German Racing Television

Through the use of the UMIPTV network at this link, I was able to view a German Television Station. It happened to be a race on the air with announcers talking about the events that were taking place on the track. I found it extremely enthusing that I could understand most of the numbers that they were spewing during the race before they were even displayed on the screen. Of course, all of the speeds were in kilometers per hour, so the only thing I had to look up there was the conversion from kilometers per hour to miles per hour for me to understand. The majority of the time I spent trying to distinguish between words and understanding very little in their racing world.

However, I did slowly gain an ear for what was being said and distinguishing between ideas as time progressed into the race. I could tell when the announcers were talking about a specific vehicle going into a turn or when there was about to be a vehicle pass into a higher position (numbered of course) on the track. There was even a collision I saw that was described quickly. Through the context of the situation, I could tell the announcers were explaining that the collision happened quickly and that the car was very close to avoiding the crash but had just had an unfortunate shift into the other vehicle. There were quite a few words I had heard before such as schnell, richtig, and lots of different forms of sein.

It was an interesting experience to witness something that needs little explanation in another language. It helped that I could understand the context to what the announcers were explaining to me, without truly being able to translate into English. I hope to find something with more subtitles to help my understanding, but I felt this immersion was a good experience. I hope to see my own improvement from the beginning to end of this class when I can hopefully watch again and understand the dialogue a little bit better.