While I was in Copenhagen last semester, I went on a study tour with students to Vienna for a week.

Flipping on the television, I couldn’t help but notice that both Denmark and Austria offer viewers a steady diet of The Big Bang Theory.

We can talk about the value of that later.

Now that I’m home, I’m tearing through the latest season of Silicon Valley and I’ve blogged about the shortcomings of the long-running series before.

But, I have been thinking a lot about how much more valuable this sitcom is to Danes than to Austrians.

I think it comes down to subtitles.

Danish imports for small children are dubbed, but everything else is subtitled.

Not so in Austria where dubbing is the norm.

There are a variety of reasons I don’t like dubbing (viewers lose the voice of the actor, the sound is out of sync in distracting ways, dubbed lines ruin the flow of scenes), but I can say with some confidence (and no empirical data) that even beyond the aesthetic there is a good reason to subtitle: it promotes language fluency.

Bold claim? Probably, but the Danes by and large sure do speak superb English.

I think the reinforcement of television and other popular influences provides a helpful supplement to the curriculum in Danish schools. That exceeds any cultural currency viewers may accrue.

Yes, I am the eternal optimist…