Contact With La Langue Francaise Through Tv5

a bientot

One way to improve one's French would be to watch TV5, the world's third most available satellite tv station, after MTV and CNN.......(fourth in Greater Europe because Eurosport is in first place) with its great variety of programmes including films, variety news, current affairs and children's.

TV5 is available in the basic (cheapest) package in many CHORUS areas for over fifteen years including Newbridge , Cork, Swords. Malahide, Maynooth etc., but was withdrawn by ntl who wanted Dubliners to improve their English with more EFL channels.

Cablelink relayed TV5 since 1994 on a 24/24 and by its removal now ranks as the ONLY major cabled European capital not to have a range of multi-lingual tv channels within its basic (cheapest) package.........and this includes up to fifteen in the language of the majority (who have rightly got 'must be recognised' special rights) with one each in at least French and German. In France and Germany, obviously, English would be the main 'outside' channel.

In the sixties and seventies two hundred schoolgoers went to France every year on organised exchange trips over July and August but recently this number has dropped back to less than one hundred and this is surprising bearing in mind that state exams have an obligatory oral and aural component. The French demand for exchange partners has increased over the years...so if you know anyone who wants to spend a month in France......

Since 1994 Dubliners of all ages have a wonderful free contact with the French speaking world through TV5 and this was also of some help to those seeking proficiency for aural exams. We all have MTV on our cable systems and have the choice to turn it off if we don't want to watch it so why not allow us our channel, our special contact and if YOU have no interest you may turn TV5 off.

So who wants a normal multi-lingual cable tv service in Dublin, Galway and Waterford?

TV5 is provided free of charge to all European cable services.

embraer170

Or an even better way to learn French is to put up a Satellite dish and get all the French stations, TF1, France 2, France 3, France 5/Arte and M6.

Sadly I've still had no look tuning my dish, stuck watching German TV for the time being.

Jer

Dun

I can't say I've watched much on it - every time I go to watch it (which means there mustn't be anybody else wanting to watch tv, so not often :rolleyes: ) there always seems to be some kind of discussion programme on. Would rather the likes of a film, or some kind of fiction programme. Even a documentary, rather than watch a French language version of Prime Time.

esentziak

Have you had any luck in tuning your receiver to get French channels?
I cancelled my sub. to Sky and I still have the dish and the decoder.
I presume there's no reason why it cannot be used to receive French channels? I think the dish needs to point in another direction but I don't know about tuning the decoder.

If you have any info. would you post back? thanks.

I actually miss the discussion/debates; some of them were really good but I suppose you have to be French to have an interest in them.

Esentziak

Dun

This probably should be over in the Satellite forum, but it's relevant enough to this topic, so perhaps its okay.

Download this software from here and enter your latitude/longitude (figure it out here or with MS Autoroute if you have it) and the satellite you want to pick up. The two satellite groups you'll be looking for are the 19.2E Astra or the 13E Hotbird ones. Have a look for the stations you want marked with this kinda cream-coloured background, as it is the digital clear ones you want. The 13E Hotbird ones are here and the 19.2E Astra ones are here.

Arm yourself with a compass, a spirit level and protractor if you need them, and a lot of patience and have a look at this site which is about setting up your satellite dish on a caravan, but is basically the same for your house.

Good luck

esentziak

but I also had a look at the satellite board and found a post which says that decoders provided with Sky installations are specifically tuned to work with Sky only!

tks for the info. and the links. Might come in handy.

regards
Esentziak

Dun

As long as the station (have a look on the Lyngemark Satellite site link above) is broadcasting on 22,000 or 27,500 Symbol Rate then you can pick it up. I'd say it's more like certain encoded (i.e. subscription) channels can only be decoded by Sky cards in Sky boxes. Sky boxes can pick up free channels - have a look at the 28.2E (same one Sky is on), have a look at one of the Czech/Slovak or Icelandic feeds and you can tune them in. They're definitely not part of Sky's offerings!

esentziak

OK and thanks. Will have to have a serious look at this and get the decoder down from the attic...

Esentziak

a bientot

It never ceases to amaze me whenever the topic of languages and tv comes up that so many 'helpful' people advise a satellite dish to anyone interested in helping his fellow man.....and so other languages (French, German, Italian are shunted out of sight out of mind.
The whole idea of the cable company providing a basic (the cheapest) service of multi-lingual tv for ALL is to help create an open attitude in Ireland to the fact that English is NOT the be all and end all. Other people(s) live on other continents speaking other languages quite satisfactorily, thank you very much. But of course good old jolly Irish people should only be interested in excessive drinking from 10 to 80 years and to hell with the rest of the world. They can bloody well all go and learn English like us.

Last night on RTE Radio 1 Vincent Browne after commenting on the proficiency in spoken English of his foreign* guests suddenly discovered after years of being a typical Anglo/American journalist that everyone coming here from countries outside the Anglo/North America/Australian/New Zealand block has ONE UP ON MOST of us because they already speak at least one other language whereas Mr Browne never bothered with them when in their native habitat UNLESS they spoke English. He took it for granted that foreign assignments meant heading for the English speaker who just had to be objective in representing his people because he spoke 'our Queen's' language.

Now the topic is how can TV5 help people improve their French (or how can TG4 help people improve their Irish)
But we'll have to get TV5 back first...........

* non European Union citizens.

lili

tv5 is a little boring, but could be an excellent way to improve french.
for a french it's a little disturbing cause the movies are 'sous titrés'.
i can't watch them without read and the words are often different in the texte.