Yeah, reading does that...;)

I wonder if people who have a problem with subtitles also aren't the most eager of readers in general...:\

I would be sceptical to that assumption. I expect most people who come from cultures where either dubbing is the norm or dubbing/subtitles are only seen rarely will dislike subtitles simply because they're not used to it.

We're creatures of habit. :)

I actually think this may be a little true. My boyfriend hates reading. I doubt he has read a book in his life. And whenever we watch something with subtitles he groans and complains that it is 'too much effort.' I get the same reaction from a lot of high school students. I think for a lot of non-readers it really is just too much effort to be able to read the words on the screen and then process their meaning and connect it with the visuals, all at the same time.

Or it might just be laziness.

I think the main reason people shy away from subtitles is because they feel like they are missing parts of the movie because their eyes have to concentrate on reading at the bottom of the screen.

I personally don't mind subtitles

I don't know if it's an American thing or not, I'm American I definitely prefer subtitles over dubbing. Not sure if that makes me an oddball in this country but I'd say most people I know here feel the same way I do. Of course my family and social circle probably aren't any kind of accurate cross section of the country as a whole so who knows.

I have no problem with subtitles in general and prefer to have them when watching a foreign film even if I'm familiar with the language simply because listening is my weak point.

I'm not sure why English speakers here generally have an aversion towards subtitles (with the exception of people exceptionally interested in film who tolerate it). I'd suggest it's because English speakers tend to watch English dubbed films and so film watching for them tends to engage both vision and hearing. To watch a foreign film with subtitles means that the visual load is increased and the auditory load disappears - and isn't the perceptual decay time for visual data smaller than that for auditory data? So watching a foreign film means more work of an unfamiliar nature perhaps???


French subtitle for this post:
J'aime des sous-titres!

Depends on what I'm watching. Sometimes I hate em' and sometime I put them on if the dialouge is quick, or complex.

I'm a big fan of subtitles. I was born in American, but I grew up in a Vietnamese household, so naturally, my first language is Vietnamese. I picked up on English through the TV and subtitles until I was old enough to attend pre-school. My parents still watch everything on subtitles and my mom actually learned a lot of English this way. I love reading, and realized many times that I've missed a lot of things when I don't put the subtitles on. A lot of Americans hate it, I've realized and I can't seem to watch a movie with a group of friends without getting bitched at for the subtitles. As for English films, I absolutely need subtitles.

Americans are way more excepting of subtitles then they used to be. A lot more network television shows, for example Heroes include subtitles, something that would have been avoided until recently.

Iunno if this is just me, but i'm a pretty big snacker. Sometimes i even have subtitles on movies where they speak english just cuz the sound of me munching can be distracting.

Of course they do! I have never heard of English doing that before. I do know that Scottish films do have subtitles for American audiences. I have the Region 1 version of Gregory's girl which has a dubbed version and 'original Scottish language' option!

Mad Max was also dubbed into American too and the early DVD editions had this instead of the original Australian soundtrack!

As for subtitles, i watch many subtitled films and epect to watch them in their original language too. The only drawback is on early DVD editions of some films, the English translation is obviously not grammatically correct which is annoying. Dubbed films shouldn't be allowed.