I’m a firm believer that
keeping my mind stimulated can only help foster my creative juices when it
comes to my writing life. And one thing I love to do is learn foreign
languages. I studied French in high school and Japanese in college, and later
lived in Japan and became conversant in the language. I’ve tried tackling Brazilian
Portuguese, at least phonetically, in order to sing bossa-nova. Now I’m
learning Spanish through an online course. I don’t know what took me so long!
Spanish is everywhere in the U.S.—especially in California where I live. It’s
so easy to expose yourself to Spanish in restaurants, on the radio and, of course,
television (whether broadcast, cable, satellite or Internet!). There’s really
no excuse not to try it out and have some fun.
My latest favorite way
of studying Spanish is by watching telenovelas
(television novels). These are often compared to American soaps and, according
to an article from the PBS NewsHour,
they did, in part, come about because of the U.S. soap opera. In the 1930s
American soap companies began developing dramatic radio programs aimed at
housewives and also created shows for the Cuban market. In the 1950s when it
was no longer feasible for the U.S. companies to sponsor shows in Cuba, groups
of Cuban producers, actors and writers found work throughout Latin America
producing telenovelas, which combined
some of the American-style soap storytelling with Latin American culture and
traditional literature.
Telenovelas offer one big difference from American soaps: they have a definite
story arc and, instead of continuing for years and years, might only last one
year, or two, or even less. And they are generally shown in prime time and
attract family viewers instead of mainly women. Even the most dramatic telenovelas will usually have some
comedy relief and although they can be just as preposterous as some American
soaps, we do often see deeper character development, unpredictable events, unexpected
premises, gorgeous settings and even realistic social commentary. As a writer,
I appreciate and can be inspired by this for my own writing.
My current favorite telenovela is from Mexico, Por Ella Soy Eva (For Her, I’m Eva), which stars top actress Lucero in a romantic comedy-drama
that takes its inspiration from the American film Tootsie and makes clever statements about the changing gender roles
in Mexico along with the seemingly outdated but ever-present culture of
machismo. My previous favorite was Soy tu
Dueña (I’m Your Owner, or the English
title: Woman of Steel), which also starred Lucero, this time as a big-time rancher,
suffering many trials and tribulations (of course!) as well as romances with
hot men. Muy caliente!
One thing you don’t
find too often on telenovelas, though, are English subtitles, but English-language
blog recaps like Caray, Caray can come to the rescue in a big way. I admit that
at the moment I can only understand about 35 percent when I watch, and what I
do is turn on the closed captioning. This gives me what the actors are saying
in Spanish, which greatly helps my practice. If there are words I don’t know, I
jot them down to look them up later.
Have you ever watched a telenovela? Have a favorite soap?
Studied soaps in a foreign country to learn the language? (I did that with
“home dramas” in Japan and my character Midori Saito in Midori by Moonlight watched them in the U.S.). Or have soaps helped
inspire your writing?
Hasta pronto!
Wendy
Nelson Tokunaga is the author of the novels, "Midori by Moonlight"and "Love in Translation" (both published by St. Martin's Press), and
the e-book novels, "Falling Uphill" and "His Wife and Daughters,"
and e-book short story, “The Girl in the Tapestry.” She's also the author of
the nonfiction e-book, "Marriage in Translation: Foreign Wife, JapaneseHusband." Her short story "Love Right on the Yesterday" appears
in the anthology "Tomo," published by Stone Bridge Press, and her
essay "Burning Up" is included in "Madonna and Me: Women Writerson the Queen of Pop." Wendy holds an MFA in Creative Writing from
University of San Francisco and teaches for Stanford University's Online
Writer's Studio Novel Certificate Program. She also does private manuscript
consulting for novels and memoirs. Follow her on Twitter at @Wendy_Tokunaga,
friend her on Facebook and visit her website at: www.WendyTokunaga.com
