MAURO GUILLÉN ON LANGUAGE DUBBING

The hiccup in language in general and language learning, in particular, is that the whole world and his mother feel free to pontificate about it. I say this apropos of an article in El País I chanced upon a few days ago by Dr. Mauro Guillén, professor and Dean at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has written several books on economics and is perfectly bilingual in English and Spanish. He says: "... las carencias de la educación primaria y secundaria se han traducido (en España) en un aumento inusitado de las familias en profesores particulares o academias - por término medio de 700 euros al mes..." (His syntax leaves a bit to be desired.) An average of €700 per month per family seems a bit exaggerated. Being an economist Dr. Guillén should be more accurate. But he has more to say about language learning: "Aprender un idioma y hablarlo con un buen acento require entrenar el oído y desarrollar una buena dicción." Bravo! He has just discovered the squaring of the circle. He advances the theory that Spain falls far behind other European countries in second-language acquisition due to "los efectos nocivos del doblaje de películas y series de televisión." Suck on that! Of course, he has a solution: "como solución intermedia, prohibamos el doblaje de los contenidos audiovisuales..." I find it peculiar that an economist uses the verb "prohibit". It just doesn´t sound right. The title of the article is "El doblaje y el costoso drama del aprendizaje del inglés en España." (El País, 24 sept., 2023.) In his technological absent-mindedness, this professor of economics forgets that on any TV set, one may listen to the original language.