a rooskie in dublin

TV or not TV - that is the question!

By Irina Kuksova

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They say people watch too much telly these days. I don't know about you but I'm not into it myself. A quick psychological analysis shows there was a lot of "TV is bad for you" propaganda during my formative years. Even television presenters themselves seemed to support that view, a fact which cannot have helped their careers. Since then, to my mind, regular TV watching has seemed like a very bad habit. On the same level as smoking. Both shorten lives considerably. Both are utterly boring. Both make me want to leave the room.

My Irish friends maintain that my aversion to television stems from the fact that in communist Russia the television watches you. A little Soviet era joke there. The Irish love the old jokes. They are, how do you say it, suckers for the classics. Twenty years after the fall of communism, and it might as well be yesterday as far as the Irish are concerned. Or tomorrow.

Of course there are ways of making TV more useful by carefully selecting what you watch. Still there are pitfalls. For instance, you might be lured by the science fiction posing as reality on the Discovery Channel. My point is, if you are really interested in something or some place, why not go out and experience it first hand. Don't just watch the Discovery Channel in order to feel intellectually superior to those who watch Fair City. (An Irish soap opera.)

Okay, having real experiences and visiting exotic foreign locations is a lot more expensive than sitting at home watching them on the box. But there are safe and well rewarded ways of getting real life experiences closer to home.

I know someone who's recently started working as a foreign language interpreter for the Irish police force. She's learnt more about hospitals in a few short weeks than from ten years of watching ER. She's been entertained by real life cases no less absurd than those which make up the daily diet on Judge Judy.

Not a bad idea is it? You'd be helping people and getting recognition. When interpreting, you'd be touched not by a talented or talentless actor but by a real person living a real life.

Yes, all this will be possible only if you've got enough free time to learn a language. Now switch off the TV and you'll have lots of free time...