Quote:
Originally Posted by toretorden
On behalf of Norway, I'd like to state that we are pro subtitles. It's been the standard here for foreign language programs rather than dubbing them to norwegian.
I think it's good for different reasons. First of all, I think it improves the english skills of the average norwegian and possibly other languages as well. Second, when you're dubbing something, you're tampering with the product. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger talking dutch is just not .. quite right. I like the products in their natural, untampered, ancestral state - the way they were designed and meant to be.
|
Yeah, I agree. Subtitles are the main reason I speak good English and can understand quite a bit of Spanish (even though I've never studied it). But I believe that can only be the case with smaller nations where the national TV and film industry isn't strong enough to compete with foreign, mostly American production. I think it's also a lot easier and cheaper to make subtitles than to dub all of it (although there's a recent trend in Croatia to dub kids cartoons, which is fairly annoying as I can no longer see any of the big animated blockbusters in their original version in the theater).
I'm not sure if this is still the case, but I believe a lot of European nations dub English language films so I'm not sure how they deals with subtitles. I think it's also a major reason why most of these nations have fairly poor English language skills (how many French or Italians do you know that speak good English?).