# Films in English that have been subtitled for an English-speaking audience
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 27, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443 "2011-05-27T16:30:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/41 "2011-05-28T17:31:58Z")
I’ve been mistaken as being German by a Parisian bar owner. A Parisian bar owner who knows both English and German. I know my accent is thick, but…
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### Author:  [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/42 "2011-05-28T18:30:56Z")
I met a guy in Switzerland who, after hearing me speak, asked if I was English or American. Harumph.
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/43 "2011-05-28T18:44:38Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#):
>
> I met a guy in Switzerland who, after hearing me speak, asked if I was English or American. Harumph.
When I was in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, a native Italian speaker stopped me on the street to ask for directions in English. After we’d talked for a moment he said he’d figured I spoke English because I looked like an Englishwoman. He asked if he was right and I just said yes because I didn’t want to have a whole conversation with him, but I’m actually an American. Oddly enough, in a different town later that same day _another_ native Italian speaker stopped me to ask for directions in English. He didn’t make any guesses about my nationality, though.
Elsewhere in Switzerland at least two German-speaking Swiss people mistook me for a Frenchwoman or Francophone Swiss, a mistake no one would have made if I’d been speaking French rather than German. I never studied French and am pretty hopeless when it comes to French pronunciation. But I guess I speak German like a French-speaker, or else they just assumed that anyone in the German-speaking part of Switzerland who didn’t speak German that well was probably a native speaker of French.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/44 "2011-05-28T18:51:42Z")
There was at least one (and maybe more, I can’t remember) contestants on \*Survivor \*who were subtitled.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/45 "2011-05-28T19:22:53Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> There was at least one (and maybe more, I can’t remember) contestants on \*Survivor \*who were subtitled.
I thought they did that a lot when the quality of the audio recording just wasn’t that great, i.e. two contestants whispering about plans and junk. Had nothing to do with accents, just that the microphones weren’t placed optimally.
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### Author:  [@beartato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beartato)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/46 "2011-05-28T20:52:14Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#):
>
> I met a guy in Switzerland who, after hearing me speak, asked if I was English or American. Harumph.
I don’t get it. You were (presumably) speaking English, and the guy figured you were from one of two well-known English speaking nations. What’s the “Harumph” about?
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/47 "2011-05-28T21:54:35Z")
> [@beartato](#):
>
> I don’t get it. You were (presumably) speaking English, and the guy figured you were from one of two well-known English speaking nations. What’s the “Harumph” about?
Perhaps he took it as a slight against his behavior considering the English and Americans are both reputed to be rowdier abroad than Canadians.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/48 "2011-05-28T23:12:19Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> I thought they did that a lot when the quality of the audio recording just wasn’t that great, i.e. two contestants whispering about plans and junk. Had nothing to do with accents, just that the microphones weren’t placed optimally.
Yes, they do, but there have also been a few contestants with some seriously deep Southern accents who were hard to understand. I don’t think they were always subtitled, but some times, and it wasn’t because of the level of the audio. I can’t remember her name, but one woman I think they did this for was an undertaker from Kentucky (or some other Appalachian state).
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### Author:  [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/49 "2011-05-28T23:45:56Z")
> [@beartato](#):
>
> I don’t get it. You were (presumably) speaking English, and the guy figured you were from one of two well-known English speaking nations. What’s the “Harumph” about?
It was an amused harumph. I can’t see mistaking a Canadian accent (not that there is one) for British. Nothing to do with behaviour. It gave me a chance to try out the very first German I learned to speak and we all had a good laugh and a drink (not much else to do in the bar car at 1:00 am.)
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### Author:  [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/50 "2011-05-29T01:23:58Z")
Sly Stallone is subtitled in this short (one of my favorites): [Part I - Your Studio and You - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqMV90pnsZ4)
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### Author:  [@beartato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beartato)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2011, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-in-english-that-have-been-subtitled-for-an-english-speaking-audience/583443/51 "2011-05-29T07:27:18Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#):
>
> It was an amused harumph. I can’t see mistaking a Canadian accent (not that there is one) for British. Nothing to do with behaviour. It gave me a chance to try out the very first German I learned to speak and we all had a good laugh and a drink (not much else to do in the bar car at 1:00 am.)
I figured that’s where you were going with it, but it’s odd to me that you would think people would know the accent hallmarks of languages other than their own.
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