Subtitles
 

I'm curious, do most big nations have a problem with subtitles or is this a peculiarity of Americans? How do YOU feel about subtitles?

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.

I don't have a problem with subtitles at all. I think adding voice-overs to foreign movies discredits the work of the actors. I really don't find subtitles annoying or disturbing to my enjoyment at all.

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?).

adidasss, I agree, I think substituting dubbing for subtitles would really help raise the level of language skills in many of the european nations. I also agree that subtitles as the standard may be a small nation phenomenon. We could have a more extensive dubbing industry, but subtitles are the norm here now and what people want and expect so there's no market.

Kids movies are dubbed here as well, but they usually show both versions in the cinemas .. So if you'd rather watch "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" rather than "Ponyo På Klippen Ved Havet", that's always a possibility.

This is my 3rd post after abandoning the previous 2.
My first post was rather flippant. I drafted out something like: The English don't mind subtitles...providing they're in English! Which I thought was an unfair response to your question adidasss.
Then I wrote that, I personally didn't mind subtitles at all. Especially if the film was worth watching. While being true I don't think it's what you wanted to hear.

In Britain's case, generally speaking, we probably have a similar attitude to the Americans (if what you say is true). In that we tend to avoid films with subtitles like the plague.
The amount of times I've heard a collected groan of disapproval when one comes on the TV bears witness to that.
It's a shame really cos there's some great films that'll never get the praise they deserve in this country because of that attitude.

When I watch english movies, I usually prefer to have english subtitles on. My hearing is not superb and sometimes I just can't catch what people are saying, so it helps!

Haha, yeah I do that too. I think it's a side effect of watching films with subtitles, you get used to having all the dialog written down so you can't really miss anything. It's really annoying when you don't hear something and you can't read what the person said (not to mention watching a film in some screwed up English/Southern accent).

Speaking of which, do the English actually watch Scottish (like Ken Loach) films without subtitles?

I always have subtitles on, English or not. I guess it's kinda two reasons, I feel I might not hear something probably so I have them just in case.....plus it always kept my spelling ahead of the game in School, rofl, that was always the classy excuse, but I did used to be able to spell the most random words, so I assume it helped.

^Oh yeah, forgot about that potential benefit .. improves general writing skills!

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.

How come you can understand what they're saying? I mean, there are some regional dialects in Croatia which I'd need subtitles for (and they actually did have them on a few documentaries).

Oh yeah, bad subtitles can really ruin a film. I still haven't seen Park's Joint Security Area because the subtitles on the edition I got were catastrophic. But I've come to expect that from Asian films. I wouldn't be so upset if we were talking about some bootleg edition with custom subtitles, but often they have official DVDs with craptabulous translations. I was really pissed off with the R1 edition of Deepa Mehta's Water, which I actually spent money on. Do they not have educated, skillful translators in their respective countries?

But then again, the Criterion collection has a pretty bad translation of Knife in the water, by none other than Polanski himself...:|

Yeah it generally tends to be Asian films but I have noticed on a couple of bad translations on European films too.

As for the dialects, well of course there are some words that I cannot quite make out but it is usually guessed at within the context of the sentence they are saying but I concede that those VERY unfamiliar with harsh regional accents may well need subtitles but as long as they stay that way and again not dubbed. I'm very impressed that you learnt most of your English from subtitles I have to say.

Subtitles all the way, even if same language subtitles [urgently needed for scottish movies].
The spoken language should be the original one, most jokes are lost in translation, and usually the dubbed voices are very strange ... and i sometimes learn the language subconsciously.

i'm all for subtitles, it's better to have the film in it's original language sounding natural than dubbed and awkward as hell.

Sweden is like Norway, pro-subtitles (kids films are dubbed but they are usually offered in both the English and the Swedish versions if the original language was English). Most everyone speaks English here and I never really heard anyone complain about the subtiteling on tv and such. Plus I bet the tourists are quite happy when they see that they don't have to watch a dubbed version of their favorite show or movie. I know it always annoyed me when going to other countries (such as Spain ) and seeing that a movie was out that I really wanted to see but that it had been dubbed. Or that the only channel I could understand on tv was CNN...

I think it really is much better to see the movie in its original language then to see a dubbed film, regardless. You learn things such as slang, something that never quite comes across when dubbed and something most don't learn in the classroom. Also, when you translate dialog, you loose so much of the original meaning (such as translating a joke). I know I like watching a Danish comedy called "Klovn" and if it had been dubbed instead of subtitled, it would have been quite annoying (and it is always fun to hear a bit of Danish now and again ).

Subtitles can be a bit annoying when you don't recognize the original language and you have to watch the tv in order to follow the story constantly...but then this gives you an excuse to learn that language doesn't it? :)

I can tolerate dubs in anime if they're good, if they suck, I'll watch the subs.

In live action film, I'd rather have the subs, I know they can distract from the images and the action. But I find it even more distracting when people talk out of sync. :laughing:

Except in stuff like old kung fu and giant monster movies, then the cheesy dubs become part of the appeal. But when it's done for a dramatic film, it just dosen't work.

If the movie is in English and yet subtitles are provided then a big no-no. They in fact act as a distraction.

For foreign language either subtitles or redubbing in English is fine as long as the movie itself is good.

I'm really impressed someone could learn a language from subtitles, there's no way I could correlate the words and text in any meaningful way.

If 80% of the stuff you watched for a few hours each day for 25 years or so was in a foreign language with subtitles, you'd pick something up, trust me.

When learning Italian at high school, lots of our classes often consisted of the viewing of Italian films, sometimes with subtitles and sometimes without. It was actually a really effective technique in becoming familiar with the flow of the language and the way words were used.

I love subtitles, I personally feel cheated when I can't watch a movie/series when it isn't subtitled or closed captioned and I also personally believe that subtitles actually attributed to my having a good grasp of the English language, as well as having a higher knowledge of the spelling of lexical items than my counterparts.

Let me just say this, english dubbed anime sucks horribly. I'll take subs over dubs anyday.

^^^
That.

Funniest/worst dub ever

I'll echo what others have said...I'd rather watch a foreign movie in it's original language with subtitles. Not only does it preserve the movie as it was originally created, but I may learn a thing or two.

My only issue is that sometimes I have to rewind if they're going too fast, and it's hard to look at the action and read at the same time. But that's a minor complaint.

It's because most Americans don't take their voice acting jobs seriously when it comes to Anime.

Anime is actually the only thing I ever consider watching dubbed, but mostly just because sometimes the English voices seem to match with the character better than the Japanese voice. Other than that, I think subtitles are wonderful, especially when it comes to martial arts movies. Dubbing seems to take so much away from the true meaning of what the characters are saying. But I can definitely see how someone who doesn't like reading or maybe is a poor reader would have problems with it.

thats my worst nightmare. :(
i dont go to see forign films anymore unless its just bits here & there.

You only watch scottish movies? ;)

yeah, braveheart #1 :love:

kidding thats not even scottish actors. :(
forign as in a different language ;)

edit: FREEEEEDOM!! haha, kidding that would be embarassing. :$