October 6, 2013 English subtitles eyed in Pinoy teleseryes House Assistant Majority Leader Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr. has appealed to Filipino film and TV program producers to add English subtitles to their shows order to help build up the average Filipino’s proficiency in the world’s lingua franca. “If we can re-record or dub foreign-language telenovelas in Filipino, then surely we can also put English subtitles in locally-produced shows,” Gullas pointed out. In subtitling, an English translation and transcript of the audio portion of a Filipino movie or show is provided and visible to all viewers. As the program plays, what is said and other relevant sounds are inscribed underneath in English. “Subtitling will contribute to our learning and use of English, considering the mass appeal of Filipino movies and TV programs,” Gullas said. On account of globalization, the Cebu lawmaker pointed out that Filipinos with skills to sell may now aspire to seek gainful employment in any corner of the world. This in turn has underlined the need for Filipinos to master English, which is not only the world’s working language, but also the language of technology, according to Gullas, vice chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education. “There’s no question that young Filipinos with superior English skills are bound to enjoy greater employment opportunities in the technology-driven global labor markets of the future,” Gullas added. Gullas is author of a bill seeking to reinforce the use of English in all school levels, in a bid to make the nation’s future labor force participants highly competitive. Filipino still spend around 13.3 hours every week glued to their TV sets, despite spending some 21.5 hours every week surfing the Internet, according to the Nielsen Southeast Asian Digital Consumer Report. Many Filipinos in particular spend a lot of their free time watching their favorite Filipino soap operas as well as game shows on TV. Meanwhile, Filipinos spent a total of P1.8 billion watching the top 33 highest-grossing Tagalog films in theaters in 2012.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 06:38:03 +0000