I just spent way more time than I would like to admit watching a Bulgarian soap opera.  And I really got a kick out of it.  I've found that lots of Bulgarian is modeled after western tv shows or are just western tv shows dubbed into Bulgarian and even one Spanish program just has Bulgarian subtitles.

The programs that are in Bulgarian only are the easiest for me to understand.  They talk slower and the pacing is easier to follow than when the programs are dubbed into Bulgarian.  In these programs, you can always hear the original language being spoken--generally English but also German and Spanish.

The news is still too hard for me to follow.  The subjects being covered on the news require a bigger vocabulary than I have right now--or ever may have.  It's a little easier for me to follow some of the tv game shows but just like in the states some times it's too painful to watch these shows. This is why I think Bulgarian soap operas may be my new thing.  <!--more-->Sure, there's a version of Deal or No Deal here in Bulgaria.  Why not really? It's a pretty straightforward game.  In the states, we play up the game show, Deal or No Deal, with lights, girls in sexy dresses who hold or stand behind brief cases.   However here in Bulgaria, it looks like I could produce the tv show out of my basement.  Rather than beautiful girls in revealing dresses with brief cases the show has shoe boxes covered in wrapping paper and ordinary people looking after the boxes.  That's no where near as fun or sexy as the soap I got sucked into today.

First, the soap opera that I was watching was much better produced. Does that make it good? Of course not.  I just makes it better produced which truthfully isn't hard.

Was it trite and conceived? Of course.  But I think that's a basic requirement for the medium! All of the basic tropes were there--mothers and daughters fighting, the good girl-bad boy relationship, office politics, drama producing cocktail/dinner party, a near death encounter (trapped in a sauna), sneaky behavior and an ill/dying parent.  All of these things combine to make for pretty good tv--if you ask me.

Sure it probably helps that I don't speak enough Bulgarian to understand all of the ridiculous things that the actors are saying but I still stand behind my belief that given what's on tv at 4pm this is pretty good tv. What also helps is the fact that the acting is pretty bad so the emotions the actors express are pretty easy to read no matter whether you understand everything being said or not.

The one thing I was disappointed by is the fact that there was no manipulative sex, fear of pregnancy or illicit drug use in the hour and a half of the soap opera that I watched (or at least, I don't think there was).  I am hoping that this was just an off day and that these soap opera staples happened yesterday or will be present in tomorrow's episode.  If not I am not sure how much I'll actually be able to watch this show in the future.

I am sure that you all are now dying to know which Bulgarian soap opera I was watching, and frankly so I am. So that you can youtube it but I didn't catch the beginning of the episode so I don't know what the name is.  Sorry. I am especially sorry because it will make it that much harder for me to watch again in the future.

All of this said, I was pleasantly surprised how much I could understand.  I think it helps that the plots are pretty straightforward from soap opera to soap opera.  Does that mean that watching soap operas is good for you? (ha, ha)

In conclusion, I can only imagine what an awesome vocabulary I could have if I decided to learn Bulgarian solely by watching Bulgarian soap operas. Wow.  And there's something about that idea that doesn't seem half bad...