word can either be loudnes or lenthening of the syllable. If you want to speak US style make sure you use a Websters or US electronic one as their stress is different.

May 13, 2007 06:03	#13
WINDENERGY Points: Join Date: Jan 24, 2006 Status: Offline	Wish I could get it. The last 2 schools I worked for provided cable and color TV for their foreign teachers, but NO CCTV 9. I enjoyed watching "Culture Zone" and Da San while working in Zhejiang Province, now CCTV 9 is only as faded memory as I watch the Chinese CCTV1 instead. __WINDENENERGY__

May 21, 2007 02:31	#14
DAVEC Points: Join Date: Apr 14, 2007 Status: Offline	I can get CCTV9 here in UK but it is not really in English it is in American, there is a difference. Seems to be a good channel and covers lots of interesting topics.

May 30, 2007 06:04	#15
BOBYNAIRN Points: Join Date: May 30, 2007 Status: Offline	Yes Davec there is a lot of USspeak on cctv9 but newsreader James (nice face big ears) speaks educated English. Was he brought up in England? Maybe an English speaking school in HK ?

Oct 1, 2007 08:17	#16
GUESTKIWIMANTOU	Edwin's a Kiwi, worked for the ABC in Victoria for 20 years tho so that gave him that strange accent (for me at least).

Oct 4, 2007 01:05	#17
WESTNORWOODGAS Points: Join Date: Jun 22, 2007 Status: Offline	I used to watch it when I was there and yes it was a bit repetative but very interesting, the adverts for jade travel used to amuse me as I booked through them and often visit the shop in Chinatown to check out cheap flights.

Oct 4, 2007 01:10	#18
CLAUDIUS Points: Join Date: Jul 24, 2007 Status: Offline	I really agree with paul on the accents. I need a little getting used to when I was down-under, especially with the aussie news, but I had to give up, several times in fact, when it comes to some of the news caster on CCTV9. Actually, their Chinese colleagues sounds a lot better speaking english.

Oct 4, 2007 17:56	#19
GRIZ326 Points: Join Date: Jun 12, 2006 Status: Offline	I get CCTV on satellite. It has some excellent programming. I have never had difficulty understanding the speakers.

Oct 4, 2007 18:54

#20

AL32
Points:
Join Date: Sep 11, 2007
Status: Offline

Hi again guys!
I'm now in the Mainland for a few days and to my deception, the TV set I now have in my appartment is fairly old and won't go over channel 32; which is I believe why I don't receive CCTV9. So all the channels I receive are in Mandarin; this is not bad in itself since it forces me to listen to Chinese discussions and its good for my learning.

But thanks to EVENING for posting this thread and giving us the internet link;

----> for the people that said that they don't receive the channel on there TV, there is a red button on the right side of the page where it says: "WATCH CCTV LIVE" and guess what? You can watch CCTV 9 on-line HURRAY !!!
It's now I my favorites list and this might be one of the very few ways for me to hear ENglish programming over the next few months...so thank again EVENING!

And as far as the English accents; I'm from Canada, so I've been accustomed for a long time to hear diffferent accents; in a normal working day, I'd probably have to 'deal' with something like 15 different ones...

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