# Dubbed or Subtitles?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 31, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982 "2006-08-31T20:41:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/1 "2006-08-31T20:41:59Z")
When you watch a film or television show that was originally produced in a language other than your own, do you prefer to watch it with subtitles or with voices dubbed in your language.
I personally prefer dubbing over subtitles. For one, I read slowly so keeping up with the subtitles for me means missing a good deal of the visual detail in the scene itself. Also, I’m better at picking up inflections in English so I prefer to hear the voices in English rather than try to pick up inflections and nuances of meaning in another language all while reading frantically.
Disclaimer: I guess this could go in IMHO as it is something of a poll, but it pertains to movies and television programs so I’ll put it here. Mods, feel free to move this thread as you see fit.
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### Author:  [@Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/2 "2006-08-31T20:47:04Z")
Subtitles.
I’m naturally a lip reader and it really throws me off when the lips don’t match what I hear. Subtitles pull my attention from the lips and allow me to take in the movie without always mentally trying to match lips to words.
After five minutes of subtitles, I don’t even notice them. They become part of the movie.
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/3 "2006-08-31T20:50:33Z")
I prefer subtitles for live action, you get the original actor’s delivery better that way.
For anime I like it dubbed.
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### Author:  [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/4 "2006-08-31T21:00:26Z")
I have a very vocal 7 month old son.
Subtitles RULE.
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### Author:  [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/5 "2006-08-31T21:02:03Z")
Subtitles.
I find dubbing to be very jaring.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/6 "2006-08-31T21:02:55Z")
I can’t stand dubs–especially when they put on fake accents to sound like they’re people of those nationalities speaking English. I believe Cinema Paradiso had this problem. I once rented the dubbed version by accident, and I had to stop the film fifteen minutes in because the dubbing/voice acting was distracting and atrocious.
I also love to heard the sounds of foreign languages.
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### Author:  [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/7 "2006-08-31T21:09:15Z")
Holland (my home country) is one of the very few European countries where most foreign shows and movies are dubbed instead of subbed. Other than children’s cartoons, the concept of ‘dubbing’ is completely foreign to us.
No dutchman or -woman I know has ever complained about this practice. I personally believe it helps increase reading speed and comprehension of foreign languages. (FTR, mostly English.)
Personally, I prefer subbing in practically every case. Usually, it’s the closest you can get to the creator’s intended experience.
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### Author:  [@Frelling\_Tralk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frelling_Tralk)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/8 "2006-08-31T21:26:33Z")
I prefer dubbing pretty much across the board. For example, _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_ was _so_ beautiful I wouldn’t have wanted to have to keep looking down to read. I prefer to watch, and get dialog delivered in a way that doesn’t detract from that.
Also, my best friend does anime dubbing work for AD Vision, so I feel I have to defend the practice in the interest of loyalty.
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/9 "2006-08-31T21:42:38Z")
Subtitles, definitely. With dubbing they have to tweak the dialogue to try and keep pace with the lip movements of the on-screen speaker. Subtitles give you more of the original script.
Good examples of this can be found if you turn on both subs and dubs and note the differences.
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### Author:  [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/10 "2006-08-31T21:49:32Z")
I prefer subtitles for quality movies with artistic value and important dialogue. Dubbing is OK for low quality action movies, silly humor movies or porn.
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### Author:  [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/11 "2006-08-31T21:52:03Z")
> [@garygnu](#):
>
> I prefer subtitles for live action, you get the original actor’s delivery better that way.
> For anime I like it dubbed.
Agreed 100% in both cases.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/12 "2006-08-31T21:55:43Z")
Subtitled (except for cartoons of course).
I have a theory that many excellent foreign movies are overlooked in the English-speaking world because dubbing is usually so crap. Thankfully the UK has largely abandoned dubbing.
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### Author:  [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/13 "2006-08-31T21:57:29Z")
Subtitles. I actually turn on subtitles for everything I watch, despite having normal hearing.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/14 "2006-08-31T22:05:26Z")
Subtitles.
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### Author:  [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/15 "2006-08-31T22:12:14Z")
Subtitles, always.
I turn on English subtitles when watching a lot of DVDs, even if it was produced in English originally. It adds another small dimension to the experience, and I don’t miss any lines that way.
\*Deadwood \* from Netflix (we don’t have cable) has been especially rewarding: I enjoy “reading” it as much as watching it.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/16 "2006-08-31T22:17:04Z")
Dubbing, especially if I’m watching at home. When I watch TV, I’m usually doing other things as well…eating, reading, on the computer. If it’s subtitled, I have to pay full attention all the time.
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### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/17 "2006-08-31T22:19:42Z")
I, too, will use subtitles when watching even English-language movies. However, I rarely just sit and watch a movie at home while doing nothing else. Therefore, I rarely watch non-English language movies or shows that aren’t dubbed.
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### Author:  [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/18 "2006-08-31T22:21:30Z")
Sub snob here, especially when it comes to anime. I’ll readily admit that modern dubs are of better quality, but some of the ones we watched felt like the actor either considered voice acting the job that paid the bills while he waited for a “real” job rolled around, or got the wrong idea about how a character should sound and tried way too hard.
Heck, I even turn subs on for English films; with my short attention span, I’m usually doing about three things at the same time, so having subs on helps me keep track of what’s going on.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/19 "2006-08-31T22:28:14Z")
For live action films I want subtitles. The delivery of the lines are part of the actors’ performances.
Animation on the other hand I typically prefer dubbing. We’re about ten years past the point where dubbing was done by whoever they could grab from the office with simplified scripts and for anime it’s fairly common for the original actors to not be particularly good to begin with. And for cheaper animation (like anything that is done for television) the animation is done first and even the original language voices are dubbed in later. Now I wouldn’t want subtitled animation to just go away, either; there are a lot of shows where I feel that the original performances are strong and worth listening to. It’s just that with the disconnnect between the visuals and the performance you can dub animation without losing anything.
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### Author:  [@Jean\_Poutine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jean_Poutine)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbed-or-subtitles/370982/20 "2006-08-31T22:43:53Z")
Subtitles all the way, although I do hate it when you see a movie with overly simplistic subtitles- like when a character says a whole paragraph and the subtitles compress it in to one or two words. Also, Netflix had a copy of “The Bad Sleep Well” that had the most comically ridiculous subtitles I have ever seen- they were obviously done by a person who did not speak English. I assume due to the re-release of the DVD that they have a better copy now.
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