Why I Must Watch More TV

I find myself in a very strange situation these days. For the first time in life, I am trying to force myself to watch more television.  My goal is to get in several hours a day. It's surprisingly hard.

I’ve watched relatively little TV here, partly because my German has been too poor to understand the local TV and partly because much German TV is just American series dubbed in German. Once you've become used to an actor’s voice, it’s very distracting to watch them with a strange German voice attached!

But now I must watch more TV and movies, to improve my German.  Luckily, my cable box has an integrated DVR, so I accomplished Step One weeks ago…programming some German shows to watch. The Step Two of actually watching them has been more difficult.

So, I’m beginning with what was a 2 week nightly German event – "Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier aus!", Germany’s version of the British show "I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!"…and then moving on to some other classics such as "Bauer Sucht Frau" (the dating show “Farmer seeks Woman”), and Doctor’s Diary, a prime time soap with the slogan “Men are the Best Medicine.”

And of course, there are a couple of disaster movies, with this week's premiere of the long-awaited miniseries Hindenburg.

Look forward to some posts from the couch…