Having something to be proud of is definitely nice for a nation but on the other hand there may be some traditions that have a negative impact on the whole society.
I’m talking about dubbing.

In most of the world they don’t even bother to try and dub each and every foreign language movie that has ever been shot. Strangely enough, there is a small country, in the heart of Europe, where people are believed to have the best dubbing on the whole planet. It might make sense if the language was spoken by a reasonable number of people. But Czech?

Czechs envy other nation’s language skills and most of all the ability to speak and understand English with little difficulty. Listening to the sound of the language helps the learning process a lot, of course. Watching movies is one of the best ways of getting used to the natural sound of the language if one cannot go and spend some time where the language is actually spoken.

Thus, ironically, being the best in dubbing goes hand in hand with losing the opportunity to be able to listen to a foreign language, not only English. The last time I got angry about this was about a Harry Potter movie. Even in the cinemas it was almost impossible to find an original version. I understand the film aims at youngsters who may not have mastered the English language so well yet, however, I want to hear Alan Rickman’s voice while watching his face! I am sure it is not just me.