Subtitles - "Do u read ur films?!"

[Ville]

If the dubbing can actually sync up with the animation, and if it "fits in" with the personalities of the characters, then it can get away with it. The majority of the time, I'd just go for subbing. It seems wrong in a way. It's almost like recording your own lyrics over a song...blasphemy.

 

Well it's the same thing with games. Did you play Xenoblade with the Japanese or English voices? I tried both, and the English ones were much better for my taste. So I don't think the "original is better" -argument always holds...

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Dubbing in live action films is almost universally bad. Dubbing in animation, on the other hand, can actually improve upon the original: Case in point, I find the Danish dub of DreamWorks's The Road To El Dorado vastly superior to the original dub.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Well it's the same thing with games. Did you play Xenoblade with the Japanese or English voices? I tried both, and the English ones were much better for my taste. So I don't think the "original is better" -argument always holds...

 

Xenoblade is the only exception, but only because Franklin threatened to kill all of my family if I didn't use the English voices. I didn't have a preference over either one. My second play through will be with the Japanese voices.

 

For animations, I could see dubbing being ok. It just doesn't work though for live action. Watching badly dubbed tv-adverts is so cringe worthy.

[Nolan]

Love subtitles, on everything. Makes low volume watching quite a bit easier.

 

Of course as typical Murrican I think I'm suppose to say "Read am too hard if I wanted to read a movie I'd read a book. It should be in english cuz I don care how many peopl tell me a foreignor film is gud I dont wanna read."

 

Yes, I hear that a lot, and I kind of want to punch those people right in the throat.

 

Then again I'm a good multi-tasker and reading subtitles and watching on screen action is perfectly doable.

[Guy]

I'm not against dubs, some are pretty great, but I always try to watch something in the original language it was made in if possible. To be honest, I watch everything with subtitles these days - even native English entertainment. I actually miss them if they're not available.

[Sméagol]

Well, after spending 2 days figuring out how to properly put some subtitles on a DVD which originally didn’t have them, you can guess how I feel about subtitles.

 

I’m pretty sure I’ve already posted this somewhere, and that we’ve had this discussion before, but being Dutch, I love subtitles. People get exposed to English here so much, we don’t know any better. It’s not just English, other languages as well. Maybe it has to do because of a lack of talented voice actors, maybe because subbing is simply much cheaper, maybe because of tradition / history.. I really don’t know. But it’s what we’re used to, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I really hate it that it’s a bit of a trend to dub more and more cartoons for kids nowadays, as that’s how I learned English all those years ago.

 

Let me first state that even subtitles are not ideal. Ideal would be to know the language in the first place. But here’s why I prefer subs:

 

- Authenticity: I simply want to enjoy entertainment in its original form as much as possible. Even in the rare occasion a dub may be technically superior, it’s still not authentic. Subtitles obscure some part of the image, but they don’t change the original material. It’s less of a problem with cartoons or some video games, but with live-action I really don’t want to hear fake voices. I also can’t stand commercials with famous actors who are dubbed in Dutch..

 

- Immersion: again, subtitles obscure the image somewhat, it’s too bad, but in my opinion it’s a whole of a lot better than voices not matching up with their actors speaking. It is always noticeable, even when done by a capable company.

 

- Even more personal than the other two, but I kind of like hearing other languages now and then. Just to demonstrate, I went through my films of this year, and I’ve heard the following languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Danish, Icelandic, Japanese, Cantonese, Korean, Persian, and Hindi, and that’s just this year. Of course, a festival will do that, but I’m interested in other cultures, and the language is part of that.

 

Now of course, lip syncing is less of a problem with 2D animation (unless you have a high budget animation), but I still prefer to see it in its original language. 3D animation is generally lip synced, so there it is a problem. To give an example:

I wanted to watch Kaena, which is a French 3D animation. It being French, I defaulted to watch it in French, but then it was obvious the film wasn’t actually animated with French in mind. So I had to endure both Kirsten Dunst’s voice and French subtitles which I could not turn off, simply because I couldn’t stand to watch it in French with out of sync voices. It was a shame, because the French voices were actually better.

 

With video games it’s the same as with animation. Unless it’s 3D and lip synced, it’s technically not a problem, but it’s still not authentic. But I’m usually not given a choice. When I am, I generally default to the original language, unless I’m not immediately aware of the original language. I think I should replay The witcher in Polish or something. I remember finding out the Castlevania games for the GBA had the original Japanese voices included. Switched immediately :p.

 

I think it’s small minded to complain about having to “read the movie”, but then again, I don’t know any different, and these people don’t either. But personally I have no trouble at all concentrating on the film while reading subtitles. To me, it’s the same thing. The dialogue is part of the film, so you read the subtitles along with it. And like Eenuh said, it’s the same screen. If there’s no dubbed version, what would the alternative be? You’d go “Oh, this sounds cool, but there’s no dubbed version, so pass..”. You’d miss out on a lot of cool stuff. Granted, there is and will be enough entertainment in the English language to keep you busy for a lifetime, but again, if you think something looks cool but pass on it, you’re missing out. The only alternative in that case would be to wait for any potential remakes, and guess how I think about remakes.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Sméagol

[EEVILMURRAY]

The little people on the bottom right signing all the way.

How low are people's attention spans if they're distracted by reading subtitles?

It's not short attention spans messing with reading subtitles. It's that you miss the action when focusing on the subtitles. Well that's how it works for me. I could quickly read the line then look up at whatever's happening, but I feel like I'm missing out as I prefer to follow the words as they're being said to understand the emotion.

 

 

Dub that shit for me.

[Rummy]

What's your opinion on subtitles? Personally, I've got no problems with them. I pretty much watch everything with subtitles on these days, and it's quite useful as you can sometimes mishear or not even hear things that are being said. But, it also doesn't bother me on foreign films. I had completely forgotten that Pan's Labyrinth was subtitled.

 

Some seem to find it distracting. Some seem to not want to "have to read when watching a film". I find that odd, when there's usually lots of things happening on the screen anyway at times.

 

Pretty much exactly this myself. Even if it's english, I like having english subtitles. I can easily stop noticing them, but then again I watched a lot of indian films when I was a kid so you had to read the subtitles there. Also with anime/foreign films I'll prefer to have the original audio but english subs, than an english dub. Even if I download stuff to watch, I'll get a .srt file to go with it.

 

I do like having subtitles in English even when watching films in English, simply for the added benefit of being able to check what's being said. That being said, it's very annoying if the subtitles are heavily paraphrased.

 

Yeah! This!! I can't stand it if the subs don't match to what's actually being said - has happened on occasion with some animes(ie the english subs are different to what they do with dubs). In that case I'll probably turn them off save going insane, but sometimes I worry there's a little lost in translation too.

[Ville]

Yeah! This!! I can't stand it if the subs don't match to what's actually being said - has happened on occasion with some animes(ie the english subs are different to what they do with dubs). In that case I'll probably turn them off save going insane, but sometimes I worry there's a little lost in translation too.

 

Well the fact is that the space and time on the screen is limited, so there's always something lost in translation. Unlike with text translation or dubbing where you can match the original in full length, subtitles are always condensed. You simply cannot include everything said.

[Rummy]

Oh, yeah. I mean losing something in translation with a dubbed audio - I don't know if it's just the nuances of other languages, trasnlastion differences, or just me being crazy - but I'd much rather have the original audio and subs than a dub, I think. The issue of mismatched subs is possibly a literal translation(often a bit engrishy) but it wouldn't actually work in a spoken/dubbed version.

[Shorty]

I prefer subs to dubs in anime for one main reason: when you can understand anime it sounds ridiculous. English characters speaking English but referring to each other with at best averagely-pronounced Japanese names, shounen characters shouting the name of their special move, talking about plans and enemies and the plot, it all sounds so silly. Not understanding the language helps distance myself from that a little bit.

 

I was a bit disappointed to find Persona 4 had no Japanese voices. The English voices are ok but honestly how hard is it to pronounce chan and san? You just say it like it looks, not charn or sarn!

 

This doesn't really answer the OP question very well. Umm. Subtitles, watch lots of anime, like Coolness, fine with subs

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

The little people on the bottom right signing all the way.

 

It's not short attention spans messing with reading subtitles. It's that you miss the action when focusing on the subtitles. Well that's how it works for me. I could quickly read the line then look up at whatever's happening, but I feel like I'm missing out as I prefer to follow the words as they're being said to understand the emotion.

 

 

Dub that shit for me.

 

Again, this is such a strange thing for a Dane to read, considering all movies ever are subbed for us.

[EEVILMURRAY]

I prefer subs to dubs in anime for one main reason: when you can understand anime it sounds ridiculous. English characters speaking English but referring to each other with at best averagely-pronounced Japanese names,

That's because the anime whores get in there first and lay in their "change the name and we'll bitch" seeds. Pokémon got in first so people accept Ash and not Satoshi(?), but give Naruto a proper name (Or heaven forbid Sasuke [whom since the days of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon I pronounce Sazook] since people fist him more) and there will be hell to pay.

[Sméagol]

Well the fact is that the space and time on the screen is limited, so there's always something lost in translation. Unlike with text translation or dubbing where you can match the original in full length, subtitles are always condensed. You simply cannot include everything said.

Which is not true. Some languages take more or less words to say the same thing than others. It can also depend on the sentence itself. With dubbing, it has to be an exact length (and specific rhythm). It can’t be longer, but it can’t be shorter either. With subtitles, you generally have more room to work with, and more freedom to choose a translation that does the source justice.

 

It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally, when I watch subs with English spoken series or films, I can appreciate some good translations where the text does not match the spoken words literally, but offers a perfect translation because of it (regarding sayings, or jokes for example).

[Oxigen_Waste]

It's not short attention spans messing with reading subtitles. It's that you miss the action when focusing on the subtitles. Well that's how it works for me. I could quickly read the line then look up at whatever's happening, but I feel like I'm missing out as I prefer to follow the words as they're being said to understand the emotion.

 

You're not really getting it, you're supposed to look at everything at the same time, not focus on either the subtitles or the picture. Look at the whole screen at the same time.

[Ville]

Which is not true. Some languages take more or less words to say the same thing than others. It can also depend on the sentence itself. With dubbing, it has to be an exact length (and specific rhythm). It can’t be longer, but it can’t be shorter either. With subtitles, you generally have more room to work with, and more freedom to choose a translation that does the source justice.

 

Well in that case it's pretty much like subtitling then. Subtitles may have more room as in not being tied to the actors so much, but they're still restricted by the character limit of what can fit on the screen at once (two rows, 60-70 characters). Plus that you have to let the sub stay on the screen for a number of seconds (3-5) so that people can actually read it. Thus why you cannot possibly cram everything going on into the subs.

[Josh64]

No problem with subtitles, sometimes I prefer it. I find it so hard to sit down and just watch a movie recently, I always end up wanting to quickly go on my phone of 3DS.

 

Subtitles really help me get immersed. And fuck, dubs are terrible. In pretty much every way.

[jayseven]

I always prefer to have subs on due to deafness. Without them I do miss out on things occasionally, but even then it's not a massive deal. of course if you rarely watch with subs then it may seem distracting, but as O_W said you can learn to sort of 'see' the whole screen and almost subconsciously let the words seep in.

 

Plus if you have the audio, you can actually just skim the text and your brain will merge the two together.

 

What annoys me is when the subtitles on an official product are wrong. Be it a character name or an unnecessary abridgement or just a typo - it reminds me that the community requiring subtitles are second tier to the production team.

[MoogleViper]

You're not really getting it, you're supposed to look at everything at the same time, not focus on either the subtitles or the picture. Look at the whole screen at the same time.

 

That's easy to do when you're watching something in a language you understand, and just have subs for clarity. But when it's a foreign language that you don't know, you have to focus on the subs.

[Oxigen_Waste]

That's easy to do when you're watching something in a language you understand, and just have subs for clarity. But when it's a foreign language that you don't know, you have to focus on the subs.

 

I don't know what to tell you here, that just doesn't make sense to me. =/ I guess because I grew up with them it's not an issue for me, but regardless of the language I have never experienced this need to focus on one or the other, I just absorb the whole thing at once, it's second nature to me.

[Fierce_LiNk]

That's easy to do when you're watching something in a language you understand, and just have subs for clarity. But when it's a foreign language that you don't know, you have to focus on the subs.

 

There's usually one line of dialogue at a time, two at the most. There's not an awful lot to particularly focus on, unless you're maybe subbing it in a language you don't understand in order to learn that language, which would make your reading speed slower. Do you watch films in foreign languages, or are you put off then by having to focus?

[MoogleViper]

There's usually one line of dialogue at a time, two at the most. There's not an awful lot to particularly focus on, unless you're maybe subbing it in a language you don't understand in order to learn that language, which would make your reading speed slower. Do you watch films in foreign languages, or are you put off then by having to focus?

 

I'm not put off. I've watched a fair few foreign films and TV shows (aside: I recommend The Bridge to anyone here). However it definitely requires more concentration. If you glance away from the screen, then you miss some dialogue. And there's definitely a case of focusing on one. Yes when I read subs, I don't miss the rest of the screen, but it does detract slightly from the detail of the visual experience.

 

Also, there are times when I can't concentrate on subs. For example, I often watch TV whilst I eat my dinner. That would be awkward if I was constantly having to read the subs. If I looked down at my food then I'd miss some of the show.

 

Plus, some things don't work subbed. Comedy for instance (although that's as much/more of a translation issue).

Edited June 11, 2013 by MoogleViper

[Jonnas]

Subtitles all the way. Dubbing over the original actors is awkward, borders on the uncanny valley, and is a bit of an insult to the original actor's performance. I honestly don't get how people from supposedly cultured countries such as France and Germany can accept dubbing as their status quo. In Portugal, the Spaniards lousy English and their dubbed-everything mentality are considered a joke.

 

With animation is different, since A. Lip-sync isn't that noticeable or important; and B. Many animated works are meant for children, and not all of them can read that fast. I guess dubbing films/shows meant for children (like Power Rangers) is also excused.

 

However, I do think certain dubbed works can have better sounding voices than the original (I stand by the belief that Finding Nemo sounds better in Portuguese than English, ditto for a few Animes I've watched in other languages), but dubbed live-action has way too many inherent flaws for this to be possible.

 

It's not short attention spans messing with reading subtitles. It's that you miss the action when focusing on the subtitles. Well that's how it works for me. I could quickly read the line then look up at whatever's happening, but I feel like I'm missing out as I prefer to follow the words as they're being said to understand the emotion.

 

As a general rule, if characters are speaking, there's not much action going on. If there is action going on while they're speaking, I'm thankful for subtitles because it gets really hard to hear, with all the sound effects and all.

 

That's because the anime whores get in there first and lay in their "change the name and we'll bitch" seeds. Pokémon got in first so people accept Ash and not Satoshi(?), but give Naruto a proper name (Or heaven forbid Sasuke [whom since the days of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon I pronounce Sazook] since people fist him more) and there will be hell to pay.

 

Naruto is a clearly Japanese Ninja, though. Would you also advocate for clearly British/American characters to have their names changed to French or German equivalents? Finding out that Bruce Wayne is called Bruno Días in Spain was cringeworthy. It only makes sense when the original name is a pun (Flintstones=Picapiedras), and even then, there's careful treading to be had (the German version of Game of Thrones uses "Jon Schnee" and "Theon Graufreude". Disgraceful)

 

Plus, some things don't work subbed. Comedy for instance (although that's as much/more of a translation issue).

 

Actually, I think comedy works much better when subbed. Puns can be explained away with a couple of words in brackets (while in dubs, the translator may have to change the whole line to make anything work), and you can still hear the original delivery. A lot of humour depends more on performance than raw dialogue. Monty Python is a shining example of this.

Edited June 12, 2013 by Jonnas
Automerged Doublepost

[bob]

I dislike watching programs that are in english but with subtitles. A friend used to keep the sbutitles on all the time while at home, and i just found myself reading the sustitles even though i didn't have to.

 

I, like many other people (but not all!) seem to have trouble in watching the actors and reading the subtitles at the same time. I have to do one, or the other. So when i am reading the lines, i can't watch the actors and vice versa.

 

Obviously i don't mind doing it if the talking is in another language, but it's just annoying if the subtitles are uneccesary.