Crap TV can serve a purpose
Enjoying TV in France can be a difficult task, particularly if your understanding of French is anything less than native, and your TV is too old to display subtitles. Subtitles are the key to unlocking your French vocabulary via the wonders of terrestrial television. Without subtitles - all you'll hear are the occassional word or phrase that taken out of context could mean anything. Take the recent news bulletin about the visit by le President to Lybia for example: Sarkozy ... Gadaffi ... nuclear ... wife ... hostage ... weapons. So what's the story? Gadaffi has taken Sarkozy's wife hostage at a nuclear plant and wants to exchange her for some guns? The truth is - you'll never know for sure. So subtitles (in French) help to fill in the essential bits of information that you might miss, as well as introduce new words you might not know. However, the trick is to watch shows that have been designed for an audience with a low IQ and/or attention defecit disorder. That way the words and phrases will be such [...]